I’m pretty sure Adams is referring to severe, chronic, and life-debilitating disorders such as schizophrenia, schizoaffective, substance abuse, and untreated bipolar disorder. Not to say having MDD or an eating disorder isn’t severe, but just that some illnesses can be stabilized much more than others.

In our culture, there’s been a lot of attention paid to “mental health awareness” and “neurodiversity”, but very little attention paid to those who’ve been robbed of their humanity sleeping in their own feces because of how severe mental illness can really get. Also keep in mind, the percentage of people with schizophrenia who become homeless is fairly large. NAMI estimates it to be around 20-35% of the schizophrenic population. These people have a tendency to turn to substance abuse once they’re out on the street as any severe mental illness can cause and as long as you know someone with a psychotic condition, psychosis and drug abuse is a dangerous combination, not only for people but the addict as well.

The media does not want to showcase the homeless schizophrenic as an an example of mental illness; they’d rather choose a celebrity who’s healing his/her depression with yoga instead which is likely why we won’t reach a shared definition of “mental illness “. Adams is speaking of severe mental illness, but in a culture where everyone competes for victim points on TikTok, I doubt what is meant by “severe mental illness “ can even be understood in the minds of the illiberals.