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What is Mental Illness?
- Thread starter Rival
- Start date
I'm not a medical professional, so my definition won't be real 'qualified', but...
It seems to me its when your brain functions in a way that is detrimental to yourself or those around you.
It seems to me its when your brain functions in a way that is detrimental to yourself or those around you.
YmirGF
Bodhisattva in Recovery
I tend to go with the APA description in the link
"Mental illnesses are health conditions involving changes in emotion, thinking or behaviour (or a combination of these). Mental illnesses can be associated with distress and/or problems functioning in social, work or family activities."
syo
Well-Known Member
@JustGeorge I LOVE your avatar!!!
syo
Well-Known Member
You see yourself as someone's child. And you act accordingly.
When the brain doesn't function as is typical. There are various reasons for this that are the cause of different illnesses, a few examples are...
My brother in law is schizophrenic, within his brain is an imbalance of the chemicals serotonin, dopamine, and glutamate
One cause of dementia is exposure to heavy metals.
The beta-amyloid protein which is involved in Alzheimer's is present in several different chemical molecules.
My brother in law is schizophrenic, within his brain is an imbalance of the chemicals serotonin, dopamine, and glutamate
One cause of dementia is exposure to heavy metals.
The beta-amyloid protein which is involved in Alzheimer's is present in several different chemical molecules.
syo
Well-Known Member
No, you aren't. No one is.
The psych coursework I had in undergrad more or less characterized it as cognitive patterns that create significant dysfunction in that person's life or the lives of those around them. It was drilled into me that dysfunction is essential for diagnosis - simply having what someone considers a "weird" way of thinking or feeling does not a mental illness make.
YmirGF
Bodhisattva in Recovery
Likewise, did I become a lucid storyteller, at a very young age, because I chose to wallpaper over the abuse I was suffering?
I have PMDD and have read certain journals wherein some relevant clinicians don't believe it exists and is a culturally-bound disorder. I found this very distressing because I never even knew it existed before I went on the progesterone-only contraceptive pill and all my symptoms pretty much went away. Every time before my period I would become severely moody, sleepless (total non-sleep), depressed, distressed, hopeless and dangerously suicidal. My environment didn't help but nor did I want to acknowledge that it all happened pre-menstruation. When I started the pill I finally understood it as a hormonal issue, looked it up and found PMDD. To be told it's not real was quite jarring and now I'm second guessing if it were all in my head and things weren't that bad. But I nearly killed myself several times. If it's not real why did the pill make it go away when I didn't even know it existed then and couldn't possibly have been a placebo?
This gaslighting is unhelpful from these people.
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YmirGF
Bodhisattva in Recovery
Indeed. In therapy, though we do not focus on mental illness, per se, I have become aware that there are various tell-tale signs that show up in a person exhibiting emotional/mental difficulties. Paranoia, nervousness, short-fuses, prolonged crying, fidgeting etc... Does that sound about right, @Quintessence
There are a lot of issues in women's health that are under-addressed, unfortunately. That seems to be one of them. So too, is menopause - something literally every woman goes through but has been neglected by health care for way, way too long. 
AnthonyGiarrusso
Member
Warped reality. If some who sees a blue cube and calls it a yellow pyramid and aggressively insists that blue cube is a yellow pyramid.
Another type of mental illness is conformity from fear. "Don't drive over the speed limit or you will have a car wreck." That kind of BS.
RestlessSoul
Well-Known Member
Of course, there are degrees of everything. What Jung meant, I think, was that all of us live with our personal collection of neuroses, intrusive thoughts, irrational concerns, and mental aberrations. And we could probably all benefit from some form of therapeutic program. And then there are those who simply cannot function without treatment; the tragedy for many of those people is that, even where help is available, they are often the last to acknowledge that they need it.