{"id":25041,"date":"2015-06-16T11:52:42","date_gmt":"2015-06-16T18:52:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/?page_id=25041"},"modified":"2015-09-08T10:27:33","modified_gmt":"2015-09-08T17:27:33","slug":"mental-illness","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/mental-illness\/","title":{"rendered":"Mental Illness"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Brain<\/p>\n

The terms mental illness<\/strong> and mental disorder are used to refer to a variety of mental health conditions that affect a person\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ability to function. Over time, the language society has used to refer to mental health concerns has changed dramatically. At times in history people with severe mental health issues were given labels like “lunatics” and “psychos” and confined to insane asylums, but today these terms are viewed as derogatory. The term “mental illness”\u00c2\u00a0may sometimes still carry a negative connotation, as it is frequently used colloquially in a disparaging way.<\/p>\n

What Is a Mental Illness?<\/h2>\n

What exactly constitutes a mental illness has been the source of great debate throughout history, and today, mental illness remains notoriously difficult to define. Mental health professionals bicker over what types of conditions constitute mental illness and the possible repercussions of labeling a person as mentally ill. At the heart of this debate is the\u00c2\u00a0American Psychiatric Association\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders<\/a>, or DSM<\/em>, which serves as a diagnostic reference book for psychiatrists and other mental health professionals.<\/p>\n

The DSM <\/em>categorizes mental health conditions and states specific diagnostic criteria for those conditions. According to the DSM<\/em>, a mental disorder is a clinically significant behavioral or psychological syndrome or pattern that occurs in an individual and is associated with present distress such as a painful symptom, disability impairing one or more important areas of functioning, or with a significantly increased risk of suffering death, disability, or loss of freedom.<\/p>\n

Over the years, conditions have been modified, added, or eliminated from the DSM<\/em>, as understanding of various issues, mental states, and conditions changed. Homosexuality, for example, was once listed in the DSM<\/em> as a disorder, but the listing was removed in the early 1970s, when it became more prevalently known as a normal expression of human sexuality<\/a>. Similarly, what was once known as gender identity disorder was recently reclassified as gender dysphoria to clarify that people who experience distress as a result of their gender identity<\/a> are not experiencing a disorder. In this way, the definition of mental illness and our perceptions of what qualifies as an illness change frequently. The\u00c2\u00a0DSM<\/em> also points out that a classification of mental disorders does not classify people, but rather, seeks to classify the conditions that people have.<\/p>\n

A Brief History of Mental Illness Treatment<\/strong><\/h2>\n