Here’s a perspective (more a response to the DeBoer article than this one) which I find helpful and which I think not enough people acknowledge:
Neurodivergence (view that mental disorders are a form of human variation that should be celebrated), medicalization (view that they are diseases, much like physical diseases), and personal responsibility (view that they are caused by personal choices) are all lenses which need to coexist in order to explain mental illness.
ADHD is probably the cleanest example because all three lenses truly apply. For many people with ADHD, it’s who they are, and there are aspects of it that they wouldn’t want to change. It’s also a condition which often needs medication to be managed properly. Plus, (in my experience with loved ones) it’s impossible for people with ADHD to function unless they are trying to take responsibility for their actions.
For most disorders, you need at least two lenses. You can’t fully understand alcoholism unless you acknowledge that both personal responsibility and a medical condition (“substance use disorder”) play a roll. Ditto anxiety and depression.
> personal responsibility (view that they are caused by personal choices)
I have interpreted and see personal responsibility as the affected person being responsible for managing the issues. Not as the issues being caused by themselves. E.g., it is not your fault you have it, you did not caused it, but you are responsible for learning strategies or taking drugs to manage issue to the possible extend.
Neurodivergence (view that mental disorders are a form of human variation that should be celebrated), medicalization (view that they are diseases, much like physical diseases), and personal responsibility (view that they are caused by personal choices) are all lenses which need to coexist in order to explain mental illness.
ADHD is probably the cleanest example because all three lenses truly apply. For many people with ADHD, it’s who they are, and there are aspects of it that they wouldn’t want to change. It’s also a condition which often needs medication to be managed properly. Plus, (in my experience with loved ones) it’s impossible for people with ADHD to function unless they are trying to take responsibility for their actions.
For most disorders, you need at least two lenses. You can’t fully understand alcoholism unless you acknowledge that both personal responsibility and a medical condition (“substance use disorder”) play a roll. Ditto anxiety and depression.