Failure to function adequately:

• STRENGTH:

  • represents a sensible threshold for when people need professional help
  • Most of us have symptoms of mental disorder to some degree at some time
  • According to the mental health charity Mind, around 25% of people in the UK will experience a mental health problem in any given year
  • However many people press on in the face of fairly severe symptoms
  • It tends to be at the point that we cease to function adequately that people seek professional help or are noticed and referred for help by others

  This criterion means that treatment and services can be targeted to those who need them most.
• LIMITATION

  • its easy to label non-standard lifestyle choices as abnormal
  • In practice it can be hard to say when someone is really failing to function and when they have simply chosen to deviate from social norms
  • Not having a job or permanent address might seem like failing to function and for some people it would be
  • BUT people with alternative lifestyles choose to live off-grid
  • Similarly those who favour unusual spiritual practices may be classed as irrational

  Means that people who make unusual choices are at risk of being labelled abnormal and their freedom of choice may be restricted