What do you, personally, think mental illness is?

When my brother was about 5 years old, my mother found him outside the house a 3 am, in his pajamas in a snow storm. He was crying very hard. When she asked him what was wrong, he said “He killed them all, he killed everybody. There’s blood all over the place.” No one could figure out what he was talking about. This was way before the days of TV’s or video games.

He was teased and mistreated all the time he was growing up. The other kids laughed at him because he talked funny and said inappropriate things. A teacher once hit him with a ruler because he was constantly drumming his fingers on the desk. He also ran his hands along the creases in his clothing all day long. Yes, the teacher was reprimanded.

Brother once said to me “I know I am slow, but I’m not stupid”. Eventually his behavior became so bizarre he was placed in a State Mental Hospital until they were closed down in the 1960’s.

His thought patterns and behavior are so different from other people that he stands out. He was officially diagnosed as being schizophrenic. I believe mental illness does exist. I recently read the wikipedia article on schizophrenia and I recognized several behaviors described there in myself when I was a child, such as hearing voices and having hallucinations. I apparently outgrew it.

I think mental illness is a general term for a very broad spectrum of conditions that are brought about through various combinations of genetic, biologic, psychological, social, and experiential conditions.

It is either a reaction to changes in brain chemistry or environmental pressures or a combination of both. In my opinion it should be no more stigmatized than the biological changes that affect other organs or physical disabilities. To suggest mental illness doesn’t exist would be as ridiculous as suggesting diabetes or similar doesn’t exist.

I also think mental illness is a very broad term, but I think it is often used to describe people who are significantly uotside of the spectrum of what most consider nornal. Are depressed people metally ill? The mom who feels like her life is not what she expected, and is in some sort of doldrums? The man who is significantky affected by seasonal affective disorder and finds it difficult to get out of bed in the winter mo ths, is he mentally ill? Is anyone who can be diagnosed with something according to the DSM, are they all mentally ill?

This is a good question, because I think people use the term mental illness to mean many different things.

The DSM evolves over time. Previously being gay was diagnosable in the DSM, gay people were considered mentally ill. Now psychology does not consider it a mental illness.

Very broadly speaking, I think of it as a misfire in the brain. The misfire can take different directions, like causing one to lose touch with reality, become suicidal, become obsessive, all sorts of things that make life difficult for the sufferer, and all generally out of his or her control. Different things can cause the misfire, nature and/or nurture.

Lets see now, there are people with phobias who are just a little bit kookie. Then there are nerotic folks who are a little bit nutty. Worst of all there are the psychotics who are really nutsy-kookoo.

@augustlan I don’t know if I agree with misfire. Well, as I think about it I realize I think mental illness can have many causes. Same with having a sore throat. Can be from yelling for hours, catching a virus, a bacterial infection, maybe even cancer. Misfire can be a good description I guess. What if someone has a physical reason for their bazaar behavior like an autoimmune disease affecti the brain (I just learned about this, extremely interwsting) or a brain injury from an accident that causes bazaar behavior? Does it fall under misfire?

it is when your thought pattern is opposed to the general consciences of the populist, especially if you apply different rules to yourself as opposed to others.

@JLeslie I think lots and lots of things can cause the ‘misfire’, but I’d still consider it a misfire, because if they were perfectly healthy, it wouldn’t be happening, you know?

Chemical imbalance in the brain.
It’s the voices I hear when i get stressed out.
It’s the way teenagers think, or fail to.

@augustlan I can go along with that. I guess I picture a misfire, like a spark or short. When I think of the brain I think of pathways or wires being routed in a certain way. I think of mental illness as bad loops or connections to emotions that need to be rerouted. They aren’t necessarily shorting, I think that is why I really had to think about the word misfire, because of the visual I get with it. It’s semantics.

@wundayatta I think that we are too quick to label people abnormal, as in abnormal psychology. Maybe our definition of normal is too narrow and rigid?

Most broadly, any of our own idiosyncrasies that we use (or that use us) to take the world in a particular way. I think we need to come up with a better word than “illness” to describe it.

I liked @syz‘s description the best.

It is a very broad question and as such can be given only the generalist answer.

But I think overall the purpose of labeling mental illness is to say that they harm themselves or others with out intervention.
If a person fell out of the normal spectrum but did not draw negative attention to themselves they would either be largely ignored unless that abnormal behavoir put them in the spotlight in a positive way.

Being able to function within the widest definition of acceptable society is the key to flying under the radar. So as with the DSM and homosexuality there is a certain amount of fear and ignorance attached to our convenient labels.

