Who can tell who is mentally ill?

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Sometimes I think that´s not really such thing as mental illness. The whole world is messed up.

My uncle is mentally ill. Trust me it's real.

Define 'Mentally Ill'?

Dealing with people who are completely disconnected from reality can be a very scary thing. My mother went through a bout once of extreme paranoia, and thought my dad was trying to kill her. We ended up in a battered women's shelter for a week, and left the state for a couple weeks. That was just a brief episode, so I can't imagine how it would be on a regular basis.

Mental illness is all too real, and just about everyone will have it at some point in their lives. Depression is the so-called "common cold" of mental illness.

[opinion=mine]

It may depend on the type and degree of the illness.

Simple depression? A clinical psychiatrist, perhaps.

Schizophrenia? A well-educated layperson, maybe.

Homicidal mania with paranoid delusions? Anyone within range who can run, I hope.

[/opinion]

The only meaningful answer.

Ultimately, "mentally ill" is a label, and it's used in certain conditions, typically if there's a deviation from the norm (which isn't a static or well-defined thing) in someone's behavioral and thinking patterns. There are certain deviations that are more acceptable to many people (mostly because they are confused with something good, for example sociopathy with "drive" and "ambition" and "leadership") and other deviations that are largely harmless but demonized (mostly because people don't understand it and are afraid of it).

Oh trust me. It's real. When you've lost control and lost touch of reality and don't remember things that happened that supposedly happened, you're well aware that it's real, and it's more than just "weirdness"

Most of the time, people can't work it out. I've learnt to somewhat "act" if I have to go out and deal with people, and mostly, I just avoid them anyway on my bad days. Heck, when I'm that depressed. there's no way I'm leaving house. If I do, I'm sure people work it out. I turned up to school one morning with a hoody pulled over my pajamma top and the first pair of jeans I could find that were on the floor. People noticed that day that I wasn't really with it. And people begin to notice when I'm hypomanic. How can they not? Whether they think anything of it, or whether they think I'm just hyper, I don't know. On the street? No, someone would definatley not be able to tell I had bipolar disorder. A couple of hours? Again, no, I can usually hide it somehow, and the mood swings don't happen as fast as everyone thinks. But the people who see me on a day to day basis realize my mood is "up and down" a lot.

I know what you mean. Many people who are diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder may habe problems, but are not "crazy" in that sence that they wouldn't know what they do. People who are extremly mentally disturped are not that common, most have some proplems and are more in the gray area between "crazy" and "normality".

Were people really loose touch with reality is in a psychosis, but luckily many with a psychosis have just one or random psychotic episodes, but for some people, they suffer from a loss of reality on a daily basis and never return.

Mental illness on the other hand is also up to some degree culturally based. In the past also homosexuality or slaves who run away were considered as mentally ill. It's also used as a controlling instance of the society.

Unfortunately, no.

There was a mentally ill guy in the news awhile ago who decapitated someone on a bus. His victim was asleep when it happened, but witnesses say he seemed perfectly calm, and then all of a sudden he attacked the guy.

How could there not be mental illness considering the state of the world? Though it seems a lot of mentally ill people are a lot more sane than the 'sane' people.

And how do you know he was mentally ill, did you actually look into it or just listen to whatever the mainstream media said? I was on a greyhound bus at the time, not that one but my mom got worried when she heard about it.....even so is there proof he was mentally ill because non mentally ill people can commit murder as well.

The problem is, when a psychiatrist says that he is mentally ill, than he officially is but there is no objective test to proof that.

In general terms, "psychopathology" is considered a preferred descriptor. "Psychosis", for instance, is a more specific descriptor for the presence of delusions or hallucinations. Thus, if an individual claims to be the King of America because he sincerely believes that his frying pan told him so, then it is safe to say that the person is likely to have some form of psychosis, which is a description of his psychopathology.

In legal terms, it is the "Preponderance of Evidence" presented in a court of law by licensed and trained mental-health professionals that enables a judge to issue a decree of "Mental Incompetence" ("Non-Compos Mentis") against the frying-pan man. This decree enables the State to intervene on behalf of the man, and assign to him a care-giver and/or a social worker. The court may also assign general power of attorney to a relative or lawyer to make sure that his rights are protected, and to act on his behalf in all legal matters.

Ideally, that's how it is supposed to work.

In reality, only the wealthy or those with large, extended families are likely to receive the care and supervision they need; and even then, people often escape their care-givers and lose themselves (or their lives) among the homeless. Some even commit suicide or engage in risky behavior that ends their lives the moment that their care-givers' backs are turned.

Mental illness is a construct. People have to define what it is in order for it to be meaningful. The most effective way we know is to have experts in the relevant field(s) decide and agree for us all what is mental illness and what is not and then abide by these criteria.

The court ruling was 'not guilty by reason of insanity'.