That’s a great analogy! The chemical imbalance thing has always sounded to me like there “are spirits in the system”
On the one hand, it can help people understand that a condition is real and not imagined, especially other than the sufferer. "Look at this brain scan, it looks different from a healthy person's" is quite tangible and convincing.
On the other hand, it can lead to a sense of helplessness, and notions that because there's a physical element to the mental illness, it's a permanent disability, or to be exclusively treated with pills and injections. That just doesn't follow. Sometimes it's true, but in many cases, lifestyle interventions can help, talk therapy can help.
And not every neurological disorder is fixable. And the question of whether this is "sometimes" or "in many cases" is still in the air, unless you can provide solid citations proving otherwise. So there is no need for this kind of judgement.
For example, in the case of ADHD, it s clear that patients have a reduced dopamine receptor count. It's not just a chemical imbalance, it's structural. Medication is the only effective solution for severe cases, and the result is night and day. Knowing this helps me make better decisions around my diagnosis, and also alleviates the great shame and anxiety that come hand in hand with ADHD.
I don't wish to devolve into an argument and I apologize if my initial comment was too aggressive.