What is mental illness?

Ok mental illness is out in the media again...and now the DSM-V has psychiatrists split 3 ways about what mental illness actually is. Is this a turning point in mental health care?

I write this post with somewhat hesitance. On part, because there's a part of me that feels I need to serve  my standing in the hierarchy of mental health care and watch the 'experts' make a decision - and then my personal need to be respected by medical professionals. So I'm going to put my 'professionalism' on the line and chat about what mental illness means to me.

I can see how diagnoses came to be important as psychiatry developed in the 1900s - and I do believe that they serve a purpose to an extent. I often see how it can be helpful for people to receive a diagnosis - but I also see the other side - when it is really unhelpful...and where a diagnosis begins to define who a person is - resulting in a lesser capacity to make a recovery. Here I'd like to share why I personally do not refer to diagnosis directly - but prefer to work with the whole person.

I truly believe we are all on the spectrum of 'mental illness' or rather mental health. The book, "We are all weird" by Seth Godin - while I have not read it yet - I think will sum it up when I get around to it (see below)!

While we are all on the spectrum of mental health - at varying times we have more resilience and protective factors keeping us going...and sometimes our risk factors are holding us back from living a full life. There are some people with numbers of risk factors - but yet seem to bounce back with no troubles - then there are some with a few risk factors that have difficulty engaging with life. Then there are some with so many risk factors who have never had the opportunity to build on their resilience. What would happen if we looked at building resilience to improve a person's capacity to bounce back from adversity? Did I lose you at risk and protective factors? I can't find any good simplified links that explain the concepts - but will keep looking...or I might just have to write another blog post :)! 

Ultimately, I believe this is what the recovery model is about - and I am really excited that psychiatry is starting to take these elements into practice....and so begins a culture change in the world of mental health...

Maybe it will fit into the Press Play vision?
"A world where creativity, music, culture and collaboration are valued factors in mental health prevention and intervention."