The term mental illness should stop being used to describe a disease of the brain.

[Zzzzz]

Mental=Mind And is in popular culture used to describe someone whose lost their mind. "He's gone mental." So, naturally, "mentally ill" carries a negative stigma/false assumption that a person has lost all rational cognitive ability, which we know as a fact is not true in many many cases. It also associates these illnesses with the mind rather than the TRUE origin of these diseases, the Brain. This association to the mind rather than the brain does nothing to help people with brain diseases. If it's in the MIND, it's imaginary, it's not a big deal. It can be dismissed,ignored, or presumably changed with positive thoughts or therapy. This causes so much harm to the people who need help. Their illnesses need to be acknowledged by the medical community for what they REALLY are--Extremely difficult and potentially deadly diseases of the Brain. They need to stop blaming the sick for their sickness and start helping them.

 

[ClownMe]

Couldn't agree more, ive always found the term mental illness very insulting, especially if it's coming from someone who has clearly never experience depression in their entire life.

 

[deflationary]

I kinda have the opposite problem with the term. I take issue with the "illness" part rather than the "mental" part of "mental illness".

I'm not okay with someone else being able to decide for me that I'm sick. The mentally healthy don't look mentally competent enough to me for me to trust their judgement. I don't agree with most of the values from which their diagnosis of an illness follows. I wouldn't want to enshrine their values as objective.

I think I'm for the most part just reacting reasonably to my circumstances. If I find life hard then it's because I'm not blinding myself to its realities. I dislike most things life has to offer and I don't want to suddenly come to like any of the things I dislike. So I'm not interested in declaring myself sick or in fixing myself.

I can tell from past experience that if my circumstances were better, I'd also be enjoying myself more. So it's not my brain being incapable of producing happy chemicals; it would do so if life had more to offer. But it doesn't.

We don't need to give the "mentally healthy" even more rhetorical power to dismiss any negative experiences as irrational. Which I feel is exactly what would happen if we referred to suffering people as brain-diseased.

But I do get that without the illness label, people would just assume that it's simply a choice to be miserable. Which is not what I'm saying. I'm just saying that usually there's a reason for our misery beyond "your brain is broken".

 

[BrokenHopes]

So very well written, thank you!
Totally agree.
Psychiatry should also change their name. As it implies that the illness is in the so called soul. That is not at all scientific.

 

[Chockles]

I have mostly physical issues that make me very suicidal. People say to me I must have a mental illness to be suicidal. I disagree with this too. Yes I have some mental health issues but it's my physical that makes me want to die.

I also don't like how everything mental seems to be attributed to being fixable by anti anxiety or anti depressants. Or talking therapies ice been on them all. I have no issues with anyone with mental health illnesses. I have some myself but these therapies & medications do not treat neurological mental health issues yet GPS continue to blame anxiety & depression for everything when often it is the result not the cause

 

[A_miStake_of_NATURE]

I guess I can agree. But I couldn't really be bothered by something like that. It reminds me a little how some feminists want to change term "history" to something like "herstory". It's all semantics to me.

 

[Starryeyes]

My illness is called emotionally unstable personality disorder. Which is great! ( not!!)

 

[Soulless Angel]

there are names for these things, but people find the umbrella term mentally ill a lot easier and then as a result class us as all the same!
Out of interest what would you prefer the term to be?

 

[Zzzzz]

there are names for these things, but people find the umbrella term mentally ill a lot easier and then as a result class us as all the same!
Out of interest what would you prefer the term to be?

It seems much less innocent to me than simply an easier way to Label people. I believe the term mental illness has been deliberately used in order to mistreat and abuse the mentally ill as they are being abused every day by the medical community. I understand the words are not the primary problem but the implications and the agenda behind the words is what bothers me. Instead of mental health clinics, wouldn't "Brain Health Clinic" sound a little more respectful, professional, and Scientific?

 

[oliviahurts]

My illness is called emotionally unstable personality disorder. Which is great! ( not!!)

This is one of my pet peeves is the labelling of a group of symptoms that are egodystonic as egosyntonic (and therefore a personality disorder). I was diagnosed with emotionally unstable personality disorder which implies I want to feel this way and consider the mood swings part of myself. But I don't. Given that my EUPD is treated with antidepressants, mood stabilizers and antipsychotics and diagnoses are supposed to direct the approach to treatment, doesn't it make sense to consider at least some instances of EUPD to be mood disorders rather than personality disorders. Possibly emotionally unstable disorder (EUD) would be a better name.

