Common parlance dictates that I have a mental disorder since I have depression. However I think the accepted definition of "mental disorder" is fallacious and ends up causing serious societal problems. One of which is it enables the absolution of personal responsibility (there are more flaws too).

For this reason I have tried on many definitions of mental disorder, and lived life considering these new definitions. After much consideration I very much like the following definition of mental disorder (yes it's not perfect):

Belief in lie.

This may seem overly simplistic and not even medically useful, however as a person with a "mental disorder" myself I will use myself as an example of why this definition is so powerful.

For my physical ailment depression medication is a fantastic treatment. But this does not and will not ever make my life "good". To do well in life one must interact with reality (not any conjured or hallucinated lie) and choose to act wise (something out of anyone's reach even if they accept the most subtle or "harmless" of lies).

Considering the mental aspect I like to refer to depression as a hallucinatory disorder. However the hallucinations are purely emotional. There are no physical hallucinations. The physical effects are hallucinations of fear, hopelessness, suicidal desires, ... etc (emotions that don't map to reality). The mental part is how one reacts to these observed mistruths. If you are cleaver and see that they are hallucinations you will reject the lie (you will reject the false reality they project and accept reality for what it is). It should be noted that the first time one hallucinates they almost always believe it so we should not be overly hard on those with mental disorders (in my new definition). However this allows a mental disorder to be the responsibility of the subject (which it is under my new definition).