As a whole, I do not believe that society views mental illness as a brain disorder. There is much stigma and lack of understanding surrounding mental illness. I like what my colleague says when speaking about mental illness: "It's ok to have a heart disorder - we call that heart disease - or a pancreas disorder - we call that diabetes; why is it not ok to have a brain disorder - mental illness?"
Mental illness as a medical disorder/disease is a relatively new concept for humankind. Centuries past, mental illness was often viewed as demonic possession, and treated as such, usually by exorcisms or 'laying on of hands', depending upon your religious flavor. These methods of treating mental illness have not shown great success. Therefore, to have a mental illness is to feel isolated and defective; the degree to which one who has mental illness feels this shame depends upon their gender and culture of origin. For instance, many more women are treated for depression than men; yet, according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, "Men die by suicide 3.5x more often than women," and "White males accounted for 7 of 10 suicides in 2015." (https://afsp.org/about-suicide/suicide-statistics/) Men are less likely to seek help for depression because, I suppose, it is not manly to feel chronic low self-esteem, experience a decreased inability to function and to enjoy life, suicidal thoughts, and feelings of worthlessness and hopelessness. Men are expected to 'man-up'.
We are all familiar with the person living with schizophrenia who roams the streets, mumbling to herself or shouting out at imaginary figures. Those folks, most of us will say, have a mental illness, or at the very least, they're 'crazy'. How many of us, however, think that there's anything that can be done? How many of us have friends or family who we know are in recovery from schizophrenia or schizo-affective disorder? These folks are roaming the streets too! With the advances in treatment of all mental disorders and mood disorders, many people who are affected by these disorders are able to live relatively normal lives. But because we don't see them much or hear from them, we're not necessarily aware that these people in recovery exist. We only become aware of mental illness when we see the guy on the street shouting, or hear of a murder/suicide or an office shooting on the news. This negative publicity and stigma inhibits people with lived experience of mental illness from sharing their experience.
A very important aspect of mental illness in the United States is that we still are more apt to treat mental illness with incarceration. Because the symptoms of mental illness are often disorderly (and occasionally violent) behavior, our society locks people with mental illness behind bars. I can vouch for the fact that jails and prisons are not conducive to mental health recovery, so as a society we are mis-treating mental illness. However, if the person whom we don't know how to deal with is safely out of sight, they are also safely out of mind.
Fortunately, the tide is turning, albeit slowly. More people are experiencing greater recovery from severe mental illness, and these people, me included, are open and honest about their experiences. It took me nearly half a century to acknowledge and accept all of my mental health issues, and I could not fully recover until I did. I now share my recovery with others through speaking, writing, facilitating support groups, and working 1:1 with my peers. If I did not share with you that I live with 2 mental illnesses, you would not know it; yet I manage my illnesses every day through medication, therapy, support, and practicing healthy life skills. The more people who are in recovery share their stories, the more mental illness will be treated successfully, and the less people will suffer and die.
Namaste
Ken
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