Looks like a paywall.
Thomas Szasz made a similar argument (as far as I can tell) in the 1960s. He wrote a book called “The Myth of Mental Illness”.
I would say (and I think Szasz also made this point) that some people have a legitimate chemical imbalance. Schizophrenics, for example, have brains that are seriously mis-firing.
But most “mentally ill” people just think in a way which may displease other people. Or may displease themselves. Well, maybe they are not “ill”. Maybe they just need to learn how to think differently.
But we coddle a lot of people. We make excuses. Many people do not function well, and we enable them in their difficulties and tell them that “their feelings are valid”. I’m not sure this works out well for the “mentally ill” or for society.
To be clear: I believe in mental hospitals for people who cannot function. A mental hospital is not a prison. But it’s pretty close to being a prison. Society would benefit if some mentally ill people were locked away.
And if your problems do not rise to the level of requiring hospitalization then I think you should snap out of it. Work on yourself. Fix yourself. Don’t make it my problem that you have a wretched miserable non-functioning personality.
You can’t be mentally ill if you must work to stay alive.