Mental Health: What's Normal, What's Not

Determining what's normal and what's not is tricky. Scientists, researchers and mental health experts have wrestled with the issue for hundreds of years, and even today the line between normal and abnormal is often blurred.

"There's a huge range of what's normal," says Donald E. Williams, Ph.D., a psychologist at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. "But there are also many types of mental disorders — thoughts, feelings or behaviors that are abnormal."

What's normal is often determined by who's defining it. Normalcy is ambiguous and often rooted in value judgments particular to a certain culture or society. And even within cultures, concepts of normalcy may change over time, particularly if influenced by evolving societal values or expectations. New medical research and knowledge can also lead to changes in definitions of normalcy.

One thing that makes it so difficult to distinguish normal versus abnormal mental health is that you can't simply be tested for it. There's no MRI or blood test for obsessive-compulsive disorder, no ultrasound for depression, no X-ray for bipolar disorder. That's not to say mental disorders aren't biologically based, because they are linked to chemical changes within the brain, and scientists are beginning to map those changes visually. But there's no physiological diagnostic test for mental illness.

To learn more about defining “mental illness”, go to Normal or Not or contact us for a FREE, individualized initial consultation.