> Mental illness... is, essentially, when your perception of the world persistently does not agree with the external reality I don’t think that’s correct. I’ve

> Mental illness... is, essentially, when your perception of the world persistently does not agree with the external reality I don’t think that’s correct. I’ve had depression and anxiety my entire life, and I’m well aware that sometimes things aren’t as awful as my mind makes them out to be (and sometimes they are), but the conflict with reality isn’t what fuels my despair and angst. If it were then I think it would be a lot easier for people to just think or reason their way out of the “pit of despair” that is depression. > If that's a correct characterization, is depression really a mental illness? I don’t think it’s useful or helpful to try to define our way out of the problem. Changing the definition of a thing doesn’t really help the people who are suffering and trying to just get out of bed in the morning.