Reasons to admire people with ‘mental illness’

The term “mental illness” prompts a broad range of feelings: pity, fear, skepticism and so on. As a therapist who works with mentally ill adults, I’d like to suggest a different feeling: admiration.

There is a good bit of confusion surrounding this subject. In the past few years whenever we hear about mental illness in the news, it’s often connected with someone committing a horrific act. Granted, a few mentally ill people have committed heinous crimes, but most people with mental illnesses are honorable people who want the same thing everyone else wants: normal, productive, meaningful lives.

“Mental illness” is a big tent that covers a broad range of disorders. These include mood disorders such as major depression or bipolar disorder, anxiety disorders like social phobia, trauma-related disorders like PTSD, and psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia. There are also personality disorders, addiction-related disorders, and myriad others. According to our diagnostic manual, affectionately known as the DSM, a person is diagnosed with a mental illness when the symptoms cause “clinically significant distress” or “impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.” In other words, the disorder makes them and others around them miserable, affects relationships negatively, or keeps them from being able to hold jobs or do other meaningful activities.

Having a mental disorder zaps energy, destroys healthy motivation, and sometimes even makes a person want to end it all. I sometimes tell the folks I’m working with that to be successful they must do twice as much work with half as much energy.

Mentally ill people by and large did nothing to cause their mental disorders, did not earn them, and do not deserve them. The disorders happen to them, just like physical illnesses happen to people who don’t deserve them. But (as I tell our patients) while it is not their fault, it is their responsibility. It takes a lot of inner strength to function with a mental illness in a society that looks at them with pity, fear, or skepticism. That’s why I admire them.

If you believe you have any of the kinds of disorders I mentioned above, and it is causing you and your loved ones distress, call us at 622-3580. Perhaps we can help.