It is not all misfiring of synapses and chemical imbalances and so on and so forth.

I worked in mental hospital for a number of years, so yes, I know psychiatric conditions exist. Psychosis is primarily a disease of disorientation. Those patients have a distorted view of reality which they believe is absolutely true. Some can be treated with medication. Generally, they are not able to cope with a normal life unless they are treated and stay on their meds.
Then there are a wide range of conditions which are more frequent and do not necessarily keep a person from functioning in society. I’m not going to be able to name all of them, but bi-polar, obsessive compulsion, alcoholism, phobias, and the kinds of behavior and thought processes that you run into that seem excessive are less troubling. They may be treated with counseling.

It’s said that abnormal behavior, that which veers from the norm, is an indicator. Behaviors not accepted by the general society, harms that person, or others.

I can tell you how it feels. It feels rough, I don’t feel well, it effects my entire body, my thinking, I have to lie down. I look like death warmed up, at times I shiver. If you asked me to show you, I’d have to point at my head. As that is where it is all emanating from.

What a whopper of a question, I don’t know how to answer this. Hell, if some day I was wondering to myself, so what exactly is a mental illness? I’d probably ask you, since you know a lot about them, and are also diagnosed with one.

A lot of what confuses me about mental illness is how it’s related to society and how we’re generally supposed to act. I was told that probably most people have a bit of a little mental illness in them or another, but for many it goes unnoticed, and is never diagnosed; because it never ruins their life or habitual patterns. At least it’s not noticeable to others, and they don’t talk about it, if they’re even aware of it. I mean, take me for example. Who’s to say I don’t have some kind of mental illness? I’m obsessed about pillows, and will most likely be for the rest of my life. For someone who’s 30 years old, that is not normal, at least as decreed by social standards. But since this doesn’t hurt anyone, no one is ever going to point it out much.

Then there are examples like @YARNLADY provided about her brother. There are plenty of people like that, some dangerous, either to themselves or others, or both, and others completely harmless. But either way, they still stick out.

Now there are definitely some complications that may occur due to several reasons, such as the ones listed by @syz, and I can buy that. And what @filmfann said, chemical imbalances in the brain. What confuses me is what all this is based on. But I’m willing to go with those things for my answer. I mean there are varying levels of what a mental illness can make someone do or how they think, and a lot of that goes hand in hand with every day life and how you’re supposed to go about it. You can have someone who’s depressed, but nothing will ever be done because they can still keep a job and pay taxes. Mental illnesses are a difficulty because we still don’t know that much about them, yet they’re still attached to how to properly live.
So in between all that, if medical science is right, then I guess it is some imbalance which impedes, in a lot of ways, a normal life. A normal life as is decreed by modern societies. I mean out of all the jigsaw pieces, whether you’re harmless or a real danger, this seems to be the little bit that relates it all. People DO know this.
But targeting on it specifically is like myself trying to understand how alcoholism is a disease. I mean it acts like a disease and I certainly understand why we say this. But technically it really isn’t, unless DNA and cultural influence have something to do with it, like it does with American Indians, who have never got the chance to get used to booze like everybody did, like more than 2000 years ago. And even then, I’m not sure ancestry or cultural adaption, or lack thereof, actually make it a disease. I mean it’s not, technically, a virus or a physical disorder, even if it acts like one. Did I just say something stupid. Because I’m pretty sure I did.

Seems so phantom like. Some mental illnesses can be inherited, no matter your life experience, others can be caused by events or trauma. That’s when it doesn’t become clear anymore. A psychological disorder VS a mental illness. So my guess is, something that keeps you from living your normal life, as we’re supposed to live it. Now I’m not being insensitive towards really nutsy people who are a danger, OR people who live a normal life, but suffer every single day, inside. But it’s the best I can do. Cutting up dead people and reading books about philosophy didn’t demuddle the confusion I got when mixing morality, survival and brain juice together.

I wonder if it’s possible. Can I describe it? Are there words adequate to illustrate what my reality is like as a person with a mental illness? Perhaps the best way is to describe what it’s like for me off medication.

I moved once from a big city where I had easy access to public health facilities to a rural area where I isolated and did not attempt to find the health care that I needed. I have no excuse. I was scared. I took 3 month’s worth of meds with me.

I knew that I would run out of my meds, and so I took matters into my own hands to wean myself off the best way that I knew how. I was taking valproic acid as my main bipolar medication, and so I started by cutting my dosage by 25%, and the symptoms began right away.

