Mental illness

A mental illness is a disorder of the brain that results in a disruption in a person's thinking, feeling, moods, and ability to relate to others. Mental illness is distinct from the legal concepts of sanity and insanity.

Symptoms

In addition to the categorized illnesses, there are many well-defined symptoms of mental illness, such as paranoia, that are not regarded as illnesses in themselves, but only as indicators of one of the illnesses belonging to one of the classes listed above.

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Crime is not a symptom of mental illness; however, movies often portray murderers as being mentally ill. This makes a villain more emotional, interesting, and dramatic. In truth, mentally disturbed people commit fewer crimes than the elderly.

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