To wish people wouldn't use the phrase "mental health problems"?

[LostInShoebiz]

Totally a TAAT but AIBU to wish people would not say things like "what if she has mental health problems"? Just like 'being ill' can cover anything from the sniffles to terminal cancer, mental health difficulties cover mild anxiety up to full blown chronic conditions requiring inpatient treatment and having serious consequences.

Stigmatising all mental health problems by lumping them in together leaves people with mild or manageable conditions in fear of 'coming out'.

Multi - exactly. But that's when we get into an impossible situation with nobody understanding anybody and a larger percentage of the population relying on a few. Society is collapsing under the weight of this.

Also - interesting - 30 years ago I was working with pharmaceutical researchers and marketing teams. They were targeting two groups of people: recently bereaved and cancer sufferers. They participated in millions of pounds worth of conferences and campaigns and Dr /Medical seminars to convince the medical profession that cancer sufferers had a better outcome if they kept a positive outcome and recently bereaved coped better if they could get on with a normal life. (Possibly true). Anti-depressants were sold in tonnes. "Depression awareness" was actively supported by these companies.

Within a couple of years they moved on to elderly care and post-natal depression. Every old person who was lonely and losing friends and health was diagnosed with depression. Every new mother took a depression test. It was a calculated drive to increase sales of anti-depressants. (Good sellers as people tended to stay on them for many years)

I am not saying that people who are depressed are imagining it. I am absolutely not minimising . I am just saying that it is always worth looking at the wider picture.

The OP raised a topic worth talking about. Most people have just jumped and dismissed her.

We do need to change the way we live but that will be difficult with the prevailing attitude.

Food choices, work choices, exercise, decent housing, economic security, debt, family bonds, community structures all play a role in mental health. We need to examine these as a society and as individuals and see how we can make it better.

Anyway - sorry if I have offended anyone. I just think that MH is too complex a matter to be trivialised in the way it currently is.

Mirai - you're right in some of the things you say. But I don't think there is a solution.

We have got to a point where MH problems are quite rightly considered as valid and as debilitating as physical health problems.

But there is, in my opinion (and I'm sure I will be flamed for this) an attitude about MH problems which does stem from a view that Psychiatry isn't a valid part of medicine.

It's not something that can be physically seen so you get two opposing views:

One is everyone has MH problems and can diagnose them- everyone can be a Psychiatrist as is seen on MN all the time.

Lots of people apparently have ex partners or family members with severe personality disorders (narcs, psycopaths etc) or OCD/ASD/ADHD when the posters don't really understand the complexities of a Psychiatric diagnosis because the internet gives them a tick box or a list of things and their completely non-objective opinion means that clinical Psychiatry actually has no role to play.

And I don't see that lack of acknowledgment of a medical discipline or thought that maybe you're not skilled enough to make it when it comes to physical health problems. We don't have posters listing physical health problems and replies saying' classic cancer - come on to this thread'

And conversely you get the opposite - you can't see it so come on, we all get stressed or upset or anxious or sad or have weird views about food or whatever.... I meet all the criteria for an anxiety disorder (because the tick box is designed as a screening tool and not a diagnosis)..

Mental health problems still aren't considered in the same way as physical health problems because we have a lack of respect for Psychiatry.

ASD isn’t a mental health diagnosis?

ASD is a neurodevelopmenal disorder which is usually given by MH practionioners and is listed in the DSM and ICD so yes.

Whether or not it should be is for future diagnostic criteria.

But currently it is.

At the risk of sounding like a 95 year old frothing about pc gorn mad, I would like if someone could come up with a list of thing no-one gets offended if you say.

I think it would be a short list though, wouldn't it?

so in summary we aren't allowed to say mental health problems, but we are supposed to talk more openly about (insert allowable phrase that means mental health problems) so as to reduce stigma?

Can you explain to us please how we can do the latter if we aren't allowed to mention the former? Thanks.

Multidimensionalbeing not in any of the 4 ASD diagnoses in our house.

I would (and do) say mental ill health.

I have been on just as many threads where i have said your symptoms sound just like mine and i have eds hypermobility so you might want to ask your gp as i have said me/dc have adhd/asd (and others) and you/your dc sound similar you might want to ask gp.

It's not diagnosing to suggest asking a medical professional if this might be relevant. It's pretty standard for patients to become more knowledgable about their disability than a gp and coming to them with ideas often enables the referal and diagnosis process. Although like pp said asd/adhd are nuerodevelopmental disabilities but diagnosed and 'treated' within mh services.

Teaching women who have been victims of dv or sa to look out for traits of npd/aspd in potential partners is also standard within the services dedicated to help them. It's a protective insight that helps them break the cycle. That's also not diagnosing anyone, everyone has a certain amount of narcasism and a small amount is healthier than none but an excess of it poses risk to a potential partner.

YABU. I've got "mental health problems" and it is the perfect way of describing them. It's not offensive, and it is a fact.

I don't see quite the same level of armchair diagnosis for physical health problems that I see for mental health/neurodevelopmental .

I saw someone post a few weeks ago about increasing her alcohol intake over the previous month and someone said 'you could have ADHD and be self-medicating'

YABU. People might not choose to share their diagnosis or even say what is up with a friend or relative. I don't know what your point is but it's not a competition to see whose problems are the most severe or the most mild.