Okay, so this is an ‘optional activity’, but I thought it might be interesting. One of the questions in my Mental Health Pack (Year 2 section, see how much work I’ve done!) is:
“Ask 3 or 4 people to write down a definition of ‘mental illness'”.
So, I’m grovelling to you, the internet masses to provide me with a definition of mental illness. The idea is to compare them, see where they match, where they don’t, and how accurately they reflect the ‘medical’ opinion of what a mental illness is.
A definition…
A ‘mental illness’ is a behaviour or set of behaviours owned by an individual which deviate significantly from societies perception of what is normal behaviour. This behaviour or set of behaviours should impact upon the individuals ability to function ‘normally’ in society in order to be classified as a mental disorder and should cause distress in the indivdual and or those around them.
I’d have to second Chrisy’s defintion, although mine might be a bit shorter – any observed or inferred behavior judged deviant or immoral. However, her second sentence gives mental health practioners too much credit for recently pulling their heads out of their asses. Being homosexual has no effect on normal social function but was only removed as a disorder from the American Psychological Association’s list in 1974 and that was only by a 58% majority.