The definition of mental illness is changing.
Consider schizophrenia.
Schizophrenia may ‘capture’ up to 11% of our population. Oops.
And there’s ample evidence that hallucinations, delusions, reality distortions, unusual magical beliefs and psychosis-like experiences are present in everyone.
“So What Is Mental Illness?”
In essence, there is nothing truly ‘mental’ about a mental disorder.
1) It’s a behavior or pattern occurring in an individual, causing clinically significant distress or impairment, reflecting an underlying physical dysfunction, and is not primarily the result of social deviance or conflicts with society.
2) It’s also not just a response to a stressful event like a friend or family member’s death, where it’s normal to expect someone to appear “depressed” or otherwise disturbed for a period of time.
3) A mental disorder is an underlying psychobiological dysfunction—a physical problems in the brain.