The Myth of Mental Illness

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SOURCES🔍🔍
Colombetti, G. (2017). The embodied and situated nature of moods. Philosophia, 45, 1437-1451.

Krueger, J. (2020). Schizophrenia and the scaffolded self. Topoi, 39(3), 597-609.

Merleau-Ponty, M. (1945/2012). Phenomenology of Perception (Landes, D. trans.). United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis.

Pienkos, E. (2020). Schizophrenia in the world: arguments for a contextual phenomenology of psychopathology. Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, 51(2), 184-206.

Stanghellini, G., Broome, M., Raballo, A., Fernandez, A. V., Fusar-Poli, P., & Rosfort, R. (eds.). (2019). The Oxford Handbook of Phenomenological Psychopathology. United States of America: Oxford University Press

Teo, T. (2010). What is epistemological violence in the empirical social sciences? Social and personality psychology compass, 4(5), 295-303.

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[slapshrapnel]

Hi, I’m a therapist and this is something I rant about constantly. I’ll try to keep it brief but our current disorder-based system of classifying mental illnesses is fundamentally broken because it disqualifies systemic issues and is completely individualistic. I work with a Medi-cal population and all the time I think to myself, “this person would not be depressed if they were no longer in poverty. All their issues are tied to survival, ” or something similar.

Or “this person is not non-functional because they cannot work. Work is just one thing. They would be perfectly functional in a society that doesn’t expect a 40-hour work week from everyone, forever.” The current requirements of the average workplace can be inhospitable to neurodivergent minds. For example, many people with ADHD would struggle to sit at a desk for a 8 solid hours a day, but excel in more unstructured environments where they can follow their motivation more fluidly to complete tasks. And my clients on the spectrum would’ve been able to work 500 years ago, they’d be great at the routines required of agriculture, or the specificity required of foraging, for example. People with psychosis are not considered disordered in other cultures that are more understanding and interested in their uniqueness— leading to less isolation, paranoia, negative outcomes. There are many ways for a person to contribute to their community that are being lost because we classify people as “able to work = functional. unable to work = unfunctional.” with no creativity, context, or care.

TLDR: people are classified as disordered if they do not fit in a culture that makes no space for them. It’s bullshit, and I hate when I’m a part of it.

Edited to add two sentences in the second paragraph. Since I’m editing, I wanted to add how much I appreciate the thoughtful comments on this post of how much other people relate to my comments here. It’s not easy out here, so compassion is crucial, especially toward ourselves. Take good care, y’all

[xsz]

"It's no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society" - Krisnamurti

[comradeblin]

To quote my friend= "Humanity has successfully made megacities that provide comfortable life for out body, but it's hell for our mind and soul. So unnatural and demanding it consumes us from inside."

[ScipiPurr]

I like this video. I'm on the schizophrenic spectrum and an aspect about it people don't often know or realize is how much of its expression is culturally-bounded. Like, usually people think of schizophrenia as excessive paranoia and perceiving demons and other terrible experiences, however excessive schizotypy in places like India or Sub-Saharan Africa usually manifests much more positively with people usually perceiving supportive phenomena like ones ancestors talking to you or being visited by benign spirits. Much of the difference has to do with the cultural narrative surrounding those experiences. In those cultures, hearing voices may be contextualized as a gift or other "good" phenomena. In western-cultures such phenomena is seen much more antagonistically and is generally contextualized as "defective", "deficient", and "a threat to society"

[HomoSapien-zq]

I have adhd and autism. I've had mental health issues for most of my life. I think my chronic depression might be somewhat natural for me but the rest of my mental illnesses have been directly or indirectly caused by me neglecting myself and what I need trying to become like something I'm not (a neutypical). No one directly forced me to do most of it, but I internalized so much of the negative things said to me because of my different behaviour I was convinced acctually being myself wasn't an option in the first place

[CybernautZero]

One of the issues I have with modern psychiatry is that it is all deficit-based. I am starting to think more along the lines that with what may be called a disorder in some, may actually just be neurodiversity. Maybe we're supposed to have different brains, that function differently. Maybe society shouldn't be "one size fits all" but rather, we should create the kind of society where all kinds of minds are welcome and can thrive.

