Mental illness and mental health

Mental illness and mental health

Mental illness and mental health are terminologies that are used by psychiatric as well as government professionals. Words that were used in place of these in the past are disability and a sense of well-being, respectively. Having read this week’s assigned chapters, I would not use this terminology since they appear to be concealing something not inherently medical (84). This terminology neither speak the truth nor bring out what one would wish to look at in the psychiatry field. They do not keep us honest, like reclaimed words do (85). This terminology is familiar to most people but not commonly used by the community. The community has come up with words that replace the government and medical terms, some of which act as identity markers (82). The community uses these words that they have come up with because they can easily relate to them.

The word disability is what is used for mental illness, and it brings academic credibility to the various perspectives that we have. I would, therefore, prefer using it for mental illness. The reclaimed words have compelling advantages, the most vital being their aspect of intrinsically fostering and stemming from critical analysis (84). Some reclaimed words are used to normalize what psychiatry views as abnormal (82). Hence, the reclaimed words appear more relatable to common people than professional terms.

The editors and the authors of the textbook would recommend the use of mental health and mental illness because they are terms used by professionals in the government as well as those in the psychiatry field. Editing and authorship are both linked with the professionalism; hence what they would recommend would be professional. Professional terms also sound more acceptable to use than the terms used by the resisting community. For example, some movements bear this terminology like ‘Lothian Mental Health, and the National Mental Health Consumers Association, among many others (86).