Mental illness denial

Mental illness denial or mental disorder denial is a form of denialism in which a person denies the existence of mental disorders.[1] Both serious analysts[2][3] and pseudoscientific movements[1] question the existence of certain disorders.

Not to be confused with the inability of a person to recognize personal defects, known as anosognosia.
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In psychiatry, insight is the ability of an individual to understand their mental health condition,[4] and anosognosia is the lack of awareness of a mental health condition.[5] Certain psychological analysts argue this denialism is a coping mechanism usually fueled by narcissistic injury.[6]

A minority of professional researchers see disorders such as depression from a sociocultural perspective and argue that the solution to it is fixing a dysfunction in the society, not in the person's brain.[3]

Insight

In psychiatry, insight is the ability of an individual to understand their mental health,[4] and anosognosia is the lack of awareness of a mental health condition.[5]

According to Elyn Saks, probing patient's denial may lead to better ways to help them overcome their denial and provide insight into other issues.[6] Major reasons for denial are narcissistic injury and denialism.[6] In denialism, a person tries to deny psychologically uncomfortable truth and tries to rationalize it.[6] This urge for denialism is fueled further by narcissistic injury.[6] Narcissism gets injured when a person feels vulnerable (or weak or overwhelmed) for some reason like mental illness.[6]

Athletes

Studies show that overtrained athletes can have major depressive disorder[7][8][9][10] but many athletic trainers and psychologists deny this and as a result athletes are not getting proper medical treatment.[11][12] Patients deny existence of depression and blame themselves for their inadequacies and try to overcome their inadequacies which severes the symptoms more.[11] Their denial also acts as an obstacle for biopsychological approach towards overtraining.[11]

Scholarly criticism of psychiatric diagnosis
See also: Anti-psychiatry

Scholars have criticized mental health diagnoses as arbitrary.[13] According to Thomas Szasz, mental illness is a social construct. He views psychiatry as a social control and mechanism for political oppression.[14] Szasz wrote a book on the subject in 1961, The Myth of Mental Illness.[15]

Society

India

Mental illness denial in India is a common problem. Many Indians view mental illnesses as "touchy-feely, new-age hogwash", even though 1 in every 10 Indians have a mental health condition in India.[16]

References
  1. Novella, Steven (24 January 2018). "Mental Illness Denial". ScienceBasedMedicine.org. Retrieved 4 November 2021.
  2. "'Depression' Is a Symptom, Not a Disorder". opmed.doximity.com. Retrieved 2021-12-13.
  3. Escalante, Alison. "Researchers Doubt That Certain Mental Disorders Are Disorders At All". Forbes. Retrieved 2021-12-13.
  4. Marková, Ivana (2005). Insight in psychiatry. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-511-14045-2. OCLC 63814379.
  5. Moro, Valentina; Pernigo, Simone; Zapparoli, Paola; Cordioli, Zeno; Aglioti, Salvatore M. (2011). "Phenomenology and neural correlates of implicit and emergent motor awareness in patients with anosognosia for hemiplegia". Behavioural Brain Research. 225 (1): 259–269. doi:10.1016/j.bbr.2011.07.010. PMID 21777624. S2CID 8389272.
  6. Saks, Elyn R. "Some thoughts on denial of mental illness." American Journal of Psychiatry 166.9 (2009): 972-973. Web. 11 Dec. 2021
  7. Nieman DC. Exercise, upper respiratory tract infection, and the immune system. Med Sci Sport Exerc1994;26:128–39. Web. 11 Dec. 2021
  8. Keizer HA. Neuroendocrine aspects of overtraining. In: Kreider RB, Fry AC, O'Toole ML, eds. Overtraining in sport. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, 1998:145–67. Web. 11 Dec. 2021
  9. Keizer HA, Kuipers H, deHaan J, et al. Effect of a 3-month endurance training program on metabolic and multiple hormonal responses to exercise. Int J Sports Med1987;3:154–60. Web. 11 Dec. 2021
  10. Simon GE, VonKorff M, Piccinelli M, et al. An international study of the relation between somatic symptoms and depression. N Engl J Med1999;341:1329–35. Web. 11 Dec. 2021
  11. Schwenk, T. L. (2000). "The stigmatisation and denial of mental illness in athletes". British Journal of Sports Medicine. 34 (1): 4–5. doi:10.1136/bjsm.34.1.4. PMC 1724145. PMID 10690441. Retrieved 10 December 2021.
  12. Hirschfield RMA, Keller MB, Panico S, et al. The National Depressive and Manic-Depressive Association consensus statement on the undertreatment of depression. JAMA1997;277:333–40. Web. 11 Dec. 2021
  13. Paris, Joel (2020). Overdiagnosis in psychiatry how modern psychiatry lost its way while creating a diagnosis for almost all of life's misfortunes (Second ed.). New York, NY. ISBN 978-0-19-750430-7. OCLC 1147940363.
  14. Benning, Tony (2016). "No such thing as mental illness? Critical reflections on the major ideas and legacy of Thomas Szasz". BJPsych Bulletin. 40 (6): 292–295. doi:10.1192/pb.bp.115.053249. PMC 5353517. PMID 28377805.
  15. Carey, Benedict (11 September 2012). "Dr. Thomas Szasz, Psychiatrist Who Led Movement Against His Field, Dies at 92". The New York Times. Retrieved 4 November 2021.
  16. Bhagat, Chetan (10 October 2020). "Indians are still living in denial about mental health issues". The Times of India. Retrieved 4 November 2021.
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