To wonder why everyone suddenly has a mental health issue?

[VogueVVague]

Dont get me wrong, im not talking about people who have struggled with long term clinical depression, schizophrenia etc.

But it seems like everyone now has some form of mental issue.

Hey, as a teenager and young adult i was a freaking mess, a teenage runaway, drugs, alcohol, confusing feelings, rage, destruction, depression, fear, shyness sometimes, anxiety. Just thought it was a normal part of transitioning.

Now as a fully formed adult some things still make me feel anxious, mny times i do feel unmotivated, depressed on a kind of existential level, sometimes nervous, sometimes not wanting to do something because it involves big gatherings or lots of strangers, which lets face it, can be awkard and uncomfortable for most people.

Isnt that just life and being human?
It feels like i meet so many people who "have" anxiety or borderline or bipolar. Especially teens. Arent they just experiencing adolescence?

Is social media making us believe the normal default is "happy and relaxed", when thats just one setting and humans are actually also designed to be down or nervous sometimes too?

BumpowderSneezeonAndSnot I was going off you saying X helped you recover when you haven’t actually (unfortunately) recovered.

Physical and mental health conditions are completely different and should be treated as such. You cannot equate them.

Have read some of the thread but forgive me if anything is not quite right.

I was diagnosed with PND when DD was 8mo. To this day I don't really know if I had it or if the GP said it because he didn't know what else to suggest. Perhaps I was just knackered, still in shock from recent changes in my life, hormonal, struggling.

Traditionally, a circle of women cared for a new mother and her baby. Today we are lucky to have help from grandparents (I did).

I genuinely think humans haven't evolved to cope with modern life. We think ourselves very clever as a species, but we have got this all wrong I think.

And thank you @WalkingOnAFlashlightBeam for such a thorough and helpful explanation

Why not? It's just another bit of the body that's broken and needs fixing somehow. Why is it wrong to use the same approach to mental and physical health? It keeps me well, it keeps me working and most importantly it keeps me alive.

Would you tell someone with diabetes not to watch their diet and exercise levels and not take their medications? No! It would kill them. No different to someone with a mental illness.

BumpowderSneezeonAndSnot Everyone is free to handle their health however they wish; I am certainly not telling you what approach to take with yours.

What I am saying is that I had an issue with your previous post where the implication was people are holding themselves back and holding onto a diagnosis to keep them unwell, particularly when you yourself are still (again, unfortunately) experiencing mental health difficulties.

As I said, my severe social anxiety never went away for years. Not even for a second.

Eventually, after eight years of being almost housebound and in a constant state of anxiety, I had intense CBT with an amazing therapist and turned my own life around. I recovered. That was four years ago and I have had no problems since.

Not all mental health problems have to be for life. They are not all chronic (and certainly depression, anxiety etc. are recoverable). While I once believed I was never going to recover, that was thankfully not true and was indicative of how ill I was at the time.

I made an observation that holding onto and internalizing a diagnosis is becoming more common and is hindering them getting well. I didn't specifically say any one individual is just that there seems to be a social media trend towards this way of thinking.

No, OP, you do suffer from a mental health problem. It’s called ‘arrogant dickhead with no psychiatric training but feels qualified to comment on other people on a subject they know fuck all about’ ism.

flourella I agree that it can be harmful to those suffering severe, nameable mental illness. I just don't necessarily think that the blame for that lies with the insecure/mentally unwell.

I also wonder if it's just as harmful to insist that 'true' mental illness means being unable to function (I dont know if anyone's categorically said that but things like true anxiety being uncontrollable and debilitating and true depression meaning being unable to get up and function have been said.)

Real, diagnosable and severe mental illness can result in a total inability to function. Equally, it can be masked within a normal lifestyle to the point where the casual observer wouldn't even know the individual was ill. And it can present anywhere else between those two extremes. Sometimes functionality can be affected by how strong a person's need or motivation to function is. And sometimes it can't.

There seems to be judgment here of both experiences. If you function too well then you're not genuine and if you don't function at all then you're a coward or not trying. Neither of those attitudes are fair or correct. Different people just experience illness differently.

I am very pleased to hear you got well with appropriate treatment. For some periods of wellness are all that is achievable which is what tips them into the chronic category.

BumpowderSneezeonAndSnot I appreciate your kindness, and perhaps I overreacted at your post.

But I disagree that for some, only periods of wellness are possible. For some conditions, like anxiety and depression, you can recover and I do think saying that some people are just stuck with it can be very harmful as it may hinder their chances at trying to get well.