 

[Darkmoon Queen]

Mental=Mind And is in popular culture used to describe someone whose lost their mind. "He's gone mental." So, naturally, "mentally ill" carries a negative stigma/false assumption that a person has lost all rational cognitive ability, which we know as a fact is not true in many many cases. It also associates these illnesses with the mind rather than the TRUE origin of these diseases, the Brain. This association to the mind rather than the brain does nothing to help people with brain diseases. If it's in the MIND, it's imaginary, it's not a big deal. It can be dismissed,ignored, or presumably changed with positive thoughts or therapy. This causes so much harm to the people who need help. Their illnesses need to be acknowledged by the medical community for what they REALLY are--Extremely difficult and potentially deadly diseases of the Brain. They need to stop blaming the sick for their sickness and start helping them.

Respectfully disagree with some of this.

Not all depression is a disease of the brain or an imbalance of chemicals. That doesn't make it any less legitimate but a lot of what we feel IS in our mind. A mind hardwired by traumas and repeated patterns. You could argue that the hardwiring itself is now physical but it was triggered by external patterns.

I also don't think changing terminology will end in anything positive. The ones who don't want to deal with our issues will just write them off with different phrases and, as we're seeing now, telling people what they can and cannot say breeds nothing but resentment and division.

Personally, I don't care if somebody says "he's mental" or some other variant. I feel like this isn't a culture that can change because we've already been ostracised as runts for the survival of the whole...

 

[rationaltake]

I kinda have the opposite problem with the term. I take issue with the "illness" part rather than the "mental" part of "mental illness".

I'm not okay with someone else being able to decide for me that I'm sick. The mentally healthy don't look mentally competent enough to me for me to trust their judgement. I don't agree with most of the values from which their diagnosis of an illness follows. I wouldn't want to enshrine their values as objective.

I think I'm for the most part just reacting reasonably to my circumstances. If I find life hard then it's because I'm not blinding myself to its realities. I dislike most things life has to offer and I don't want to suddenly come to like any of the things I dislike. So I'm not interested in declaring myself sick or in fixing myself.

I can tell from past experience that if my circumstances were better, I'd also be enjoying myself more. So it's not my brain being incapable of producing happy chemicals; it would do so if life had more to offer. But it doesn't.

We don't need to give the "mentally healthy" even more rhetorical power to dismiss any negative experiences as irrational. Which I feel is exactly what would happen if we referred to suffering people as brain-diseased.

But I do get that without the illness label, people would just assume that it's simply a choice to be miserable. Which is not what I'm saying. I'm just saying that usually there's a reason for our misery beyond "your brain is broken".

Measles is an illness. Hearing impairment is a condition. Bipolar and depression and other terms refer not to illnesses but to conditions. Physical conditions affect the structure and or the function of the body. In the same way mental conditions affect the structure and or the function of the mind. Calling mental conditions illnesses clouds the issue.

 

[Hurt]

Some people think that being suicidal is a symptom of sth wrong with our brain. I DO think that it's common to feel suicidal in nowadays society. I see the news and how fucked up the world is and I instantly feel suicidal. I can't live in a world like this. Although I try to improve the most part of me want to end things.

 

[monkeybiz]

I see depression as not always mental illness but symptom of being intelligent. When you have time to think and see reality for what it is, it is really depressing. Nothing to do with brain chemistry, just having eyes open.

 

[Depressed_Kettle]

A lot of mental illnesses are not even a disease. I'm not saying that the mental illness/disease isn't distressing for the individual but a disease is generally something you catch. You catch sexually transmitted diseases, you don't catch Autism, ADHD, OCD or other mental illnesses.

 

[Crazy4u]

My issue is the word "illness". I don't care about the mental part. In fact, I think brain illness is worse than mental illness. In our society, a person who says mental illness is considered respectful. There are many people who use words like: psycho, crazy, ...etc to describe mental illness. We are not there yet

 

[stellabelle]

Couldn't agree more, ive always found the term mental illness very insulting, especially if it's coming from someone who has clearly never experience depression in their entire life.

And incredibly oppressive.
ever think a person was pushed to the point of above and beyond and then people say they can't do anything at all? We keep people trapped in poverty surrounded by smiling backstabbers and lie about them and burn their bridges and happiness for them, and then ask why.
you know.
I had done everything I could hoping I'd hear three words I never would no matter what I did and that was so sad.

 

[Depressed_Kettle]

Some people think that being suicidal is a symptom of sth wrong with our brain. I DO think that it's common to feel suicidal in nowadays society. I see the news and how fucked up the world is and I instantly feel suicidal. I can't live in a world like this. Although I try to improve the most part of me want to end things.

