Mental illnesses are real. But the construct of “mental illness” isn’t. There is no such thing as an “illness” that is completely psychological in nature, ie. only “caused by thoughts and behaviours”.
What are called mental illnesses belongs into three broad categories instead:
Biological Illnesses
Many “mental” illnesses are genuine biological illnesses that have been shunned from fields such as neurology and stigmatised by calling them mental.
Ie. Schizophrenia (part genetic, several brain changes), Bipolar (genetic, HPA axis dysregulation + structural signs), Major depressive disorders etc. I’d like to remind that many genuine illnesses that dont even affect the brain were called mental illnesses before we fully figured the pathology out. From peptic ulcer to lupus.
difficult living conditions manifesting through changes in behaviour
ie. Some cases of anxiety disorder (maybe its normal to be anxious in the case you’re living, ie. stressful 9-5 with lots of responsibilities), reactive depression (it isn’t a mental illness to be depressed when your spouse dies, its completely normal)
Normal behaviours that society chooses to brand as deviant
ie. Gender dysphoria is not a mental illness, it is NORMAL, Same thing as homosexuality was called a mental illness in the past
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My understanding of schizophrenia, as someone who has it, is that it’s a disorder affecting primarily the brain but we understand it very poorly. Even clinically, we’re more or less throwing darts at a board when it comes to treating the illness. What we have now works, more or less, but there are new theories emerging to support different potential treatment avenues. I’m really looking forward to seeing where that research goes. In any case, though, given that its primary effects are mental, I think it’s safe to call it a “mental illness.”
Yeah “everything psychological is biological” is the first thing they teach you in psychology class. Nothing unpopular about that opinion.
That’s only in some schools of thought of psychology.
There are plenty of praticing psychologists and psychiatrists (some of my colleagues) who genuinely believe and publish research along the lines of “all mental illness are caused by thoughts and behaviours”. Research that in my opinion is heavily flawed, but still published and peer reviewed, so a lot of people in the field think this way.
Working on my dissertation titled “Bipolar disorder? Just think better, stupid”.
Yeah thats how it sounds to me 😂
Its patient blaming all the way in my (non-official) opinion
Thoughts and behaviour are biological though. They both are caused by biological processes and they cause biological results.
More like “good intention but not informed at all” opinion
As a neurologist (specialising in post-viral illness) I don’t have the expertise to comment on points 2 and 3 of your post, but point one is completely correct.
OP has zero education and work experience in the field but that didn’t stop them!
unpopular opinion is not the same thing as academic literature lol makes sense.
Though I found the points to be well thought it (if not clearly written in a rush).
Also to be fair given the post, they could likely be a med student or something. Most people aren’t aware of the specific biological factors they listed nor some of the conditions, as OP used some medical terminology not often seen used by layman.
Mental illnesses are real. But the construct of “mental illness” isn’t. There is no such thing as an “illness” that is completely psychological in nature, ie. only “caused by thoughts and behaviours”.
I don’t think any reputable person believes that mental illness is just “in the mind”. Of course there’s a physical aspect to it, there’s literally a physical aspect to everything about us.
There is no “soul”, or some ephemeral “something” that makes us us. Our memories are nothing more than synapses making connections to each other. Our emotions are a series of biochemical and hormonal reactions as a response to stimuli from other people and our environment. There is no part of being human that isn’t physiological, including mental illness.