One of the more useful books I've read on the topic of mental illness is Adventures in Psychiatry by Dr. Abram Hoffer, a research scientist and medical doctor. He did the first double-blind studies of using vitamins to treat schizophrenia in the 1950s. He gave LSD to an architect to help the architect understand what patients may experience, so as to make the design of a clinic better. Those are just two examples of interesting things he did in his life.
The book can be hard to find on Amazon, or in brick-and-mortar book stores, but it can be ordered from the International Schizophrenia Foundation http://www.isfmentalhealth.org/resources/booksfilm/
The ISF also has resources on other types of mental illness from an orthomolecular medicine perspective. I realize that the orthomolecular approach is controversial, but I think that it helps at least some of the people who experience mental health problems, and I think it is not just a placebo. That said, I don't think it has a complete picture of what the problems are and how to fix them. No one in the world has that yet, that I am aware of.
I'm not sure if this falls within the type of discussion you want to start, but I thought I'd give the book recommendation, and point out that there is another option for people with mental illness to look into besides talk therapy and prescription drugs.
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.