May I ask a stupid question? How do people find out they are mentally ill? Obviously, I mean the not too severe cases. Let's take this GAD or tamer panic thing. During your childhood and youth you have reactions that people call "timid", "nervous", high strung" or "cowardly", depending on the situation and on them. I see four possible courses there.
A)One is you don't give a damn, you just accept it. It makes you less than happy but why would you ever expect to be happy? So you just accept some aspect of your life sucks.
There are two possible sub-courses here. As it is hard to put up with suffering in the long run A1) you can end up with self-medicating with drugs or booze A2) you become a "compensation monster", constantly climbing rocks and suchlike to show yourself and others you are not timit or not a coward.
B) You hate yourself for it, because you consider yourself screwed up and less worthy than others, but you don't realize this is something doctors may be able to fix, because you are used to people being very judgemental about this. I.e. instead of seeing someone who needs help, they see a person who is a bad and should feel bad.
C) You realize (or maybe your parents did) that it is fixable by doctors. This is obviously the best solution although A2 is doable too, but how do people get to this?
Just yesterday, I had a little shock, my wife told me that things like me being unable to dance coordinatedly, beat out a simple drum rythm, or draw beyond kindergarten level, or even to write cursive readably, is not simply "ha ha I am clumsy" thing but probably a childhood neurological, neuromotoric (or maybe ADHD) development issue and if my parents paid attention and seeked help it may have been fixable .I am still dealing with this idea that I am not simply clumsy but in a certain sense "ill".
To me the whole thing is a bit confusing. I associate illnesses with people being in bed and having fever. To understand other conditions as not screwed-upness, inadequacies, things other kids point a finger at and laugh because you are worse than them, but as medical conditions, is quite new for me.
The brain is an organ. Like any other organ, things can go wrong. It's becoming the consensus that mental illness is caused by imbalances of hormones and similar things. Dopamine and serotonin in particular. It's an invisible illness, though, and so sometimes it's hard for people to take it seriously. Parents who don't think of "clumsy kid" as a potential problem might just assume they'll grow into their limbs. That's what people thought clumsiness in childhood was for a while- uneven growth that would eventually normalize.
People normally find ...
For a site extremely focused on fixing bad thinking patterns, I've noticed a bizarre lack of discussion here. Considering the high correlation between intelligence and mental illness, you'd think it would be a bigger topic.
I personally suffer from Generalized Anxiety Disorder and a very tame panic disorder. Most of this is focused on financial and academic things, but I will also get panicky about social interaction, responsibilities, and things that happened in the past that seriously shouldn't bother me. I have an almost amusing response to anxiety that is basically my brain panicking and telling me to go hide under my desk.
I know lukeprog and Alicorn managed to fight off a good deal of their issues in this area and wrote up how, but I don't think enough has been done. They mostly dealt with depression. What about rational schizophrenics and phobics and bipolar people? It's difficult to find anxiety advice that goes beyond "do yoga while watching the sunrise!" Pop psych isn't very helpful. I think LessWrong could be. What's mental illness but a wrongness in the head?
Mental illness seems to be worse to intelligent people than your typical biases, honestly. Hiding under my desk is even less useful than, say, appealing to authority during an argument. At least the latter has the potential to be useful. I know it's limiting me, and starting cycles of avoidance, and so much more. And my mental illness isn't even that bad! Trying to be rational and successful when schizophrenic sounds like a Sisyphusian nightmare.
I'm not fighting my difficulties nearly well enough to feel qualified to author my own posts. Hearing from people who are managing is more likely to help. If nothing else, maybe a Rational Support Group would be a lot of fun.