Society is humanities own worst enemy. It isolated us and pudge on-holes people who have different mental illnesses like Schizophrenia, bipolar or Autism.
The very existence of a label causes prejudice and stigma. The labels for these mental illnesses only exist because of society. In some ways the labels are beneficial in getting people more help but in a lot of ways the simple act of a label is a self-fulfilling prophecy.

A lot of people are more suicidal now then in the past for sure.

 

[Depressed_Kettle]

Society is humanities own worst enemy. It isolated us and pudge on-holes people who have different mental illnesses like Schizophrenia, bipolar or Autism.
The very existence of a label causes prejudice and stigma. The labels for these mental illnesses only exist because of society. In some ways the labels are beneficial in getting people more help but in a lot of ways the simple act of a label is a self-fulfilling prophecy.

A lot of people are more suicidal now then in the past for sure.

To clarify on that. Telling someone they have ADHD at a very young age makes them feel different. I know because I was told this at a very young age. They might feel less than other people, like there is something wrong with them because that's the way society sees it. If we didn't label people and pidgeonhole them and just embraced difference (and not just say it, I mean truly embrace it) then there would be a lot less depression.

And for what reason did I need to be medicated for ADHD at such a young age? Because I was hyper and my teacher couldn't handle it because the government doesn't want to fund proper education? 30+ kids in a class for one teacher is somehow acceptable for our next generation of adults? Any people who are different, who don't fit in the cookie-cutter view of a student are automatically targeted and treated differently because the teacher is only equipped to handle so much with so little pay.

 

[Chockles]

To clarify on that. Telling someone they have ADHD at a very young age makes them feel different. I know because I was told this at a very young age. They might feel less than other people, like there is something wrong with them because that's the way society sees it. If we didn't label people and pidgeonhole them and just embraced difference (and not just say it, I mean truly embrace it) then there would be a lot less depression.

And for what reason did I need to be medicated for ADHD at such a young age? Because I was hyper and my teacher couldn't handle it because the government doesn't want to fund proper education? 30+ kids in a class for one teacher is somehow acceptable for our next generation of adults? Any people who are different, who don't fit in the cookie-cutter view of a student are automatically targeted and treated differently because the teacher is only equipped to handle so much with so little pay.

I had opposite issue. I was diagnosed ADHD only 3 years ago. It's ruined my life not realising what was wrong with me. I also have many physical issues which is my main issues but did the adhd make the physical pain worse? It's hard to say. Either way everything comes from the brain I just don't like how everything is classed as mental ilness. Adhd/autism both neurological conditions dopamine deficient turns out I am. Yet I've been on anti-ds for anxiety most of life by GPS. Serotonin depletes dopamine in the gut. The gut & brain connected by vagus nerve. It's responsible for so many mental health & physical conditions. Medication screws it up further. I'm fed up of everything still being blamed on anxiety & take a medication or talking therapy. Been there done them all now severely physically disabled & ready to ctb yet I'll be deemed by society as mad or a drug addict or both. I'm neither. I'm fucked up but it's not my fault.

 

[LittleJem]

I'd like to call mine a neurological condition. It will make people think twice about asking me if I've tried fucking therapy.

 

[Fish Face]

My illness is called emotionally unstable personality disorder. Which is great! ( not!!)

There is a lot of debate about that diagnosis among the glorified, overpaid pharmacists that pass for psychiatrists. In the UK the charity MIND are pretty critical if it. I have lived in my mind for 51 years. I KNOW I have depression, social anxiety and trauma, not unstable personality disorder. It is just a fad in diagnosis, same as my first diagnosis at 13 years old, "elective mutism", otherwise known as "extreme shyness" in normal language. My own diagnosis not based on questionaire at all and I really don't have the traits of it through questionaires I have looked at. No shame in any diagnosis at all, whatever it is, but BPD/unstable personality disorder is bullshit nonsense.

 

[Homo erectus]

Many terms and diagnosis in psychiatry are vague, and often used to sell drugs. There is a documentary on this:

The Hidden Enemy: Inside Psychiatry’s Covert Agenda

What's causing the military suicide epidemic? Watch as The Hidden Enemy documentary exposes the covert operation behind rising military suicides.

www.cchr.org

 

[Superdeterminist]

Personally I don't consider suicidality to be a 'disease of the brain' either. Death is waaaaay better than some other possible living fates. Over-pathologising is one of the many issues with the trainwreck that is psychology/psychiatry.

 

[Mr2005]

Such a lazy term I don't even know what it means