I believe the definition of a mental illness is something which negatively psychologically affects the person's quality of life, or cause them to exhibit behaviour which presents a risk to themselves or others.
Sounds right to me.
I don't buy into the argument those with gender dysphoria commit suicide purely because of society's prejudice against them. I've read studies which show this, but I doubt someone who doesn't have a mental illness consider suicide, when subject to the same level of prejudice.
I think it depends on how severe the pestering is. Humans can be very cruel and psychologically and physically mistreat someone to the extend that the person in question takes his own life, just to be freed from it. Don't have percentages here. And don't think it is just adults, children can be very cruel too.
When I suffered from an eating disorder anorexia nervosa, I used to get all sorts of comments about how thin I was, that I had to eat more, that I have aids, etc. These comments really did upset me and had a truly negative impact on my well-being. Looking back, I know full well it was my fragile state of mind, which made the comments hurt, more than anything else. I'm lean at the moment, but not sickly thin and I do get the odd skinny comment, but it doesn't bother me. Incidentally anorexia has a much higher fatality rate, than gender dysphoria and it's mostly due to suicide, rather than starvation. I know an eating disorder isn't the same as gender dysphoria, but it does have a commonality: the with feeling uncomfortable in one's own body.
Glad that you where able to overcome it.
I can somewhat relate with you here. I did not suffer from anorexia nervosa, but from age 17 to ~45 I weight 59 kilo and I'm 1m81 tall. I have also heard the same comments many times. But I could eat what I wanted and did not gain weight. After age 45 I started to gain some weight to about 69 kilo, but I started to feel uncomfortable. That was also around the time I started to notice some symptoms like shortness of breath and loosing strength. I went to a cardiologist to have it checked out. There is a history of heart disease in my family. The cardiologist could not find anything wrong (except for a total block right in the electrocardiogram) and had me do a stress test, after which he gave the advice to start walking on a daily basis. This we did, and I also changed my diet. Quit drinking coca cola (~2L per day), stopped eating these mini chocolate bars, etc. Now I weigh 63 kilo, and still people tell me I'm to thin.
But the symptoms did not go away and only got worse and others came up, like pain in the knees, back pain, headaches. X-rays, a cat-scan and a MRI revealed nothing. Blood tests showed nothing out of the ordinary. Very frustrating. Even the wife though I was faking to no longer have to work on the build. Eventually in 2018 I visited a rheumatologist and he concluded "chronic fatigue syndrome" with the emphasis on fibromyalgia.
He prescribed antidepressants in a low dosage. It would make me sleep better. I never had problems sleeping, but he. In the beginning it looked liked it was helping, but after 8 or 9 months it returned to what it was before, even after upping the dosage as advised by the doctor. Then I tried magnesium-oil with the same results. Then I tried CBD oil. Went up to the highest recommended dosage, but it did nothing for me. Found information about a new study about it possibly being an imbalance between GABA and glutamate. Had a blood test done, which showed normal levels, but later learned it concerns the imbalance in the brain and not the blood, but the tests for this are not yet available
Tried GABA supplements anyway, but again no dice.
So I have to learn to live with it. Not easy, but I'm getting there.
Here, about a third of university students require a bit of help from student health mental services, because of the stress and such. "Mental illness" itself isn't any different from say having a compound fracture: in ages past it might have meant that you were out of hope, but we can do better now. And no, I'm not talking about "just eat this pill and you'll be fine"; I mean things like therapy, which should be considered the same as physical therapy after a serious injury.
The proper idea is not to make you feel better, but to make you strong enough to carry whatever burden you have.
In some strange way, it is this last sentence that seems to stick in peoples minds as somehow offensive, even though it is ultimately liberating: you are, whatever and however you are, already good enough: all you need is some strength to keep yourself healthy, and perhaps interact in a more worthwhile manner with others.
Instead, people are increasingly looking toward having their own tribe, and rejecting –– even literally fighting against –– the "others".
Just consider what "normal" typically means: "like people in my tribe", or "like the people who rejected me from their tribe".
Nowadays the danger of stress is much more known, and not so much looked upon as back in the day.
I had a "burn out" in 1990 at age ~27. Caused by stress. I lived in Delft in a house I was renovating, worked in Amsterdam and in the beginning also went to evening school in Den Haag. Was not good at saying "no" when asked if I could do extra work, so there where times I worked day and night. Being a perfectionist does not help. So at some point in time I was on my way to work, sitting in a train, and something snapped. Got out of the train in Leiden, went to the other track and returned home. Took me almost a year to recover, and was advised to go back to work (Same place as before). Within a year I was near the same point, so I quit. Luckily I received unemployment payment. This time it took two and a half year to get back on track and start my own "company". Did that for 17 years and earned enough money to quit the rat race. And here I'm 10 years further down the line.
I was in luck that the authorities did not make it difficult, but there was no referral to a psychologist. Just my GP who advised me to take up a sport and follow a healthy diet.
Again identity politics is not helping, especially the notion of microagressions which is just gaslighting. Society needs to be more accepting, but part of the treatment should be learning to deal with negative comments, prejudice and accept that your body is never going to be truly the sex you want it to be, irrespective of hormones and surgery. Part of my recovery was dealing with negative comments.
Yes learning to better deal with all the shit society throws at you is best, because lets face it society won't change, at least not so rapid. And with the rise of the internet hate and misinformation is spread much easier.
Watched this one this morning. It is about the "flat earthers" and near the end he tells about how that is splitting up in two groups that start to hate each other. Why do people obsess about this. Does it really matter if it is a disc or a sphere? Does it influence your way of living?
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