Mental Illness

Question 1

What is mental illness?

Answer 1

Alterations in thinking, mood, or behaviour associated with significant distress or impaired functioning.

• Often feared, stigmatized, and treated as though it is statistically unusual
• Some behaviours associated with mental illness are ‘deviant’ in that they are unexpected and disruptive

Question 2

Mental health deviants have levels of

Answer 2

distress and disorder that go beyond the observed general population

Question 3

Who develops mental illness?

Answer 3

20% of adults in any given year

By age 40, half of Canadians have had a mental disorder

Prevalence varies across social groups
- e.g LGBTQ+, Indigenous Canadians, radicalized Canadians, immigrant populations, refugees, and ethnocultural communities, as well as first responders

Question 4

Etiology of mental illness

Answer 4

• Genetic factors
• Biological factors
• Psychological factors
• Social factors

Question 5

The work of being mentally ill

Answer 5

• Relationships with others
• Relationships with helping professionals
• Managing the “gaze”