Is mental illness a disease?

Question

What is the definition of a "disease"?

Mental illness is a disorder, but can it necessarily be classified as a disease?

My health teacher got mad at me because he thought I was protesting his logic that "mental illnesses are disorders, not diseases".

If anyone can come up with a source and some evidence that proves him wrong I'd love it! I read it somewhere but can't find it. Help!

Answer 1

Merriam-Webster says:

Main Entry: dis·ease
Pronunciation: di-'zEz
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English disese, from Anglo-French desease, desaise, from des- dis- + eise ease
1 obsolete : TROUBLE
2 : a condition of the living animal or plant body or of one of its parts that impairs normal functioning and is typically manifested by distinguishing signs and symptoms : SICKNESS, MALADY
3 : a harmful development (as in a social institution)
- dis·eased /-'zEzd/ adjective

A disease is not always caused by an organic pathogen (i.e.: bacteria, virus, poison, etc...). It can also be caused my environmental conditions or genetic disorders. The brain is as subject to disease as any other organ.

Yes, a mental illness is a disease but is usually not qualified as such simply to avoid the stigma of a contagious disorder (such as, say, the flu). This is often the case because many people are unaware of what the words they use really mean.

Sounds like your health teacher could use both a good dictionary and thesaurus ;-)

Just google the words "definition" and "disease". You'll get tons of medical references that describe the word "disease" in terms that would very obviously include any psychological disorder.

Answer 2

1

Answer 3

The definition of "disease" is: an impairment of health or a condition of abnormal functioning Since people with mental illnesses are a minority, they are "abnormal" Mental illnesses impair the person and make it harder for them to be accepted into contemporary society. What worse than being rejected by your own people? Sure people with Autism have great cognitive abilities, but their social skills are so poor that most people would be "normal" than have Autism. Ignorance is Bliss. PS - In no way, shape or form can TRUE Schizophrenia be considered a gift. A permanent blur between reality and fiction. Schizophrenia stays with someone for their entire lives. And in the cases of sever Schizophrenia - life can be miserable, for the affected individual and his/her family.

Answer 4

MENTAL ILLNESS IS BOTH KNOW AS AN ILLNESS AND DIS-EASE.
HERE MAY BE SOME HELPFUL INFORMATION FOR YOU TO FOLLOW UP ON:
Mental disorder - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaA mental disorder or mental illness is a clinically significant .... [12] Memory or cognitive disorders, such as amnesia or Alzheimer's disease exist. ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mental_illness

Illness - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaIllnesses can be called a disease, and there are many kind of diseases like cancer, ... Other generic names for mental illness include “mental disorder”, ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illness
[ More results from en.wikipedia.org ]

Mental Health America: Mental Illness and the Family: Recognizing ...A mental illness is a disease that causes mild to severe disturbances in thought and/or behavior, resulting in an inability to cope with life’s ordinary ...
www.nmha.org/go/information/get-info/mi-and-the-family/recognizing-warning-signs-and-how-to-cope

Mental Health and Illness [Mental Health and Illness.com ]Infectious disease and mental illness. ... for seeking professional care for the diagnosis and / or treatment for any medical and / or psychiatric disorder.
www.mentalhealthandillness.com/

NIMH: Going to ExtremesReducing the burden of mental illness and behavioral disorders through ... with the disorder or with unipolar major depression, indicating that the disease ...
www.nimh.nih.gov/publicat/manic.cfm

NIMH: DepressionReducing the burden of mental illness and behavioral disorders through research on ..... For individuals with bipolar disorder or chronic major depression, ...
www.nimh.nih.gov/publicat/depression.cfm
[ More results from www.nimh.nih.gov ]

MedlinePlus: Bipolar DisorderBipolar disorder is a serious mental illness. People who have it experience dramatic mood swings. They may go from overly energetic, "high" and/or irritable ...
www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/bipolardisorder.html

[PDF] Mental Illness and/or Mental Health? Investigating Axioms of the ...File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTML
Health is not simply the absence of disease: it is something positive. ..... mental illness. any 12-month mental disorder without languishing; pure ...
www.apa.org/journals/features/ccp733539.pdf

Top 10 Myths About Mental IllnessMyth #8: If you have a mental illness, you can will it away. Being treated for a psychiatric disorder means an individual has in some way "failed" or is ...
thyroid.about.com/library/news/blmentalmyths.htm

PA-05-007: Co-Occurring Mental Illness, Alcohol and/or Drug Abuse ...Co-Occurring Mental Illness, Alcohol and/or Drug Abuse & Medical Conditions .... are magnified well beyond those associated with each disorder in isolation. ...
grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-05-007.html

Answer 5

Making dietary changes is your first line of defense in treating hypothyroidism. Learn here https://tr.im/gJvLV

Many people with hypothyroidism experience crippling fatigue and brain fog, which prompts reaching for non-nutritional forms of energy like sugar and caffeine. I’ve dubbed these rascals the terrible twosome, as they can burn out your thyroid (and destabilize blood sugar).

1. Just say no to the dietary bungee cord. Greatly reduce or eliminate caffeine and sugar, including refined carbohydrates like flour, which the body treats like sugar. Make grain-based carbohydrates lesser of a focus, eating non-starchy vegetables to your heart’s content.

2. Up the protein. Protein transports thyroid hormone to all your tissues and enjoying it at each meal can help normalize thyroid function. Proteins include nuts and nut butters; quinoa; hormone- and antibiotic-free animal products (organic, grass-fed meats, eggs, and sustainably-farmed fish); and legumes.

