The mentally ill: the way they perceive their own illness and their expectations from the society.

People diagnosed as mentally ill face the suffering of their own disease as well as the social stigmatization, which, in turn, can aggravate their psychopathological symptoms and exacerbate their social isolation. Mental diseases and their symptoms cause an ill person to seem recondite for the people around. She or he feels different from everybody else, thus requires special care, sensitivity, and respect from the others. A supportive and full of acceptation environment is indispensable to optimize socio-professional therapy and rehabilitation of the ill. The society should possess some knowledge of mental diseases and respect the dignity and human rights of the ill. The aim of our work was to show how the mentally ill perceive their illness as well as specify the patients' expectations concerning their relations with the healthy people from their environment. This work consists of a theoretical part, a research which contains the results of a questionnaire, and conclusions. There were 52 patients who took part in the research. They were all aware of their illness, although the research was held during the lighter phase of the disease or its remission. The analysis of the collected data indicates that the ill perceived their disease as a burden and obstacle to fulfilling their principal aims. The disease also engendered negative emotional reactions in them and significantly impaired the quality of their life.

Attitude toward alcoholics and their families.

The objective of this work was to find out whether alcoholics undergoing therapy are considered rightful members of society. We also examined the attitudes of society toward the alcoholic's family. Alcoholism is a specific disorder. Alcohol-addicted persons deny their illness and often engage their closest surrounding in the denial system. They also find in the society a specific margin of consent to drink. Research shows that treated alcoholics believe the society has a low level of knowledge concerning alcohol addiction. They fear the perspective of going back to work or finding a new job after finishing therapy. Studies done among the inhabitants of the mountainous Podhale Region in Poland show that a high percentage of people are convinced that one should be ashamed of being an alcoholic and many would feel awkward in the presence of a sober alcoholic. The people declare that they would not trust a person being treated because of the addiction and name professions that alcoholics should not work in. The spouse of an alcoholic is often blamed for the addiction, and children of alcoholics are perceived as people with worse life perspectives than their peers.