Walking up the stairs to my room one day, I felt a hand reach into my head and begin to squeeze. I gripped the handrail to keep from falling. It felt like the hand of some god had decided that I no longer needed my brain and was trying to extract it. I can’t say that it was exactly painful. I believe it would be better described as immense pressure.

The shock was tremendous. I remember when I was diagnosed with bipolar, I felt betrayed by my brain. I’d had delusions in the intervening years, but now I knew that my brain wanted something completely foreign to what I’d ever imagined. It wanted out.

Next came the sobbing. Sitting in my room, I soundlessly sobbed doubled over in a chair, gulping air, heaving. Uncontrollable terror ripping at the inside of my skull.

During one episode, my brain caught fire. It seethed and writhed and ate up all the oxygen that I could consume. Pressing my hands against the sides of my head, I squeezed, attempting to extinguish the flames I could feel licking at the inside of my skull.

By this time, I was out of meds. I began to hallucinate.

Hearing things. Singing came from the toilet.

Seeing things. A young man with blond hair sitting at my desk, wearing a plaid shirt.

Pacing. Moving. Unable to control. Thoughts racing. The only thing consistent were the thoughts of suicide. Longing for peace.

Erratic. Disjointed. Only suicide is clear. All else whirls.

The phone saved me. I called a friend I knew who had connections to psychologists, but he called a help-line for me instead. I was whisked into the system. Hospitalized. Blessedly hospitalized.

And sedated. After the hell of the months leading up to it. I welcomed the sleep. Deep dreamless sleep. Exhausted sleep.

What do I think mental illness is? It’s the reality of my daily life. That’s what it is.

@Hawaii_Jake – you should be writing books so others can understand. I was in your head and body as I read and I was terrified. Thank god your meds give you peace.

I want to thank you all for trying to help me with this. I especially want to thank @Hawaii_Jake and @Symbeline for your efforts to really engage and struggle with the meaning of mental illness in a way that truly spoke to me.

Jake, you made me wonder what my wife and children would say if I asked them what I was like when I was descending. I remember the time I snapped at my son, and how irritable I was. I remember the time I couldn’t go caroling because there was too much anxiety in my chest. That was the start of it all—the first truly noticeable symptom. Or maybe the incident with my son came before that. Or maybe the sexual acting out, which came sooner.

And when I got to the death place, it was clear something was badly wrong, although I never had hallucinations like yours.

But it is instructive to me, when I ponder where the line between illness and health is, to think about your story vs mine. Mine seems so mild compared to yours. Mine seems like it could be treatable with just therapy, or maybe even I could have handled it on my own, as many people do. And if I could, does it still deserve to be called mental illness?

As @Symbeline wonders about whether addictions are illnesses, I wonder about behaviors, too. My obsession with sexual relations and how they fit together with love relations—is that just an obsession, or is that illness? It doesn’t make me have that hard a time with life. It could break up some relationships that are important to me, but it isn’t likely to kill me. I mean, it could kill me if I get depressed enough, but it could also save me, if I find the love that will truly speak to me.

Or maybe it’s crazy to think that the love of my wife and children isn’t right. Most people would say it is a wonderful thing. Never want to upset that apple cart. And I don’t want to. But I am always thinking about it. Always wondering. Never believing that what I have is what others have. Or if it is, that it is enough.

To me, that’s not illness, even if it is related to chemical imbalances in my brain (which I believe it is). It’s just existential struggle like most people deal with. Yes, it could potentially lead to bigger problems, both socially and in terms of suicide, but I can control it with meds to some degree. I can’t make it go away, though. I think that even without meds, I could control it. I don’t think it is susceptible to meds.

But then, maybe I should know better. I’ve seen my thoughts change overnight (from one day to the next, not from the day I started the meds) in terms of my ability to think about killing myself. It just went away, a few weeks after I started my meds. One day wanting to kill myself was a real possibility, and the next I couldn’t even think about it (except intellectually). It was no longer a possibility.

So maybe my other thought patterns that trouble me could be taken away with the right meds. I would become happy in a situation where most people would be happy. Does that mean I have an illness? Because most people would be happy in my shoes? I’m not, so does that mean there’s something wrong with me that needs to be treated?

It’s not going to kill me—most likely. That’s the uncertainty. If it is the illness, then I could lose my job and family and home and life, eventually. But we don’t know if I’ll go tripping down that primrose path or not. Any anyone could end up on that path, couldn’t they? Is it illness merely to think about certain things? Like suicide?

I don’t think so. I think I’m normal enough. I need a little help, but not enough to be called mentally ill. I’m crazy, sure. But not ill. There’s a difference. And I’m not even that crazy.

