1 In 5 Americans With Mental Illness, National Survey

[hunter]

5. Many would not be "ill" in a gentle society.

"Eccentric" maybe, but not "ill."

Much mental illness is a consequence of inhumane and toxic social conditions; it's an environmental disease just like lead poisoning.

Some mental illnesses are related to other health problems -- poor nutrition, lack of exercise, chronic inflammatory diseases...

Some mental illnesses are just mental illnesses -- simple "brain chemistry" problems that can be treated with medicine, or tangled and confused thought processes that can be treated with "talk therapy" and other non-pharmaceutical methods. Sometimes it's a combination of both.

My own most serious mental health issues seem to be entirely chemical and unrelated to my social environment. While I take meds I'm functional in bad situations or good situations. When I don't take meds I visit a very dark place where I'm driven almost entirely by my obsessions and paranoia. Talk therapy has been helpful to me when cleaning up the wreckage of my non-medicated misadventures, but it's useless to me without meds. It's the same with other non-pharmaceutical approaches such as meditation. When I take my meds I'm somewhat functional. When I don't take my meds I'm not functional.