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Originally Posted by BlueCrustacean
I'm also noticing a phenomenon where it seems every millennial with a "woke" account on Instagram or Tumblr is bringing attention to "mental illness", when mostly they're referring to depression, anxiety, self hatred and suicidal thoughts. Is it enough to say I have a "mental illness" if I get depressed, have General Anxiety Disorder and bouts of self pity or self hatred? Or is that watering down the term?
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Mental illness as defined: a condition that affects cognition, behavior, and emotion
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2811514/
That includes things such as schizophrenia. So yes, this term would be "watered down".
"Mental health disorder" definition however is under scrutiny and undergoing change - it is more of a concept than a concrete definition. Even at it's basic concept though, a person must be having distress or disability caused specifically by the symptoms, so this - would be slightly more weighted than "most" if not all "mental illnesses".
At any rate, in order to properly diagnose any of the illnesses or disorders, one must either be or see a psychiatrist or have a degree in psychiatry and know the up to date criteria. So, in most cases, when a laymen says "mentally ill, or "has a mental disorder" they are simply speaking because they see behaviors or hearing statements they do not understand from the person in question.