Well, increasingly, depression and the depressive disorders (including anxiety and what was formerly called "manic-depression" (now "bipolar disorder") are no longer being classified as mental illnesses, but rather as Mood Disorders.

It's disingenuous to call mood disorders a mental illness, because people with the more classic mental illnesses experience some disruption or malfunction of cognitive abilities (including memory). People with mood disorders often have little-to-no cognitive impairment (usually limited to short-term memory, as a side-effect), and thus, it disqualifies them as mental illnesses. Unfortunately, as stated; such disorders are not simple, and in many cases, pa...

Well, increasingly, depression and the depressive disorders (including anxiety and what was formerly called "manic-depression" (now "bipolar disorder") are no longer being classified as mental illnesses, but rather as Mood Disorders.

It's disingenuous to call mood disorders a mental illness, because people with the more classic mental illnesses experience some disruption or malfunction of cognitive abilities (including memory). People with mood disorders often have little-to-no cognitive impairment (usually limited to short-term memory, as a side-effect), and thus, it disqualifies them as mental illnesses. Unfortunately, as stated; such disorders are not simple, and in many cases, patients might have both a mood disorder, and a mental illness (or multiple of either) — misdiagnosis of a mental illness might cause a mood disorder, or bad treatment of a mood disorder might (in some rare instances) result in the development of a mental illness.

Fortunately, despite this change in classification, most charities and government institutions that support people with mental illnesses are continuing to support people with mood disorders.