What is mental illness?

[Ammadessi]

Too me - Mental illness is a bad world effecting somebody - then blaming him/her for it.

If it had anything to do with nurture rather than nature, the medications I take wouldn't stop me from having suicidal thoughts and thinking that every person I meet wants to harm me. The placebo effect is hard to cite here, considering it took me nearly 10 years to get on the RIGHT medication.

 

[khaimera]

With all due respect, as a sufferer of depression (and genralised anxiety and panic disorder, both of which are technically disorders of the nervous system), I have no time for the opinion that mental illness does not exist. Try explaining that to the scizophrenic who's driven half mad by the audio and visual hallucinations that just won't stop no matter what they do. Try telling someone who has become convinced that they're under surveillence or that their brain is frying in their head (all things I've known people to experience) that they just need to pull themselves together.

Sorry to be agressive, but people who dismiss mental illness make me sick and deserve to experience it for themselves, just so they know what it's like. After all, you don't go up to people who have ancer or aids and tell them they're just making it up, and mental illness can be just as debilitating (and contrary to some beliefs, is a measurable proven thing).

In fact, if you don't believe that mental illness exists, why are you a therapist?

I hear what you are gettign at think I need to clarify what I mean. I didn't do the best job of condensing a dissertation into a paragraph. I will not argue that suffering does not exist. Or that psychologcial probelms do not exist. I simply have trouble viewing it as a disease in the same way that physical disorders are. I also have diffiuclty with the utiliity of daignosis or labeling. If mental illness were on the same par as phsycial ilness talk therapy would do nothing. We can heal ourselevs and cure ourselves of all mental ilness through lifestyle changes. Cancer does not work that way.

Here are some facts for you.
1. Therapy is equally effective as medications for all mental illness except for schizophrenia. Plus it has no side effects
2. Anxiety is not a nervous system disorder. The medications work on tht system, but it is not the cause.
3. I've experienced depression first hand in my own life and know exactly what it feels like.
4. There is no known physical difference in the brians of people with most mental disorders. There is still no evidence of a biologcial component to ADHD for example. We dont know why most of the psych meds work, they just do for some people.

 

[Cmwissy]

With all due respect, as a sufferer of depression (and genralised anxiety and panic disorder, both of which are technically disorders of the nervous system), I have no time for the opinion that mental illness does not exist. Try explaining that to the scizophrenic who's driven half mad by the audio and visual hallucinations that just won't stop no matter what they do. Try telling someone who has become convinced that they're under surveillence or that their brain is frying in their head (all things I've known people to experience) that they just need to pull themselves together.

Sorry to be agressive, but people who dismiss mental illness make me sick and deserve to experience it for themselves, just so they know what it's like. After all, you don't go up to people who have ancer or aids and tell them they're just making it up, and mental illness can be just as debilitating (and contrary to some beliefs, is a measurable proven thing).

SNIP

I respect your opinion - I don't think I have the grounds to comment on things such as depression or OCD, or most things, as most of my problems stem from the 'social norms' - and there isn't any social norms before birth.

EDIT: really messed up the cleaning/snipping

 

[Cmwissy]

Too me - Mental illness is a bad world effecting somebody - then blaming him/her for it.

If it had anything to do with nurture rather than nature, the medications I take wouldn't stop me from having suicidal thoughts and thinking that every person I meet wants to harm me. The placebo effect is hard to cite here, considering it took me nearly 10 years to get on the RIGHT medication.

I can't really comment on Depression, so I must apologize for opening such a wide spectrum.

 

[PecosBill]

As an armchair gamer with no credibility, I would tend to agree.

Physical abnormalities are one thing. If there is something physically wrong with you that your brain can't function correctly, can't manufacture the proper chemicals, etc, then this is a serious medical issue and chemical treatment may be required. However, proof of physical abnormality should be a burden put upon the doctor. He should be able to show you an x-ray or an MRI and say, "Ah, you see, this bit should be connected to that bit but this rusty nail over here appears to have severed it."

