The Danger Of The Label “Mental Illness”
The danger of the label ‘mental illness’
The other day I saw a tweet that popped up on my feed about ‘mental illness’ where someone had posted something along the lines of…
“Mental illness is not just depression, anxiety or feeling sad, it’s also…”
and then there was a whole list of things below. For example:
- Fear of abandonment
- Struggling to sleep
- Feeling tired
But, I have an invitation to reconsider that many of the things that people label ‘mental illness’ are not in fact ‘mental illnesses’.
Take the first one on this list, for example, the ‘fear of abandonment’. Now I’m not suggesting that people with a ‘fear of abandonment’ aren’t experiencing real suffering, but I am suggesting it’s NOT a ‘mental illness’.
Think about it this way
I had a guy that came to see me a few weeks ago with a fear of dogs and the reason that he said he was afraid, was because when he was young he’d been attacked by a dog. Since then, any time he saw a dog his brain would go into ‘fright, flight or freeze’ as his system was flooded with adrenaline. This was a typical dog phobia.
But would you say that he was ‘mentally ill’? Would you label his ‘fear of dogs’ as a ‘mental illness’?
I wouldn’t, and the reason why is this…
His brain is doing what it should do!
His brain is a survival mechanism which is good at identifying threat, and all that’s happening is, after being bitten by one, the sight, sound and feelings of ‘dog’ are being responded to as a threat. It’s a learned response.
However that’s NOT ‘mental illness’! There are no chemical imbalances, or pathological causes for this response.
So if someone says, I have a ‘fear of abandonment’, it’s the same thing. They are not necessarily suffering with a ‘mental illness’. They may simply have a learned response that being abandoned doesn’t feel good, and so their body responds to this unpleasantly. But again, a learned response demonstrating your brain’s perfectly reasonable protective mechanism doesn’t equate to ‘mentally illness or disease’.
Avoiding The ‘Mental Illness’ Frame
Increasingly, I see this ‘mental illness’ label being touted around all over the place, and whilst I’m not unsympathetic to the very real suffering someone might have with a ‘fear of abandonment’, I think we should avoid buying into the ‘mental illness’ frame unnecessarily.
If people are too free to label themselves as ill or diseased then it disempowers them. They thing that either nothing can be done or medication must be the ONLY solution.
Now hypnotherapy and rapid-changeWork can be very useful at helping people to change all sorts of unhelpful learned responses but if you are thinking… “but does hypnotherapy really work?” Then check out my blog that explains how it works and what it is.
#hypnotherapy #hypnosis #rapidchangeworks #fearofabondment #mentalillness
Would you like to explore how hypnotherapy and rapid change can help you to overcome an unhelpful learned response? If so, then schedule your FREE 15-min initial chat where we can explore how this can work for you.
About Howard Cooper
Howard Cooper is one of Britain’s leading ‘Rapid Change’ consultants and Hypnotherapists. Known for helping people to create RAPID shifts in their thinking, Howard rejects the notion that deep and lasting change needs to take a long time.
Drawing on a variety of psychological tools, Howard has supported more than 2,500 individuals over the past 15 years on an international level, regularly bringing about transformational changes to their lives.
His practical, dynamic and innovative approach has helped people from all walks of life and ages overcome intrusive personal phobias, anxieties and issues that they have often suffered from for years, offering his clients a new lease of life.
In addition to his personal therapy work, Howard is a very popular and entertaining presenter on a range of topics relevant to society today and has a huge following amongst his peers through his podcast.
He spent almost two years as the lead psychological presenter on Virgin Atlantic’s critically acclaimed ‘Flying Without Fear’ course, and also appeared as the expert on fear of flying on Channel 4’s documentary ‘Fear of Flying: Caught on Camera’.
He has also contributed to other media appearing on the BBC, in The Daily Telegraph, Daily Express, Sun, CEO Magazine, just some of the media who have documented his successful ability to help people change quickly.