Is Mental Illness Invented Or Discovered?

[Mark Antony]

I can't tell since these days every lady and her cats subscribe to an affliction that is either in vogue or getting prepped by big pharma. But what do you think?

 

[DumbDude42]

first it is invented (by me)
then i spread it around (by posting so much schizo bullshit on the internet that people go insane from reading it all)
then eventually other people 'discover' that their loved ones are going crazy from reading my shitposts

 

[Chilson]

There are neurological disorders caused by brain chemistry going haywire. The question is not "if" there is mental illness, but "what" is mental illness. I will use depression to describe an example talking about the layers and influences surrounding it.

Are you just going through a depressed phase, or do you have clinical depression? Big Pharma wants everyone to believe the depressed phase is clinical depression to sell more anti-depressants. However, depressed phases are merely people being a bit sad but overall functional. Clinical depression is basically not having the will to get out of bed at all or otherwise completely shutting a person down so they are not functional in society. Clinical depression is a severe issue with neurological brain chemistry in response to negative external stimuli, while a depressed phase is usually a fairly normal neurological response to simply being in a negative external situation.

There are many people, especially on social media, who see clinical depression as an easy excuse to stay in bed all day and not get fired for being a lazy shit. Medical doctors are sort of clueless when it comes to mental disorders and its 50/50 on whether you will get a good or bad psychologist to diagnose you. So medical doctors hand them out like candy along with half of all psychologists.

I mention the above because anti-depressants are a side treatment designed to get someone with clinical depression out of bed so they can go to therapy, work, meet with friends, essentially be a functional person. With the hope being that they will no longer need the drugs to function.

Its a giant clusterfuck though and there are so many points of external and internal, as anti-depressants are not perfect and we still don't have the best idea what is happening with neurological brain chemistry, failure that is is mind numbingly, literally and figuratively, difficult to properly treat anyone with clinical depression.

Just a reminder that Clinical depression is ONE OF THE MOST COMMON and least damaging mental illnesses to treat. Now imagine trying to treat a far more severe mental illness that is far more rarely diagnosed.

Is mental illness as common as Big Pharma and social media addicts like us to believe? Of course not. But legitimate mental illness is rising as the worlds economy crumbles and the weak generations of people who have not had to worry about anything for decades are forced to confront struggles that their forefathers would have built up mental defenses for in their youths.

 

[Osmosis Jones]

Everyone knows it was da jooz, goy.

The way we identify and treat mental illness is inherently flawed in almost all cases. Many cases of mental health problems can be resolved by not being so disconnected by reality and having a family or community that teaches you how to deal with shit like a human being instead of a programmable internet drone with a victim complex.

A competent psychiatrist will only use diagnoses to better identify possible routes of treatment. The labels are useless to you and me.

 

[Polish Businessman]

This question is just a rehashing of the problem of universals, debated since the antiquity. How about math theorems? Invented or discovered, eh?
The right question to ask is "what mental states should be regarded as requiring treatment?".

 

[Catman from cat town]

In abnormal psychology, mental disorder is defined by the society. For example, maybe having high anxiety was essential for survival in a society where something could instantly kill you. It’s therefore normal and what’s abnormal is not having high anxiety.
There are mental disorders only associated with certain societies too. Look at Wendigo psychosis in Native American culture.

 

[GHTD]

first it is invented (by me)
then i spread it around (by posting so much schizo bullshit on the internet that people go insane from reading it all)
then eventually other people 'discover' that their loved ones are going crazy from reading my shitposts

@DumbDude42 is Q confirmed.

 

[SwanSwanson]

I'd say invented. Alot of of this shit is just adverse affects to modern society. For example if someone has a phobia of women, I'm not gonna assume its just a natural occurrence I'm gonna assume that that person has had a atrocious experience with women.

Likewise with society, if mental illness effects so many people, I'm gonna assume some shit is wrong with the world around them. Anxiety, ADHD, depression, none of this is normal and healthy and we shouldn't treat it like it is.

 

[Atatata]

Rather than invented or discovered, I'd say that mental illness is something that's recognized.