When we start calling it "mental illness" simply because someone is misbehaving in some arbitrary fashion, then we've probably gotten off track. Even "chemical imbalance" seems like a risky platform to stand on. Aren't most human emotions chemical imbalances? Isn't happiness a chemical imbalance? Nobody ever seems to get a prescription to deal with that, though. I feel we enter a realm of chicken-or-the-egg. Is the mental state which we call "happy" CAUSED by these chemicals or does a series of events result in a tendency towards happiness, which the brain represents via those chemicals? So if we change the chemicals, it seems a bit like removing 4th gear in your car. All things which mean you should be in 4th gear are present but you are not, in fact, in 4th gear, because we simply removed that gear.

Similarly, if things occur in your life which should cause you to be depressed, we can give you this stuff that will make you not be depressed, but we've really just removed the gear -- we haven't addressed the underlying circumstances which put you into that mood to begin with.

I think there's a great danger in this. How many Columbine/VA Tech style shooters were on mood altering drugs? Most of them have been, from what I can see. And it makes sense. By all accounts I've heard, these drugs don't change the situation, they simply make you stop feeling. They create a disconnect where there shouldn't be a disconnect. They take out the gear instead of addressing why you're in that gear. This is terribly dangerous.

In my opinion, the proper approach is to subscribe to a philosophy I've had for a long time which is basically this:
There should never be a personal question to which I say "I don't know."

What is your favorite color? Why?
What is your favorite vegetable? Why?
You tap your toes a lot when sitting idle. Why?
You like Dethklok. Why?
You feel depressed. Why?

I find that in many cases, people answer the question of "why" with "I don't know; I just do". That is unacceptable. There is a reason. There is always a reason. With careful analysis, you can understand why you do the things you do and therefore you can seek help with any of them which you don't like, or you can develop a strategy on your own if you're too embarrassed to ask for help, or you may simply decide that it's not really a problem at all.

I suppose it could be argued that I don't know what it's like because I'm not mentally ill. I would argue that if there is something physically wrong with your brain, then you're right. I don't know what it's like to have that problem. If we're just talking about life and experiences and emotions then I say you're hiding behind an excuse and the only treatment you need is one of careful self-analysis. Everything you do has a reason - a history behind why you do it or why you are that way. Discover this and it need not be an "illness".

Psychology, therefore, should not be a practice of correcting chemical imbalances. It should be a practice of helping people with self-analysis as well as some serious thoughts over whether or not a problem is really a "problem". e.g., is ADHD really an illness? Is this something that really needs to be corrected? Or is it simply that they are not well adjusted to the typical modern life and as a result we may need to think a bit harder about what kind of life WOULD work for them. Are we putting these people on medication because it makes life easier for THEM or are we doing it because it makes like easier for US because now we can just make them do what we were already doing.

 

[Akai Shizuku]

I'd call mental illness as any psychological condition that imposes difficulty upon everyday things from washing yourself to eating to social interaction.

Bipolar disorder could be that. But what about something like Asperger's Syndrome and Autism? Is that considered a mental illness by that definition?

I have bipolar disorder.


However, I do not consider it to be a mental illness, per se. This is because unlike illness, there's a good side to bipolar disorder. It has been known to increase intelligence and aptitude for the arts. That means without it I wouldn't be able to create the poetry that I write, and I would probably be one of those /b/tarded douchebags you find everywhere on the Internet.


EDIT: I believe there is a difference between a mental illness and a mental disorder. A disorder, in my opinion, can have adverse effects but it does good things for you too. A mental illness...not so much. Also, illnesses can be cured.

 

[Ammadessi]

If mental illness were on the same par as phsycial ilness talk therapy would do nothing. We can heal ourselevs and cure ourselves of all mental ilness through lifestyle changes. Cancer does not work that way.

That is simply not true. Therapy works for some people with mild cases of situational depression but it's not going to stop a schizophrenic from experiencing auditory and visual hallucinations. It's going to do nothing for the person who can't walk outside without having a panic attack. It's not going to help the person who feels like the only peace they're going to get out of life is when they finally succeed in killing themselves.

Medication helps people with genuine mental illnesses. Note I say genuine. There is a distinction between situational depression and clinical depression that I don't think you're grasping here. Being depressed because your mother died is normal. Being depressed even when you've got plenty of money, great friends, a good job, and a loving significant other is not.

