About Re-Conceptualizing Mental Illness

I've been thinking about the nomenclature and connotations of "Mental Illness" a lot lately. The way mental illnesses, eating disorders, and the like are framed have bothered me for a long time. I remember my first uproar about it was in Psych 101 years ago when my professor said that having an eating disorder (as well as depression, suicidal thoughts, bipolar, etc.) was biological rather than environmental. While I can easily admit that eating disorders run in my family, I had always believed that it was my father's constant scrutiny about weight and looks that launched me into those scarring habits.

I remember going to talk to him after class and arguing a bit. I didn't explain that it was from experience, but I knew he could tell. I was especially frustrated because it was something I had quit and believed to be recovered from. He said that environmental factors could trigger it, but it was generally accepted that there was a biological component to it. He furthermore suggested that people never truly recovered. I disagreed.

Now, having explored the depths of the brain fairly heavily during my masters program, I disagree even more. Not only is there a continuously growing amount of evidence of neuroplasticity in adults, but there are a plethora a beautiful studies done about re-training addictive pathways through yoga and meditation. The more I studied neuroscience, the more I thrived on being able to intertwine it with spirituality. This particular field has the ability to give evidence for things that have been known not only in spiritual communities but in our own core intuitions for thousands of years.

You have to believe you can change, or you never will.

Okay, so let's unpack this more. I am not going to throw out biology; this is not my intention at all. I rather want to show and encourage people to see that our society is an environmental trigger for these issues. The doctors tell us we're depressed, anxious, and reactive because it runs in our family, but I'm telling you that this runs in everyone's family, and rather, it is the not dealing with issues both internally and externally that compounds this biological response. It is that we don't have the resources whether physical like money or homes, or mental like counseling or stability. This inherent societal lack and repression of acceptance of this reality that causes us to feel like outcasts or drown in hopelessness.

I am a big fan of epigenetics, and the truth is, if toxins in the air trigger certain toxic amino chain reactions (aka diseases) that manifest and get passed on, and chronic stress creates lasting immune problems, why in goodness are we denying that the way society is structured is the reason we are triggered into these mental disorders?

That's why I don't like the use of "Illness" in terms of a disease of the body/mind because I think it inherently puts the blame on the person. "You are sick." Yes, perhaps, but that's not the root cause, the root is that we are sick, the world is sick.

We need to stop creating a cycle of blame and powerlessness behind mental health because it takes the spotlight away from the true issues of getting the resources we deserve and re-structuring our society.