Excuse me?

[conuly]

But playtime isn't always this carefree, because Taylor is one of the thousands of children across America who struggle with mental illnesses. Taylor has been diagnosed with a bipolar disorder, attention-deficit (hyperactivity) disorder, hyperactivity and Asperger syndrome, a form of autism.

None of these things are classified as mental illnesses. That's because they aren't illnesses, of any sort, least of all the "mental" kind, which tends to imply insanity.

Comments

[mortaine.livejournal.com]

Interesting; as I said, I'm a word person, rather than a psych person, so my definitions are based on how the language is used commonly, not how a controversial psychiatrist thinks they should be used.

But the article raises a valid and important point about how language is used as a strategy for social manipulation. I still believe that bipolar disorder is a mental illness, because it's usually caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain, but I certainly acknowledge that the way I described some other mental ailments as being "messy" at best.

I also stand by the way I've defined the terms as being in fairly common usage, whether or not they're accurate or politically correct according to Dr. Szasz.

[goddess588.livejournal.com]

The DSM-IV-R (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, revised) is a text that we use at work for diagnosing Mental Disorder - I'm a psychiatric nurse - so forgive me for looking at this from a purely medical model. Bi-polar Affective Disorder is a mental disorder, as is Schizophrenia. I can't remember offhand if ADHD or Aspergers is included in the DSM-IV, but we have had committed patients (patients under the Mental Health Act) with a primary diagnosis of Aspergers, and to be under the MHA the person must be mentally disordered within the meaning of mental disorder (AND constitute a danger to themselves or others or their ability to look after themselves be severely compromised). So I figure that Aspergers is a mental disorder.