Here are some facts for you.
1. Therapy is equally effective as medications for all mental illness except for schizophrenia. Plus it has no side effects

Absolutely not. You tell that to my roommate who would still be in the hospital in a semi-catatonic state were it not for her medication.

2. Anxiety is not a nervous system disorder. The medications work on tht system, but it is not the cause.

What would you consider anxiety then?

3. I've experienced depression first hand in my own life and know exactly what it feels like.

Having gone through situational depression is not the same as being born with a mental illness.

As an armchair gamer with no credibility, I would tend to agree.

Physical abnormalities are one thing. If there is something physically wrong with you that your brain can't function correctly, can't manufacture the proper chemicals, etc, then this is a serious medical issue and chemical treatment may be required. However, proof of physical abnormality should be a burden put upon the doctor. He should be able to show you an x-ray or an MRI and say, "Ah, you see, this bit should be connected to that bit but this rusty nail over here appears to have severed it."

When it comes to depression, it is a matter of the brain not working properly. The main theory when it comes to depression is that the brain releases serotonin, then immediately reabsorbs it without letting it get to the chemical receptor. The effect is that the person with depression never gets the "feel good" boost from Serotonin. This is why most anti-depressants are called SSRIs, Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors. They basically stop the brain from reabsorbing the serotonin, letting the person with depression feel the effects. Anti-depressants aren't "happy pills" they just help the brain of somebody suffering from depression work the way it was originally intended to.

 

[Dark Link]

I'd call mental illness as any psychological condition that imposes difficulty upon everyday things from washing yourself to eating to social interaction.

Bipolar disorder could be that. But what about something like Asperger's Syndrome and Autism? Is that considered a mental illness by that definition?

As a sufferer of Asperger's Syndrome, I can justify that it causes terrible problems with social interaction. As a child I found it incredibly hard to socialise, and even now unless I find someone with almost exactly the same interests as me, I find it hard to get on with them.

Whenever someone asks me what AS is, I tend to reply with something along the lines of: "It trades social skills for heightnened intelligence and ability in exotic hobbies that non-sufferers would find banal or boring." I would not be as smart as I am if I didn;t suffer from Asperger's.

 

[FinalGamer]

That's the thing. What about the term mental ILLNESS? That implies something that has to be cured, but what about certain mentalities that are either uncurable or not considered to be cured like Asperger's?

It has this negative stigma to it is all, instead of mental illness it could be mental abnormality.

I'd call mental illness as any psychological condition that imposes difficulty upon everyday things from washing yourself to eating to social interaction.

Bipolar disorder could be that. But what about something like Asperger's Syndrome and Autism? Is that considered a mental illness by that definition?

As a sufferer of Asperger's Syndrome, I can justify that it causes terrible problems with social interaction. As a child I found it incredibly hard to socialise, and even now unless I find someone with almost exactly the same interests as me, I find it hard to get on with them.

I have it too, it still causes problems to this day in social environments with those of a certain age range I find difficult to deal with (kids and old people are so very very talkative, so that's fine), but it's more my reflexes and perception I'm more worried on. I can't ever be able to judge something distance-wise well by speed.

Pretty much screws my chances of driving.

 

[Kruxxor]

I often think about the answer to this question and can never come up with one. As a licensed mental health therapist its my job to help people who suffer from "mental illness". The quotes are intentional becuase I have argued, like others before me, that mental illness does not exist. Rather, it is an invention of man to try and explain the unexplainable.

Technically, according to the DSM-IV or the ICD 10 if you are not from America, mental illness is defined as a set of behaviors or psychological symptoms that cause either significant disctress or a disruption in functioning. Thats just an all encompasisng politically correct defintion. But then again, who decides what is an ilness? How sad to you have to be to be diagnosed with depression?

So my question to you is, how would you define mental illness and how do yo know if you have one.

Also, if you have any questions regarding mental illness I will do my best to answer them. I've studied psychology for 8 years and have been working in the field for 3.

]

What would your 8 years of Psychology say about me?:

I get depressed almost all the time, now

I often have day dreams of killing people around my using objects near me as weapons, my favourite is pushing scissors into the back of someones head, making the blades protrude through the eyeballs (would need a LARGE pair of scissors and a lot of strength to pull that one off).

