In certain quarters much is made of some illnesses being ‘severe’ while others are not. Whilst seeing that some illnesses may be more debilitating than others are we placed to say which fall into severe or non severe categories when even the so called experts have different criteria for thus categorising.
A number of definitions of SMI confine SMI to certain diagnoses ie bipolar and schizophrenia spectrum diagnoses but perhaps that oversimplifies things.
For example I know several people with a schizophrenia spectrum diagnosis that function considerably better than me.
For me it comes down to functioning irrespective of diagnosis and symptoms. I accept that others’ mileage may differ on this.
right, I agree it comes down to functioning. Some good days some bad days, good thoughts/bad thoughts, good will hopefully win but bad will be right there in second place no matter what
I suppose it all depends on the individual. Like how some schizophrenics can function, work, raise families, and others with same diagnosis end up on the street. Everyone is different, all brains are different.
I am not qualified to comment on what is severe though.
I would say that anyone with sz or sza (or any sort of psychotic illness) undeniably has a severe MI, even those who function relatively well, but there certainly are grey areas when it comes to non-psychotic MI. I may function well enough to work and support myself (though not well), but people don’t often see the hell I go through in my struggle to do that, so to suggest that those who are “high functioning” are not severe is quite a mistake.
I know how it’s traditionally viewed, but I don’t think of myself as “severely” mentally ill. I am much more high-functioning that several of my friends who have depression. I don’t think anyone can really refer to any one disease as being severe or not. It all depends on the individual, and their own specific experience with their disease.