What exact IS a “mental illness” anyway?

[4everHeartBroken]

1. Any disease of the mind; the psychological state of someone who has emotional or behavioral problems serious enough to require psychiatric intervention.

This definition doesn't sit well with me. So what exactly is a "disease of the mind"? It's not enough.

I can understand schizophrenia being a mental illness, where a person can be completely out of touch with their surroundings with delusions and visual or auditory hallucinations. I'm talking about what we consider the #1 most common "mental illness", which is chronic depression.

"You have chronic depression."
In THIS crazy world…… REALLY?!?!?!?!?!?!?

I read somewhere that laughing too hard or crying too hard can be considered momentarily "going crazy". I feel sometimes that "chronic depression" with suicidal thoughts is simply becoming more aware of reality. Like Jim Carrey said, "depression" is simply your mind taking a "deep rest" and becoming more aware of reality.

What if chronic depression (even with suicidal thoughts) is NOT in fact a "mental illness" as humans are currently labeling it as. What if mental illness is in fact, being so caught up in this weird 9-5 "life" that you never think about SU (a natural thought, in my opinion) and the people who think about death are actually the LESS "mentally ill" group because we are simply more aware of life EQUAL TO as frequently as we think about death? What if the current mentally ill or "depressed" people are actually the more evolved humans because we can think about life AND death equally, instead of pretending death doesn't exist and that we aren't supposed to think about it.

What if in the future, the mental heath field realizes that chronic depression is NOT in fact a mental illness but simply a person becoming more aware?

I don't think death should be considered scary as we make it out to be on Halloween. I feel death is just as natural as birth, but we favor life over……… that terrible terrible place called…… dun… dun… dunnnnnn…… DEATH.

I think it's strange that we consider it a "mental illness" or a "disease of the mind" if you think about the sad parts of your life too much… which in my mind, is a part of your life, especially if you've had a lot of trauma. I think if 90% of your life was sad that we're supposed to try to find the rainbows and butterflies in life and THEN we'll be considered "mentally healthy"?! That just feels opposite, unnatural and weird to me.

Perhaps depression is considered the #1 "mental illness" because maybe perhaps, most people who are diagnosed with depression are just simply people adapting to LIFE (our natural, crazy environment!) and it's not in fact a "disease of the mind"?! What if people who are simply depressed (even with suicidal thoughts) do NOT have a "disease of the mind" and are simply humans with minds that are adapting to and responding to their natural environment… which is f*ing depression in my opinion!

Sorry for the rant. I just really needed to get that out.

 

[WhatCouldHaveBeen32]

Mental illness varies, some cases there is trully a general imbalance in the brain , from neurotransmitters to chemicals that can cause schizophrenia for example but many doctors are sure to say that every single depression case is the same, as in , it's a chemical imbalance, this however just isn't true and them accepting this wouldn't make the cases where the depression comes from a chemical imbalance any less true than they are.

As you said, depression in our day and age varies and for some people it can truly be an incompatibility with modern life alongside other complications be it physical/mental that can come in many shapes and forms. But the doctors and the population will never accept this answer as truth because it would mean that life isn't worth living. So we are left with people who can never be truly treated by medication that suffer apparently from the same depression as a person WHO CAN be treated by medication, it's truly a mystery , right?

 

[Daenerys Targaryen]

Something only you have and only you know: the pain and what you're going through. Psychiatrists diagnose and label things even if they're unknown. They give you pills like candy. What works for you? Good, what doesn't? It doesn't matter if they fry your brain. The one that sticks to you and messes up your brain more than those of us who have it, better. But the only ones who know the suffering, the pain, and what we're going through are ourselves, the ones who fight and endure every day. No one can put themselves in your shoes.

 

[Worndown]

Think of it like a broken jukebox.
You put in your coin, make your selection and a different song plays.

 

[divinemistress36]

We are lab rats . Experimented on for something nobody really knows how to treat

 

[FuneralCry]

I understand, for me wanting to cease existing is a response to existence itself, I see existence as the true problem and I'd just always prefer to not exist than be burdened with this futile existence suffering all for the sake of it just to decay and die anyway, non-existence is all I personally see as desirable. I'd rather just cease existing painlessly to save myself from all future suffering in this existence I never would had chosen than die in agony tortured by old age, I'd rather just not suffer at all in this unnecessary existence where there is no limit as to how much agony one can feel.