Is there any difference anymore between "mental ilnness" and "everyday unhappiness?"?

Question

When I was a boy, when people used the term "mentally ill," they were always referring to someone who was stark raving mad. Nowadays, the meaning of the term has become so broad I can't see any difference between "mental illness" and "everyday unhappiness." Can you?

A third-generation freethinker

Answer 1

Begging the question as to what "normal" actually means, eh?

Everyday unhappiness originates in our expectations. We are taught that we "deserve" to be happy. How exactly did we earn it, eh?

And when we don't get it? What happens then? Disappointment leads to depression, leads to desperation, leads to more disappointment, leads to depression, leads to...

You get the picture. We've all been sold a merry-go-round. Whether we get off the Carousel or not is our choice.

Free your mind, and your happy A$$ will follow..

Answer 2

Please take this question over to the Mental Health section of Yahoo! Answers.  Ask them there about "Dysthymia".  

Take care.

Answer 3

When your "everyday unhappiness" can affect your performance at work and everyday life negatively, when it causes drastic changes in your usual normal behavior then you can call it "mental illness". It all depends on the degree of "unhappiness". All of us suffer from mental illnesses to a degree.

Answer 4

yea, i can. i can go through different mood through out the day and still be mentally sane.  

Answer 5

This is both funny and smart.

If we couldn't profit off of others "mental problems", I guarantee there would be far less, diagnosed, mentally ill people.