Like I said, I once believed I would never recover; that thankfully was simply not true.

I don't think the people who say they have anxiety when they're a bit anxious, or depression when they are a bit sad, have any idea just HOW PHYSICAL real mental illness is. I certainly didn't.

One moment I was going through the first 30 years of my life experience and dealing with normal emotions. The next I was having a complete mental breakdown, unable to leave my house due to terror and physical pain. I can't even remember the bits when I was really bad. I wasn't present. Being diagnosed with PTSD is a blur. It was due to something that happened 15 years ago.

Taking hormonal medication messed with my brain chemicals and sent me absolutely batshit. I'll never be the same. I think the power of hormones in all this are underestimated.

*experiencing

manicinsomniac
Yes masking can exist and I would agree with you that we don't want to suggest that someone must be unable to function to count as having a mental health issue.

That said, I do still think that there's been an increased pathologisation of day to day normal ups and downs with otherwise normal ranges of emotion being spoken about through very therapeutic language which seems to get to a weird place where everyone is some vulnerable victim of their emotions and needs additional support for any bump in life's road. Another poster mentioned people not being prepared for life and not being resilient. I do think there is something in that.

I look at our students and they are much more risk adverse than I recall being as a child. There are external pressures and stress which don't help at all, but in the last 5 years there's also been a noticable shift in parent attitudes away from 'you work hard and do your best but hey we all have off days' towards obsessive helicopter parenting with parents projecting their own issues onto the poor kids and the 'my child is perfect so any failure or negative has to be explained away as something out of their control'. Most parents (should add!) are totally normal abd probably much like our parents but there is a shift in terms of how ups and downs of teens are handled. We used to speak to friends, friends' mums, form tutor at break etc. Now schools have emotional wellbeing passes out of lessons, safe spaces, teams of learning mentors, on site counsellors etc. Some of it is picking up from a horrendously stretched CAMHS but some is school having to wrap children in cotton wool who have decided they can't go to a class because Sarah and Jess are in there and at break someone said that they'd fallen out with them so now they want to work in the support base. It's a falling out but that takes resources away from those who genuinely need it.

manicinsomniac I agree that level of functional impairment varies and total inability to function is absolutely not necessary for any diagnosis. But I think there has to be some noticeable, negative affect on a person's ability to deal with life or certain elements of it, or things can't be considered a DISorder.

Eg, it seems depressingly common for people who are very particular about things being neat or clean to be considered, by themselves or others, as "OCD" (as if it's an adjective) when their quirks cause them no distress at all, and perhaps even bring them pleasure. If those people are perceived as actually having the condition, people around them have less chance of appreciating the impact it has on people who do have it, to any extent.

Functioning can mean different things to different people, too, though. For some it means a person who's able to work FT, look after a family, have hobbies and a social life. For someone else it means they're getting out of bed, staying clean, eating something and maybe even occasionally leave the house.

*I don't think the people who say they have anxiety when they're a bit anxious, or depression when they are a bit sad, have any idea just HOW PHYSICAL real mental illness is. I certainly didn't.

One moment I was going through the first 30 years of my life experience and dealing with normal emotions. The next I was having a complete mental breakdown, unable to leave my house due to terror and physical pain. I can't even remember the bits when I was really bad. I wasn't present. Being diagnosed with PTSD is a blur. It was due to something that happened 15 years ago.

Taking hormonal medication messed with my brain chemicals and sent me absolutely batshit. I'll never be the same. I think the power of hormones in all this are underestimated.*

This feels so familiar. I have ASD so life has been challenging but I've done alright actually, I've had bouts of depression and anxiety through my life and always fought to get better and happy so I'd always thought I was normally depressive, if you see what I mean.

But hormonal contraceptives ruined me alongside successive, some traumatic, life events. I've recently been diagnosed with c-ptsd. I was devastated. I don't want this. I'm on a drug combination now but work full time in a difficult profession. It's not easy and sometimes I feel so sorry for my DH. I'm teetotal now because alcohol is a no-no as well. I won't tell you what alcohol and hormones combined did to my messed up head but there have been episodes that are completely missing from my memory and some I wish were!!

So yes, I agree with OP.

Thank God for some of the incredibly insightful and helpful posts on here today/night. In answer to some of the goady f°ckers however, don't judge til you've walked a mile in others' shoes.