I have no care for the world. If I could destroy the whole world right this second, I would do without second thought.

I would go out of my way to protect someone, though.

I can never let anyone down, and if I do I feel extremely bad for it.

I have a lot of suicidal thoughts, but will never go through with it because I will be letting people down.

I make lots of sick jokes, even when no one is around to hear them (As of late they have been about Josef Fritzl. I was making Maddie jokes as soon as she was reported missing)

I talk to myself

I find children getting hurt amusing.

 

[Cmwissy]

I often think about the answer to this question and can never come up with one. As a licensed mental health therapist its my job to help people who suffer from "mental illness". The quotes are intentional becuase I have argued, like others before me, that mental illness does not exist. Rather, it is an invention of man to try and explain the unexplainable.

Technically, according to the DSM-IV or the ICD 10 if you are not from America, mental illness is defined as a set of behaviors or psychological symptoms that cause either significant disctress or a disruption in functioning. Thats just an all encompasisng politically correct defintion. But then again, who decides what is an ilness? How sad to you have to be to be diagnosed with depression?

So my question to you is, how would you define mental illness and how do yo know if you have one.

Also, if you have any questions regarding mental illness I will do my best to answer them. I've studied psychology for 8 years and have been working in the field for 3.

]

What would your 8 years of Psychology say about me?:

I get depressed almost all the time, now

I often have day dreams of killing people around my using objects near me as weapons, my favourite is pushing scissors into the back of someones head, making the blades protrude through the eyeballs (would need a LARGE pair of scissors and a lot of strength to pull that one off).

I have no care for the world. If I could destroy the whole world right this second, I would do without second thought.

I would go out of my way to protect someone, though.

I can never let anyone down, and if I do I feel extremely bad for it.

I have a lot of suicidal thoughts, but will never go through with it because I will be letting people down.

I make lots of sick jokes, even when no one is around to hear them (As of late they have been about Josef Fritzl. I was making Maddie jokes as soon as she was reported missing)

I talk to myself

I find children getting hurt amusing.

'I often have day dreams of killing people' this is where I stopped reading - sorry to be a prick, but this is stereotypical internet bad boy 'Oh yeah, I could kill a guy'

Psychopaths/Sociopaths are usually (being around a few in the hospitals) incredibly secretive, quiet and would never flaunt there problems around like a new puppy.

 

[PecosBill]

I would reply 'No, people need to wash because they society has ingrained into them the idea that by being aesthetically pleasing, good things will happen'

Now this raises an interesting point - is it "mental illness" to not get along well with society? To not care what society thinks?

What we're really talking about here is lack of consideration towards others -- rudeness.

I believe that consideration towards others is something that can be logically spelled out to be a behavior which makes sense. Society and civilization rely on it. If you want to go live in the woods by yourself you can do whatever you like and there's no need to throw around labels like "mental illness" but if you're refusing to shower while living in a city and dealing with people then there is something wrong, and what's wrong is that you're being a jerk. Nobody wants to smell your stinky pits.

In olden days, the cure for such inconsideration is that we beat the crap out of you and throw you in the river. You don't have a mental illness, you're just rude! And we can fix that, no problem. Here, someone hold his arms, we'll show him what we think of rudeness around here. Suddenly you have a very logical incentive to begin bathing regularly.

Now that society is "polite", we take rudeness and mislabel it as mental illness. We're not allowed to beat you with a shoe anymore and dump a bucket over your head so we stick you in a hospital and come up with some pills.

It's a shame, really.

The shoe and bucket worked just fine.

 

[Kruxxor]

I just said I have thoughts. I would never follow through with something like. I don't think I could kill a guy. But I admit there are some people in this world who don't deserve to live.

In before "Death Note fanboy" / "Light fanboy" because I've felt this way for years. The world is better off without certain people, hell, I might even be one of them.

 

[Cmwissy]

I would reply 'No, people need to wash because they society has ingrained into them the idea that by being aesthetically pleasing, good things will happen'

Now this raises an interesting point - is it "mental illness" to not get along well with society? To not care what society thinks?

What we're really talking about here is lack of consideration towards others -- rudeness.

