Mental Illness or Mental Disease?

(I am Bi-Polar, you will notice I will say us and we a lot.) 

In my opinion, people do not know the difference between mental illness and mental disease. 

They do not understand the issues that go along with both problems and many do not want to.

One difference, with counseling and positive reinforcement mental illness is treatable and you can overcome. Someone who has a breakdown is not necessarily Bi-Polar. All people have difficult issues that have made it hard to cope. I compare mental illness with the Flu. With some counseling…getting back to everyday life can happen, returning to work, having relationships with family and friends, putting a smile on your face means you are indeed happy.

Mental Disease is a different category all together. People who are Bi-Polar or schizophrenic live with their diseases for the rest of their lives. Yes they can get back to living a life, but normal is not a word in the vocabulary of someone with a mental disease. Putting a smile on your face can mean you are hiding from the world that you think the world would be better off without you in it.

Mental disease is controllable if caught in time and if the person is able to chose to get better, sometimes it can take a while before that happens, but it is not curable. 

 A person going through an episode needs more than just counseling. Medications, doctors, and sometimes more drastic measures are needed. Sometimes ECT (electro-convulsive therapy) is needed and can help tremendously, but this disease is life-time, like Type 1 Diabetes.