The problem with a term like “mental illness”
By Justice St Rain
The problem with a term like “mental illness” is that it implies that there is a line that you can define, with “healthy” on one side and “ill” on the other. In reality, we all live on a spectrum. Each of us faces stress, and each of us has a set of coping skills. If we have more coping skills than stress, then we feel healthy. If we have more stress than coping skills, then we begin to look, act and feel mentally ill – both to ourselves and others.
If we use an “illness” model, then we try to “heal” the “mentally ill” so that they do not threaten us. If we use a stress/coping skills model, then we try to reduce the amount of stress and injustice in the world, and we try to teach EVERYONE as many coping skills as we can. The advantage of this approach is that we can apply it to everyone, and it will make everyone’s life better. Drawing lines and labeling people as “sick” rarely helps anyone.
Of course, there are a few whose stress and biology cause them to break from reality. These are the truly “mentally ill” but they are not the ones we need to be afraid of. The psychotic and delusional are rarely interested in hurting people on our side of reality.
Justice St Rain- Author