In contrast, most of the common “mental illnesses” can be linked to specific forms of psychological trauma or injury. For example, depression and anxiety being caused by emotional abuse. Or PTSD resulting from a traumatic event.
The other term that comes to mind is “fracture” or “break”. Like, I fractured my femur when I was in college. I got surgery, the femur healed. My femur didn’t get an “illness” and I certainly don’t feel any stigma or shame around the experience, other than regretting skiing way too fast.
It would be cool to say the same about the depression I experienced.
“What happened to you?”
“Oh, I fractured my mind after a really bad relationship with an emotionally abusive ex. Yeah, my mind broke pretty good, but thankfully it was a pretty clean break, I got it set right and after a few years of psychoanalysis and some quality entheogens it’s as good as new.”
It’s time to ditch the illness/disease model for mental illness and use terms like injury/fracture/break that both accurately describe the situation and clearly indicate that the situation can be remedied. The idea of chronic and untreatable mental illness is a self fulfilling prophecy and does far more harm than good.
Then where are they based? Literally all we are is a body.
The idea of chronic and untreatable mental illness is a self fulfilling prophecy and does far more harm than good.
Who has this idea? I’ve never heard of depression or anxiety being described as untreatable.
Just like the common cold is an “illness” and nobody claims it’s untreatable.
Perhaps “garden variety” depression and anxiety aren’t the best examples here, although both of them do have their severe forms and even clinical labels like “treatment resistant depression”. I’m thinking particularly of more severe diagnoses like bipolar or schizophrenia, which are generally assumed in mainstream western psychiatry since at least the 60s to be lifelong illnesses whose symptoms may be treatable with medication but for which there is no known “cure”.
I’m speaking from the perspective of someone who watched his sister receive a bipolar diagnosis after a suicide attempt in late teens, and then watched her develop more severe “bipolar” behaviors as a result of the so-called antipsychotic drugs she was prescribed. Only years later did I realize that her suicide attempt was a direct result of severe chronic parental abuse that she was enduring at the time. Of course the relevant information never made it to the doctors who were forced to come up with a reason for a young girl attempting suicide, hence bipolar. My sister died by suicide last year. I can’t speak for others, but in her case the bipolar label was both a convenient cover-up for severe child abuse and essentially a death sentence for my sister’s soul and ultimately her life. I suspect that the same could be happening in many cases where abnormal or self-harming behavior is in fact a reaction to abuse. It’s just so much easier to tell someone that they have a chemical imbalance in their brain and it’s nobody’s fault, rather than confront a child abuse situation.
If one gets PTSD from a traumatic event, then, is that by definition not mental illness? Wouldn't that literally be a "mental injury"?
No, in most contexts in English, modifying a noun with an adjective doesn't invert the meaning of the noun.
A “respiratory infection” is a real infection.
A “premeditated homicide” is a real homicide.
Or, from your post:
A “big part” is a real part.
A “better word” is a real word.
The “scientific method” is a real method.
“Real study” is real study and “real treatment” is real treatment.
I think that's less a comment on grammar and more about how there's a tendency to name stuff that is similar to other stuff, yet markedly different, in oxymoronic ways. For example:
"virtual reality", "business ethics", "educational television", "military intelligence", "magic realism"
Edited out offensive comment
Do you have 3 or 4 days in a row where you can't sleep? Do you send emails to everyone at three in the morning that are totally crazy (such as only a maniac would write)? Do you speak at company meetings and have one of your employees write "shut up" on a piece of paper and hold it so that only you can see it?
Your comment is offensive.
I think this is actually a big part of the problem. In most other contexts we encounter, stuffing an adjective in there means "NOT". Soy milk? Not real milk. Computer science? Don't see anyone using the scientific method.
I'm absolutely certain that mental illness is real, and deserves real study and real treatment, but even so, whenever I hear "mental illness" I can't help but hear a twang of "... (not real illness)". The phrase "physical illness" is relatively rare because we normally just call it "illness".
Is there a better word for mental illness, which stands on its own? Names matter, and I don't think this one is doing us any favors.