"Redefining Mental Illness"

FB: short and important description of changes in how mental illness is described and studied by the British Psychological Association and the NIH - moving away from assuming that these classically defined disorders are distinct and absolute or even real, and instead seeing them as common traits that can be experienced on a continuum 

"The report says that there is no strict dividing line between psychosis and normal experience: “Some people find it useful to think of themselves as having an illness. Others prefer to think of their problems as, for example, an aspect of their personality which sometimes gets them into trouble but which they would not want to be without.”

...And the report says that it is “vital” that those who suffer with distressing symptoms be given an opportunity to “talk in detail about their experiences and to make sense of what has happened to them” — and points out that mental health services rarely make such opportunities available.

...Our current diagnostic system — the main achievement of the biomedical revolution in psychiatry — drew a sharp , clear line between those who were sick and those who were well, and that line was determined by science. The system started with the behavior of persons, and sorted them into types. That approach sank deep roots into our culture, possibly because sorting ourselves into different kinds of people comes naturally to us."

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/18/opinion/sunday/t-m-luhrmann-redefining-mental-illness.html?referrer&_r=2

There is so much to discuss here - This is such an important and different perspective, and it makes me think about how often we approach things with understandings developed incorrectly centuries ago. And the NIH changes are super exciting, the piece about not finding biologically distinct characteristics is exactly what is confusing and difficult about studying these "disease states". Genetic studies show such overlap, disease models created with genetic or environmental conditions have so much overlap (it's really hard to make a mouse that has depression but not anxiety or vice verse)