Fucking unhelpful to frame mental illness like this.
It is intensely frustrating to see people suffering - to the point where they consider suicide - because of the stigma around mental illness.
It's an account of the author who writes honestly about his thought process, and in the end finds out that his prejudice was wrong on one count, and may have been wrong in others.
The whole article in entirety is more helpful than anything I've read about this kind of condition. I'm not sure, and I think the author isn't sure, whether it should be called a mental illness at all. I think that was the point of the article.
So in cases like this, isn't it good to write plainly of one's past prejudices?
Except that's exactly what the patients focus on. When offered an antipsychotic, most refuse it, and become incensed that the doctor thinks they are (to use the afflicted's terms) crazy.
Saying it's a delusion is not the same as saying there's no problem and to simply deal with the symptoms.
I'm not sure I understand your post in the context of my post.
The last line of the text. The whole post is almost like a troll disguised as reportage. Don't lose sleep over it. If the text started with this line, I wouldn't have even bothered to read it much less comment on it.
There's a disease called Hallucinogen Persisting Perception Disorder (HPPD) that some people get after heavy use of psychedelics. The theory I subscribe to is that they're actually overreacting (almost obsessively) to the defects in perception that we all have. For example, if you stare at a bright white screen, especially when tired, you'll eventually see "static" due to retinal fatigue happening at uneven rates. The brain filters out a lot, but when that filter is weakened or challenged, it can let "hallucinations" in. Most of us aren't bothered by "white screen static" and hardly notice it. For some people (such as those with HPPD, who may have strong emotional associations with "tripping") that can be very distressing. In extreme cases, they can't go out at night because they're bothered by (again) scotopic vision defects that all of us have, but that (due to their anxiety) they can't tune out.
What I've noticed with anxiety is that there are things that are hard to un-notice. For example, after reading that article, I itched like hell. I knew why, so I didn't need other explanations (I basically know that reading any article about health problems is going to be a bit masochistic) but there are some distressing thoughts that are just very hard to banish, especially in a state of fatigue (which is not uncommon in our overworked, bizarre society). None of us is fully in control of our focus, and sometimes it's possible to get into a feedback loop of anxiety producing weird symptoms (panic attacks, for example, can throw all kinds of shit... even phantom smells) that produce more intense focus and anxiety.
I usually start itching when I read about fleas. There is an actual thing called "contagious itching":
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Itch#Contagious_itch
So there can definitely be a psychological trigger for itching. Add in some anxiety and/or withdrawal and it's easy to see how something like Morgellons could happen.
How else could the doctors informing the patients of the real problem, and pointing them at a real solution to the problem?