I believe that consideration towards others is something that can be logically spelled out to be a behavior which makes sense. Society and civilization rely on it. If you want to go live in the woods by yourself you can do whatever you like and there's no need to throw around labels like "mental illness" but if you're refusing to shower while living in a city and dealing with people then there is something wrong, and what's wrong is that you're being a jerk. Nobody wants to smell your stinky pits.

In olden days, the cure for such inconsideration is that we beat the crap out of you and throw you in the river. You don't have a mental illness, you're just rude! And we can fix that, no problem. Here, someone hold his arms, we'll show him what we think of rudeness around here. Suddenly you have a very logical incentive to begin bathing regularly.

Now that society is "polite", we take rudeness and mislabel it as mental illness. We're not allowed to beat you with a shoe anymore and dump a bucket over your head so we stick you in a hospital and come up with some pills.

It's a shame, really.

The shoe and bucket worked just fine.

I'm the most polite student you'll ever meet - I don't swear, I'm not disrespectful.

But I'm not gonna go out of my way to impress someone I don't like by Doing my hair for 3 hours.

 

[PecosBill]

Regarding "thoughts of killing people", it reminds me of something Joss Whedon once said... he was writing a particularly nasty episode involving torture and he wondered if it made him a bad person that he could think of things like this.

I say no.

To put it in extremely dorky D&D terms, it's intelligence vs wisdom. Intelligence is the ability to see multiple possibilities in the future. The smarter you are, the more possibilities you can envision -- good ones, bad ones, awesome ones, terrible ones. This says very little about you other than that you're smart enough to think of multiple paths into the future.

Wisdom is your ability to determine which of those paths is "best" for whatever it is you want to achieve (like a long happy life not filled with prison rape).

Very intelligent, very unwise people may be serial killers. They see multiple possibilities and they don't really seem able to think through the long term implications of their actions. Very wise, stupid people always make the right decision of the choices they can think of but don't necessarily come up with very many options. Someone that's smart and wise could make a pretty good counter-terrorism agent. They can think of plenty of evil thoughts, so they have ideas on what the terrorists may try next, but they're wise enough to not be interested in doing those things themselves, what with the whole long life and lack of prison rape and all that.

 

[Ammadessi]

I would reply 'No, people need to wash because they society has ingrained into them the idea that by being aesthetically pleasing, good things will happen'

Now this raises an interesting point - is it "mental illness" to not get along well with society? To not care what society thinks?

What we're really talking about here is lack of consideration towards others -- rudeness.

I believe that consideration towards others is something that can be logically spelled out to be a behavior which makes sense. Society and civilization rely on it. If you want to go live in the woods by yourself you can do whatever you like and there's no need to throw around labels like "mental illness" but if you're refusing to shower while living in a city and dealing with people then there is something wrong, and what's wrong is that you're being a jerk. Nobody wants to smell your stinky pits.

In olden days, the cure for such inconsideration is that we beat the crap out of you and throw you in the river. You don't have a mental illness, you're just rude! And we can fix that, no problem. Here, someone hold his arms, we'll show him what we think of rudeness around here. Suddenly you have a very logical incentive to begin bathing regularly.

Now that society is "polite", we take rudeness and mislabel it as mental illness. We're not allowed to beat you with a shoe anymore and dump a bucket over your head so we stick you in a hospital and come up with some pills.

It's a shame, really.

The shoe and bucket worked just fine.

I'm the most polite student you'll ever meet - I don't swear, I'm not disrespectful.

But I'm not gonna go out of my way to impress someone I don't like by Doing my hair for 3 hours.

The people who would consider swearing and not wanting to dress up nice when you go out as a mental illness probably deserve a swift kick in the nethers.

The over-diagnosis of ADHD and bipolar disorder as well as turning every single personality quirk into a diagnostic criteria has made it a lot harder for those of us who actually suffer from mental illnesses.

 

[PecosBill]

I'm the most polite student you'll ever meet - I don't swear, I'm not disrespectful.

But I'm not gonna go out of my way to impress someone I don't like by Doing my hair for 3 hours.

If you're not washing (by which I assume you mean not bathing) and thus are stinky, then that's inconsiderate/disrespectful towards other people. If you're not washing your hands then you're increasing your (and thus other people's) likelihood of getting sick off of something.

