Medical illnesses target our bodies. Psychiatric illnesses target our selves. Psychiatric disorders, even when understood as disorders of the brain, strike us directly where we live – where we think, feel, and make decisions. Although in recent decades psychiatry has moved further into the mainstream of general medicine, the fact that psychiatric diseases go to the heart of who we are has a profound impact on how these disorders are experienced both by the affected persons and by those around them. Moreover, psychiatric practice differs in significant ways from general medical practice and likely is unfamiliar to many people. For these reasons, psychiatric illness remains a special case, with its own particular features, warranting separate consideration.

Recognizing Psychiatric Disorders

Many psychiatric diagnoses have entered into everyday language and daily use. We now commonly speak of our own – or someone else's – “ADD” or “OCD” or “mania” or “narcissistic personality” or “panic attacks.” Our culture has become saturated with popular psychiatry, and we have become a self-diagnosing people. It is important not to jump to conclusions that you or someone else has a psychiatric illness based on a single symptom or a unique experience, or on what you hear on radio or TV, or what you read in a magazine or on the Internet.

For example, everyone experiences difficulty with concentration and attention at times. That does not mean they have attention deficit disorder.