Do you ever wake up and feel pinned to the bed by an invisible enemy? Do you ever stand in an ordinary room and feel vulnerable, in danger? Do you ever read the news and feel the long fingers of past violence on your throat? Actually feel them, and wait for your throat to close? Mental illness is complex. And so, the medical model of mental illness is complex too. Once in a while, it becomes news. Critics start to opine: too many people are getting sucked in. Too many people are taking pills they don’t need. Too many people are going to their doctors when they’re sad or nervous or unable to complete everyday tasks . Clinical terms have entered the vernacular to describe non-clinical behaviour: “psychotic” is just feeling passionate about something; “OCD” means wanting to have a clean house. It has become impossible, critics suggest, to […]