On episode 56 of A Chat with Uma, I’m here for a solo episode to kick off Mental Illness Awareness Week 2025 with a bold claim: that the most powerful way to raise awareness for mental illness — & to change how it’s perceived, treated, & supported — is to reconceptualize it as what it actually is: a brain disorder — a physical illness.
For generations, “mental illness” has been misunderstood as something of the "mind" rather than the brain — & that misunderstanding has fueled catastrophic stigma, under-funding, & inequity in care.
In this episode I trace how that split between “mental” & “physical” emerged, why it still pervades our language & systems, & what it will take to undo it—from historical misclassifications to modern neuroscience establishing that these are all brain disorders. Here, I unpack my staunch belief of how reframing mental illness as a physical illness can transform stigma, funding, & compassion.
Topics Discussed (+ Timestamps):
(00:00:00) Mental Illness Awareness Week & why this is one of my most important messages
Contextual episodes:
(00:04:00) The premise: why the term “mental illness” is a misnomer &how it has shaped stigma, funding, & treatment inequity
(00:07:16) Why surface-level awareness is no longer enough if the core construct remains misunderstood as “non-biological”
(00:09:00) How “mental” implies choice or character instead of biological brain dysfunction
(00:11:00) What I’ve seen as a patient, researcher, + advocate — & how cancer taught me society treats “physical” & “psychiatric” illnesses entirely differently
(00:16:02) The root problem with the word “mental” & the false divide between mind & brain
(00:20:00) Why psychotherapy is biological: Rewiring the brain through cognition & behavior
(00:23:40) The mind–brain relationship: the brain is the organ; the mind is the process it creates — & why this matters for shame vs. science
(00:26:40) Defining mental health vs. mental illness through a biological lens: transient vs. chronic brain dysfunction
(00:33:12) Neurobiology 101: How the brain creates symptoms — from genes to molecules to cells to circuits to behavior
(00:38:00) “The brain doesn’t respect the boundaries of the DSM”: rethinking diagnoses as temporary placeholders until we can map mechanisms in real time
(00:41:56) The neurology vs. psychiatry split: why visible vs. invisible symptoms should never have defined fields of medicine
(00:46:00) Consequences of the false divide: how it has infiltrated insurance, education, & employment systems
(00:53:00) The paradigm shift we need: a new era of mental illness as physical illness
(00:57:00) A call to action for scientists, clinicians, & advocates to change our language + systems to match biology
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