Mental illness can be diagnosed, people just choose to ignore it and look over people instead of advising them to seek help or just choking the ish out of them. I meditate, exercise and have sadistic sex with my soul mate. As long as you are not the stereotypical pothead on mama's couch, kudos. Each of us has our own journey. I am not religious. It seems that mental illness is self induced and I firmly believe that problems and emotions can also manifest as physical ailments (stress headaches, weight etc) so I try not to let nikkas bother me, learned that from my easy going great-grandfather who never argued with his nagging wife. When people asked how he dealt with it he'd answer "She can't argue with herself" and shrug.
Also, I volunteering gives me a high so I try to donate time and services like with the homeless. If I feel too stressed I just go on a hike or literally chuck my gadgets/cell phones and lose myself in the woods for hours. Weed euphoria and takes away that feeling of wanting to stab your office mate in the neck with ink pen (yes I have anger management issues) but it's only temporary and I don't want to smoke something to keep me balanced when I can the same feeling jogging and save $20 a gram.
I'm not saying it can't be diagnosed, but by then its too late! I'm talking about preventing it. I can't agree on mental illness being self induced. I know people who have mental problems(some just don't admit to it), and from my anecdotal research, they thought they could handle the stress, but the more problems that came, they snapped. It could have been just from working too much, and lack of sleep. I even did the same shyt, which is why I know it when I see it. For instance, the example you gave about your great grandfather, that was me. It wasn't until other things started getting to me, that the arguing started really bothering me. it's when I started puffing that i realized that life shouldn't be about accepting someone arguing with you all the time.
That in itself is a sign of mental illness, because why are you always arguing? That means your brain is stressed, and a stressed brain is technically the meaning of mental illness! We just don't see it as that, so we just deal with it, but a lot of mental people will destroy your life or prevent it from being what it has the potential to be. ESPECIALLY, if they don't acknowledge they have a problem. I think a lot of women have mental illness, just due to them trying to live up to so many beauty standards, and that can be tiring. Then a lot are spoiled, and spoiling a person can also cause mental issues because you lack the skills, and strength, to deal with constant stress. If they grew up with older people giving them high expectations with things like career, and marriage, that can also cause problems if they feel they didn't measure up. This is why I say society itself is sick, we do things without thinking how it effects others, it's mostly for image!
i just learned that in Lousiana it is a felony, and a hate crime, if you resist arrest. You will get 10 years! To me this is mental illness in a society that sees it as normal. You have to be mental to think someone should get 10 years because you didn't like how they reacted towards you. Its no coincidence police drink a lot, have high domestic abuse rates, and sexual abusive, they deal with a lot of stress, and have no proper ways to expel that stress. Hence they are some crazy people, they just have more power then the average.
Old people, I understand why they don't touch herb. In their time it would get you locked up for years, and you had to be part of the street/entertainment or hippie culture to have access to it, and that brings more problems, so I get why they stayed away from it. Most of us who live where it isn't that serious anymore, don't have those worries. Now, if your job is always testing you, you need to stay away because your job is more important.
