• Question: Do you think there are more mental illnesses that have not yet been discovered?

    Asked by anon-290044 to Marjorie, Luan, Harry, Ellen, Abi on 24 Mar 2021.
    • Photo: anon

      anon answered on 24 Mar 2021:

      Hi,
      I am actually going to have to say the opposite and say that there are less mental illnesses now and possibly keep declining.
      Things that our perceived as mental illnesses as a break from societies norms often change and become normalised. Things like being gay was a mental illness up until 1973! There are also other disorders like ‘drapetomania’ where back when slavery was rife in 1850s they called slaves wanting to escape as mentally ill!
      Also our understanding of some mental health issues has also improved. In the dark ages those who we would probably label is schizophrenic now where called witches, or even prior to that they did something called ‘trepanning’ where they drilled holes in their heads to release demons.
      Who knows where our understanding of mental illness will be in 20, 50 or even 100 years!

    • Photo: Harry Piper

      Harry Piper answered on 25 Mar 2021:

      I’m not sure! But I would say that the criteria for conditions change over time and some things may come in under new names and other new things might be introduced or old things got rid of. For example, I think the condition that was known as seasonal affective disorder may have been removed from the DSM-V but I’m sure this is a constantly changing field!

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