Are mental disorders and mental illnesses the same thing?

Question

For school I have to write an essay about mental illnesses and mental disorders. The assignment looks like we are supposed to write about some of each. But when I look them up a lot of them are the same. For instance, Autism is on both lists. Is there a difference or are they the same thing. How can I determine the difference if there is one?

Answer 1

Mental illnesses are medical conditions that disrupt a person’s thinking, feeling, mood, ability to relate to others, and daily functioning.

Mental illnesses are biologically based brain disorders.  They cannot be overcome through "will power" and are not related to a person's "character" or intelligence.

Mental disorders fall along a continuum of severity. There is depression, moderately depressed, severally depressed, and clinically depressed. All are depression, but each one is a little more severe than the one before it.

Even though mental disorders are widespread in the population, the main burden of illness is concentrated in a much smaller proportion — about 6 percent, or 1 in 17 Americans — who suffer from a serious mental illness.

So, you can think of a disorder as the name of some thing that some one has, ie Schizophrenia or bipolar. And illness as when someone is extremely affiliated with a disorder.

Think about your feet. If you have a bunion, you have a disorder. If you have a broken toe, you have an illness.

I hope that this helps.

Answer 2

They are the same thing the terminology changes throughout time.  Same is true for behavioral health illness it is just the way it is worded.