But I do have a diagnosis. They say they’ve been diagnosing more and more people. Cases that would have been let go in the past are now being called. One in five people are supposed to have some kind of mental illness! Statistically, that makes no sense. Outliers are supposed to be outside the third standard deviation, but this is only outside the second standard deviation. Twenty percent. Seems nuts to me. Look around you. Think of all the people you know. Every fifth one, on average, has some kind of mental illness diagnosis.

Now I know a lot of people hide their illnesses. It ain’t cool to show weakness in our society. And it’s worse with mental illness. People really hide that. Still, one in five? That is some stigma if one in five of us are mentally ill and we look around and can’t pick them out.

I can pick out more of them now that I know the signs, but I still can’t find one in five. Some people are very obvious, and others not so obvious, but there have to be a lot I can’t see at all if we are to add up to one in five.

I think of cake lady. She dances in my dance group. One night, after dancing with her, I knew, and so I asked her about it and sure enough she was bipolar. A few weeks later, someone brought a cake for us to eat afterwards, but cake lady didn’t go dancing that night. She ate the entire cake, instead! And we have not seen her since.

She’d been having a very tough time—living at home but unable to get along with her parents. She had no money. No way to move out. The pressure must have been enormous. And then to steal a cake from a community that is very important to you.

Seen as a theft, it is an act of selfishness and of course she would feel shame, and maybe feel like she couldn’t face us again. But seen as the act of someone under enormous pressure, who has an eating disorder and bipolar disorder, surely it could be more understandable, and if she told the story, maybe some people would understand, and she could return?

I don’t know. I don’t know if people could understand. The person who brought the cake was a psychologist. And even she seemed unforgiving.

It’s deviant behavior. It’s hard to understand behavior. It goes against conventional morality. That’s in addition to behavior that harms the self or others in a more direct, physical way. I think mental illness has expanded to a point where we have to treat things we don’t understand, not just things that are harmful. That’s how we get to one in five from one in twenty.

That expanded definition disturbs me.

Anyway, to anyone who followed my thought journey here through to the end, thank you for reading. I hope it makes sense.

Great question @wundayatta. I guess according to the APA, it’s a matter of societal/scientific consensus, as others have said. If it produces symptoms that are listed in the DSM, it’s a mental illness or disorder. The definition I learned in a high school psychology class was that psychological disorders disrupt the ability to function in society, and cause distress to the individual. It was because of this that I realized I had depression and needed to see a therapist, because I was unable to function on a daily basis and was very distressed and could not see a way out. I couldn’t imagine living to be 20, and the only thing keeping me from killing myself was my atheism, my thought that if I died, there would be no ‘me’ to rejoice in the fact that I was no longer suffering. That was the only thing. My therapist diagnosed me with major depression and “gender dysphoric disorder,” among other things. That disorder is no longer listed in the DSM, and in terms of social stigma that’s a good thing, although it might not be for people who need insurance to cover their transition costs (most insurance companies will only cover it with a diagnosis of GID/GDD, which no longer ‘exists’! It’s a very convenient loophole for them.)

I believe that mental illness is real, and it does not matter what the origin is. Human nature is biological and environmental. Aside from the incredible plasticity of the human brain, we have so much so-called ‘junk’ DNA the expression of which is only triggered in response to environmental conditions.

But I am also hesitant about giving the power to name mental illness solely to a small class of specialists within a society. It leads to a very dangerous kind of relativism if mental disorders are only in relation to social norms. (See for example, the fact that ‘homosexuality’ had to be pathologized as a medical condition by psychiatrists in the late 19th century, and it remained a ‘mental illness’ until 1973.) Among the many kinds of people that the Nazis locked up were the ‘asocial,’ who might have had mental illnesses that were harmful to themselves or others, but some of whom probably just did not want to work for the Nazi war machine.

Ok, cool question. I think mental illness is cause by natural/environmental factors, or a combination of the two.

My adopted mother is schizophrenic. She was sane until both of her parents died a month apart.

During one of my psych courses, they talked about a ‘key’ that unlocked a dormant condition.

The abused child who turns into a serial killer is an example of nurture. The favorite well loved childed who kills their whole family, is an example of nature.

She’s an example of how nature can flip switches.

Switch flippin’ is actually kind of a scary idea.

An inability to harmonize one’s thoughts, feelings and actions, might be a definition. This can arise when reality overwhelms experience. It may have been cause by a virus in utero that altered the brain’s development; The resulting behaviors deemed inappropriate in a proper society.