If you have crazy, nappy hair, then you might be a misplaced rocker from the 1980s but I don't necessarily see a problem with that, provided you intend on working in a career where that's acceptable (e.g., perhaps working with 80s rock bands...) I personally don't like dealing with my hair, either, so I keep it cut short. Now I'm socially acceptable AND I don't have to mess with my hair.

The fear, I imagine, is that you're "ignoring responsibility" which could later develop into not paying bills on time and other issues that might get you into real trouble, of the living-homeless-on-the-streets variety.

But still, I don't think we're talking about mental illness here.

You might just need a swift kick to the buttocks as a general reminder that we, as a society, are all in this together and we must try to learn to get along or else we shall strap you to a donkey and send you out into a desert with a bucket on your head.

Wait, I think that was Beyond Thunderdome.

But still.

 

[Cmwissy]

I'm the most polite student you'll ever meet - I don't swear, I'm not disrespectful.

But I'm not gonna go out of my way to impress someone I don't like by Doing my hair for 3 hours.

If you're not washing (by which I assume you mean not bathing) and thus are stinky, then that's inconsiderate/disrespectful towards other people. If you're not washing your hands then you're increasing your (and thus other people's) likelihood of getting sick off of something.

If you have crazy, nappy hair, then you might be a misplaced rocker from the 1980s but I don't necessarily see a problem with that, provided you intend on working in a career where that's acceptable (e.g., perhaps working with 80s rock bands...) I personally don't like dealing with my hair, either, so I keep it cut short. Now I'm socially acceptable AND I don't have to mess with my hair.

The fear, I imagine, is that you're "ignoring responsibility" which could later develop into not paying bills on time and other issues that might get you into real trouble, of the living-homeless-on-the-streets variety.

But still, I don't think we're talking about mental illness here.

You might just need a swift kick to the buttocks as a general reminder that we, as a society, are all in this together and we must try to learn to get along or else we shall strap you to a donkey and send you out into a desert with a bucket on your head.

Wait, I think that was Beyond Thunderdome.

But still.

No. All I can say. No.

I will not conform to something as stupid - I have a personality that is not rude, all I do is stink, therefore people choose whether to be my friend and cope with it (I do wash for my friends) or be a vain little prick and say 'Well this guy smells' therefore he is everything wrong with the world.


I do not force my company upon others (as I said, I'm a gamer), so It is there choice.

It's like a Jew going into the holocaust of free will and then complaining.

 

[Xanadu84]

I don't have your experience, but I do have a degree in Psychology. And I think that people think of mental illness as being too easily definable and distinguishable from normal behavior patterns. However, I wouldn't be so quick as to say that mental illness doesn't exist. Like pretty much everything in Psychology, Mental Illness is just a useful construct that helps to form effective approaches to problems. That's why there's the standard of, "Its not an illness unless it screws up your life". Mental illness exists in the same way that the concept of Hot exists: There may be no clear barrier between what is Hot and what is cold, but its certainly useful to have a label that separates room temperature from the center of the sun. That, and some conditions can be defined about as effectively as you can define someone having a disease. Basically, I think mental illnesses do exist, because thinking that way can be helpful.

 

[Cmwissy]

I don't have your experience, but I do have a degree in Psychology. And I think that people think of mental illness as being too easily definable and distinguishable from normal behavior patterns. However, I wouldn't be so quick as to say that mental illness doesn't exist. Like pretty much everything in Psychology, Mental Illness is just a useful construct that helps to form effective approaches to problems. That's why there's the standard of, "Its not an illness unless it screws up your life". Mental illness exists in the same way that the concept of Hot exists: There may be no clear barrier between what is Hot and what is cold, but its certainly useful to have a label that separates room temperature from the center of the sun. That, and some conditions can be defined about as effectively as you can define someone having a disease. Basically, I think mental illnesses do exist, because thinking that way can be helpful.

Mine doesn't screw up my life - I do not hurt anybody, I quietly play my video games and I'm....Happy.

A word that most people who live by societies guidelines don't understand.

EDIT: I know I keep saying 'Society' and complaining and sound like an emo - many apologies.