Mental Illness I

As we start talking about some psychiatric issues, the question of mental illness comes up. What exactly is mental illness? Unlike most other diseases, there are no certain diagnostic criteria for mental illness. To diagnose clinical depression, someone has to meet 5 of 9 criteria; this is very different than diagnosing anemia for instance. And what's normal? What's abnormal? Indeed, is a disease like Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADD/ADHD) abnormal? Evolutionarily, humans weren't built to sit in front of computers for hours at a time or to learn at desks in a classroom. As societal norms change, what was once normal may become abnormal. Indeed, different societies have different mental illnesses. We learned that psychiatric abnormality should be focused on questions of the individual's satisfaction and distress as well as ability or inability to engage in satisfactory relationships and function in society.