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In reply to the discussion: Please do not over react or react badly to so many of us [View all]Roy Rolling
(7,639 posts)Okay, you've hit my soapbox issue. I have a son, graduated with two college degrees, functioning normally, who now is the victim of a grave and disabling brain disease.
Yes, a brain disease. There is no "MENTAL" in the anatomy textbooks. Brain diseases sometimes produce behavioral disorders (as do a few other diseases). But you can't treat MENTAL.
The word MENTAL conveys the disease a patient is afflicted with is "all in their head" and controllable by some act of will. That is not the case. Brain diseases most often have organic origins and all the willpower in the world (and medication) cannot control the symptoms.
So, one day an enlightened society will name such afflictions BRAIN DISEASE and not MENTAL ILLNESS, and refer to such patients in a more clinically accurate way.