[zyzyx]

The worst thing about being neurodivergent or mentally ill is that people are so quick to judge you, belittle you, or even hurt you. It’s so easy to be misunderstood because you simply don’t experience the world like most people, therefore others find you strange or off-putting. It’s a horrible predicament, not being able to live the normal life you so desperately want to. I’m glad people don’t understand. I wouldn’t want anybody to experience my existence.

[drowsy]

This is well intentioned, but as somebody with OCD, I do rely on medication and therapy to keep myself stable. I've almost killed myself multiple times before I was diagnosed and treated. Knowing what the problem was and getting medical help has greatly helped me not see myself as a monster for the intrusive thoughts I get. Having a supportive network isn't enough. Having friends doesn't make the compulsions go away. Mental illness can be caused by environmental factors, but not all the time. Things like OCD, schizophrenia, psychosis, and others are serious illnesses that cause suffering to those who have it and shouldn't be shrugged off as entirely environmental. In my own case, my OCD is genetic. I was simply born with it. I cannot change my genetics like how one can change their environment.

[mystiverse]

This turned out great! Always a pleasure to collaborate with you man ✌️❤️

[rimut]

i wish my therapist understood that i don't just need pills that make me less sad, i need a house and food on the table, free time and a family that doesn't hate me for my queerness, and a future to look forward to.

but the world doesn't care, because it's not profitable to care.

[Dain]

Increased feelings of calm and relaxation psilocybin mushrooms can promote a sense of calm and relaxation, reducing feelings of anxiety.

[katium]

So basically: You're still responsible for your mental health, but so is something else that's causing it.

[chrismuratore]

I was fired from a job I loved because I requested a mediation with my boss for telling me "that's a 'you' problem" when I failed to produce the results he expected by following the procedures and instructions he gave me.

Results he then failed to achieve himself by following the exact same steps.

Huh? Isn't that strange?

[creeperFIN]

My father was Finnish (deceased) and he was physically and mentally abusive. He learned most of his parenting from his post war upbringing (born 47).

In Finland we have obligatory military service. For me happens to be this environment makes me unable to eat and sleep. And i was temporarily dismissed.

Never gotten any help despite seeing some professionals, but they are preoccupied checking if im good for work or army and even when i paid 300€ for a psychiatrist to see me she offered me meds halfway the first and only meeting and told me to man up in life.

What a s**t show.

[Shlooomth]

Still no mention of thyroid health. It totally blows my mind how literally no one who even talks about how psychology alone is inadequate, still never even says the word “thyroid” even once.

[lilit_ivanyan]

This video really challenges the way we think about mental illness. It got me wondering: what if some of the behaviors or traits we label as mental illness aren’t problems at all but rather signs of brains that work differently, even better in certain ways? For example, people with heightened creativity, unique problem-solving skills, or unconventional ways of thinking often face societal challenges simply because they don’t fit into the ‘normal’ mold. Instead of viewing these differences as deficiencies, maybe we should start recognizing them as strengths that could lead to innovations or new perspectives. It seems like our current system focuses more on labeling and treating these differences rather than understanding and embracing them. Could it be that what we call 'mental illness' is sometimes just a reflection of how narrow our societal norms really are?

[beginnereasy]

Anxiety and depression are conscious responses to life realities. It's positivity that makes the problems go on forever...

[janedavis]

This is BS. Any time I've been in psychosis what i needed was medication. A supportive environment isn't going to make me stop thinking i killed my father.

[Seasonal-Shadow_]

I think there’s so much about mental illness we don’t know and so much that gets dismissed about mental illness. And the only mental illnesses that seem to be talked about the most are anxiety and depression. Like trauma, OCD, BPD, and neurodivergent conditions are being talked about a little more, but not enough, and frankly, there are plenty of obscure mental health conditions, disorders, symptoms that are talked about even less

It doesn’t help that people in and outside these communities and fields make gross over simplifications and over generalizations

[desplaza_el.horizonte]

Magical voluntarism perfectly describes the mindset i came to adopt by consuming a lot of self-help content a few years ago. And i'm still discarding it little by little.
In my experience it got to an extreme and trying to control for every factor i could for the benefit of my mental health definitely just added another layer of distress to it.

Plus, i adopted it _even though_ i was aware of external structural factors being an important source of the problem. It can be a very pervasive mindset.