Hmm, I think, first of all it would be necessary to have a definition of "mental illness".

Most people - I would even say especially therapists - have a few "issues" that can from a medical point of view be diagnosed as mental illness. Yet, they live productive lives. Quite a few people in the mental health field has been influenced by mental illness as described in the medical model as well.

Is anyone who takes meds for anxiety or depression mentally ill? How about folks that deal with transient experiences that can be categorized as an anxiety disorder, adjustment disorder, or trauma related disorder? Are they mentally ill? How about folks who are depressed due to environmental influences, are they mentally ill? Havent we all dealt with issues like that at some point in our lives?

Just last weekend I was in a situation where by the end of the weekend I was sleep deprived, exhausted, overly excited and anxious. I then had to go and cook a big dinner for a family get together. I love cooking and it has the comfortable rythm of something I do well and something I do habitually. Not surprisingly cooking the dinner made me feel significantly less overwhelmed and probably allowed me to sleep much more relaxed than if I had stayed in that overwhelmed state of mind. That is the exact same effect though that people with obsessive compulsive disorder deal with. The desire to do something repetitive as a way to deal with anxiety. People with OCD take that function quite a bit further than I did, but I can certainly understand the OCD frame of mind just using my own every day experience.

In my mind people who are mentally ill takes experiences or thought processes we all understand to a bit of an further extreme. Finding the root of the things we would all understand is part of a good therapist's job.

For instance most people can understand wondering if "they are talking about me" in some situations. A psychotic person might take that a bit further and be absolutely convinced "they are talking about me, and I can hear it in my head". While the psychotic experience seems outside of the "normal" realm I bet we can all relate to the nervousness about being talked about.

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