Answer 6

2

Answer 7

A disorder! I have it!

Answer 8

Mental Disorders Are Not Diseases


USA Today (Magazine) January 2000.


MENTAL DISORDERS ARE NOT DISEASES

by Thomas S. Szasz, M.D.


Psychiatrists and their allies have succeeded in persuading the scientific community, courts, media, and general public that mental illnesses are phenomena independent of human motivation or will.

THE CORE CONCEPT of mental illness--to which the vast majority of psychiatrists and the public adhere--is that diseases of the mind are diseases of the brain. The equation of the mind with the brain and of mental disease with brain disease, supported by the authority of a large body of neuroscience literature, is used to render rational the drug treatment of mental illness and justify the demand for parity in insurance coverage for medical and mental disorders.


According to the Oxford English Dictionary, disease is "a condition of the body, or of some part or organ of the body, in which its functions are disturbed or deranged; a morbid physical condition." Diagnosis, in turn, is "the determination of the nature of a diseased condition ... also, the opinion (formally stated) resulting from such investigation

The core medical concept of disease is a bodily abnormality. Literally, the term "disease" denotes a demonstrable lesion of cells, tissues, or organs. Metaphorically, it may be used to denote any kind of malfunctioning of individuals, groups, economies, etc. (substance abuse, violence, unemployment, et al.

The psychiatric concept of disease rests on a radical alteration of the medical definition. The mind is not a material object; hence, it can be diseased only in a metaphorical sense. In his classic, Lectures on Clinical Psychiatry, Emil Kraepelin--the founder of modern psychiatry--wrote: "The subject of the following course of lectures will be the Science of Psychiatry, which, as its name implies, is that of the treatment of mental disease. It is true that, in the strictest terms, we cannot speak of the mind as becoming diseased


Linguistic considerations help to illuminate the differences between bodily and mental disease, as well as between disease and diagnosis. We do not attribute motives to a person for having leukemia, do not say that a person has reasons for having glaucoma, and would be uttering nonsense if we asserted that diabetes has caused a person to shoot the President. However, we can and do say all of these things about a person with a mental illness. One of the most important philosophical-political features of the concept of mental illness is that, at one fell swoop, it removes motivation from action, adds it to illness, and thus destroys the very possibility of separating disease from non-disease and disease from diagnosis

Nowadays, names routinely are given not only to somatic pathology (real or bodily diseases), but to behavioral pathology (psychopathology or mental diseases). Indeed, if we propose to treat misbehavior as a disease instead of a matter of law or social policy, we name it accordingly (for instance, "substance abuse"). Not surprisingly, we diagnose mental illnesses by finding abnormalities (unwanted behaviors) in persons, not abnormalities (lesions) in bodies. That is why forensic psychiatrists "interview" criminals called "patients" (who often do not regard themselves as patients), whereas forensic pathologists examine body fluids. In the case of bodily illness, the clinical diagnosis is a hypothesis, typically confirmed or disconfirmed through an autopsy. It is not possible to die of a mental illness or to find evidence of it in organs, tissues, cells, or body fluids during an autopsy.


To summarize, anthrax is a disease that is biologically constructed and can, and does, kill its host. Attention deficit disorder, on the other hand, is socially constructed and cannot kill the patient


Mental diseases are behaviors


No one believes that love sickness is a disease, but nearly everyone believes that mental sickness is, and virtually no one realizes that, if this were true, it would prove the nonexistence of mental illness. If mental illnesses are brain diseases (like Parkinsonism), then they are diseases of the body, not the mind. A screwdriver may be a drink or a tool, but it would be foolish to do research in the hope of discovering that some cases of orange juice and vodka are hitherto unrecognized instances of carpenters' implements. contemporary American is so thoroughly psychiatrized that it is quite useless to demonstrate the logical-linguistic misconceptions inherent in the claim that "mental illness is like any other illness." Unless people are prepared to defy the combined forces of the state, science, medicine, law, and popular opinion, they must believe--or at least pretend to believe--that mental illnesses are brain diseases; scientists have identified the somatic lesions that cause such illnesses; and psychiatrists possess effective treatments for them. Conventional wisdom as well as political correctness preclude entertaining the possibility that mental illness, like spring fever, is a metaphor.


My argument may be put another way: The existence of John Smith's bodily disease--say, astrocytoma, a nerve tissue tumor--is discovered and empirically verified. Radiologists identify the tumor; neurosurgeons verify its presence by observing the lesion with their naked eyes; and pathologists confirm the diagnosis by examination of the tissues.

In contrast, the existence of John Smith's mental disease--say, schizophrenia--is declared and socially verified. His alleged illness is identified by psychiatrists, who diagnose his behavior as schizophrenia; other psychiatrists verify its presence by committing him to a mental hospital, where he acquires the right to refuse treatment, which he exercises.


Diagnosis of bodily illness is the operative word that justifies a physician to admit to a hospital a patient who wants to be so admitted. Diagnosis of mental illness is the operative word that justifies a judge to incarcerate in a mental hospital a sex criminal who has completed his prison sentence


Regardless of psychiatric diagnosis, the typical mental patient is entitled to liberty, unless convicted of a crime punishable by imprisonment. If that patient breaks the law and is convicted, then he or she ought to be punished for it as prescribed by the criminal law. In a free society, a person ought not to profit from psychiatric excuses or suffer from psychiatric coercions

Thomas Szasz is professor of psychiatry emeritus, State University of New York Health Science Center; Syracuse

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