Can't tell the difference between "neurological disease" and "mental disease"? This article will tell you!

In our cognitive world, the concepts of "neurological disease" and "mental illness" have similarities that are easy to be confused, but they also have their own characteristics and are essentially different. Hu Li, deputy chief physician of the Sleep Disorders and Neurosis Department of the Second People's Hospital of Hunan Province (Provincial Brain Hospital), will take us to explore and analyze the differences between these two types of diseases.

The human body is like a busy metropolis, and the nervous system is the intricate traffic network in this city, woven together by "roads" composed of nerve fibers, "traffic lights" served by neurotransmitters, and a "command center" composed of the brain and spinal cord.

When this traffic network encounters hardware failures such as road damage (nerve damage) or traffic light failure (neurotransmitter imbalance), the city's traffic order will fall into chaos, which is the manifestation of "neurological disease."

For example, neuritis is like erosion of a part of a road, which blocks the transmission of information and may cause abnormal signals such as tingling or numbness in certain parts of the body; while a brain tumor is like a huge obstacle suddenly appearing in the city center, compressing the peripheral nerves and disrupting the normal functioning of various parts of the body.

So what does mental illness look like? It is more like a fatal attack on the city's software system. The brain, a super software, originally runs in an orderly manner, managing our emotions, thoughts, behaviors and other core programs. However, once the software is invaded by a virus (such as genetic factors, psychological trauma, neurotransmitter disorders, etc.), the program will fall into chaos, just like a peaceful city suddenly swept by the noise of a carnival.

In the realm of "mental illness," hallucinations are like mirages that appear over a city, where the patient perceives things that are not there. For example, a patient may be in an empty room, staring nervously at a corner, as if a ferocious monster is lurking there, but the people around him can't see anything. Delusions are faulty instructions that grow in the brain's software, and the patient is convinced of some counterintuitive ideas, like the city radio constantly broadcasting false emergency alarms, and people are helpless to turn them off.

From a therapeutic perspective, the treatment of "neurological diseases" is like repairing a damaged traffic network. Doctors become highly skilled engineers and take corresponding repair measures for different types of injuries. For damaged nerves, drugs may be used to promote their repair and regeneration, or surgery may be performed to remove obstacles that compress the nerves.

The treatment of "mental illness" is more like rewriting and debugging the brain's software. Psychotherapists are like experienced programmers, using cognitive behavioral therapy and other methods to help patients identify and correct incorrect thinking patterns; psychiatrists use drugs to eliminate the "viruses" that interfere with the normal operation of the software and restore the brain's harmony.

In daily life, we should realize that patients with "neurological diseases" are victims of the traffic network of the body, and they are trying hard to find ways to repair it; while patients with "mental illness" are the victims of brain software failures, and they urgently need our understanding and help to guide them to regain the correct thinking and behavior patterns. Only in this way can we truly understand the essential differences between these two concepts and light a beacon of hope for those who are in trouble.

Hunan Medical Chat Special Author: Liu Junjun, Department of Sleep Disorders and Neurology, Hunan Second People's Hospital (Provincial Brain Hospital)

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(Edited by YT)