
What is mental illness?
Illness
is like the street you've driven down your whole life. So familiar
you've never bothered to look around. We've all experienced illness,
either first-hand or via someone we know, but rarely do we stop to
wonder what it really is.
You might say it's when something mental or physical isn't working as it
should be. But then who is to say how things should be working? This is
easier to answer in relation to physical health, but still tricky.
Pain, a loss of ability, a shortening of life expectancy, perhaps? These
criteria seem far from satisfactory. Pain is highly subjective and can
be triggered by mundane ailments like toothaches or stubbed toes - are
they really illnesses? Loss of ability seems...