As someone with diagnosed bipolar type 1, I 'function' well. I work FT, have a DS who isn't a bad lad at all, have friends, a good relationship with my DM, and a rather (currently) rocky (but healthy) relationship with DP. However, when I'm 'down', I hallucinate, hear voices, and want to follow in my father's footsteps on the road to permanent sleep. Do I tell anyone, apart from my DP and DM? No. I certainly don't go on social media to say how bad I'm feeling. But when I'm on a level, and the medication works again, I do try and raise awareness about MH, and was one of the people in the first Time to Change adverts about 6 years ago. Why? Because the reality of MH is all consuming, and the story of diagnosed conditions needs to be told. More people ARE being diagnosed, due to that awareness, and people getting appropriate help, but sadly there are SOME who self diagnose for attention AND excuses for crap behaviour or poor work capability.

And before I get flamed for that, I have experience of it professionally and continue to campaign for this understanding, with various organisations and at work.

OP, I think it's an interesting debate, and thank you for raising it. Awareness of this can reduce the stigma.

When I said that to be considered a disorder, an issue should really have a noticeable, negative effect on a person's ability to get on with life as they would want to, or is demanded/expected of them, I meant noticeable to the individual, not necessarily the people around them.

Just clarifying that, to no one in particular, and taking the opportunity to surreptitiously correct my misuse of affect when I meant effect. Though it's not very surreptitious now I've pointed it out.

flourella - thanks for clarifying (even if only to correct your grammar!). I was going to disagree on the noticeable thing but agree with you if you're referring to the individual rather than others.

Not really relevant but I also think there is often a positive effect on the person too (not always!). It's something that comes up a lot in eating disorder therapy: 'what do you get out of the eating disorder?' 'why do you need it?' do you want recovery. The negative always outweighs the negative, I think, but a lot of mental illness is a response to something or a coping mechanism. It develops for a reason and serves a purpose. I don't think that applies to schizophrenia, bipolar, clinical depression etc but it does to eating disorders, self harm, addiction etc. Maybe there's 2 distinct 'types' of mental illness (I don't know enough about it to state but perhaps organic/chemical versus situational/emotional??)

In a group therapy session I was in at the weekend the coodinator brought up the issue of epi-genetics (think that was the word) which I found totally fascinating. The topic of the group was trauma and she was saying that, even if you don't think you have had any significant trauma to react to, the body can actually retain and pass down trauma through the genes to the next generation! So, one girl was saying she had had no background of trauma at all but, when this came up, she said that her mum had experienced abandonment by her father at a young age, teenage meningitis leading to epilepsy and the violent death of a brother. The idea that those things could have led to PTSD or trauma reaction in her but not her mum seemed a little far fetched and mindblowing but apparently research is starting to suggest it's possible.

manicinsomniac The topic at your recent group session is very interesting to me as well, because I can see now that there was some (lower-level) trauma in my childhood, but the idea that it has had such an impact on me and much, much less on my brothers is hard for me to accept. My bulimia probably developed, separate to my OCD, as a way of dealing with my lack of confidence (more like self-loathing, actually) and my mother's alcoholism. OCD might well develop as a mechanism to cope with difficult emotional circumstances (searching for reassurance or certainty that things are okay and can stay that way), though mine started when I was about four and before there were any apparent issues with my mother. But maybe starting school was the trigger; I was certainly very shy.

I think I do find it easier to accept the idea that I have developed most of these illnesses due to some organic or chemical malfunction, but maybe I need to be more confronting of the reality of my situation, or at least more open to other theories.

Epigenetics is actually quite controversial, manicinsomniac. Personally, I believe it's either that or some gene we haven't discovered yet, because I can't think of anything else that explains three generations of women in my family with the same phobia, in very different life conditions: DGM ate insects to survive, DM still needed to eat food thrown away sometimes in her childhood, I was born in a middle class family by third world standards.

Also, back to the thread, just because you haven't seen the person poorly doesn't mean he/she isn't. A good friend of mine is dyslexic, and she doesn't hide it. What most people haven't seen is her having a breakdown after completely butchering an exam due to missed or extra letters (the exam was about filo identification, and it had to be spelled exactly right) and being terrified at taking her driving test just in case she doesn't remember which side "left" is.

Currently, only one colleague knows about my anxiety. The others know I'm afraid of vomiting, and that's why I don't drink or go to parties. In my secondary, every classmate knew. I just felt more comfortable sharing with my classmates.

Personally, I don't think my anxiety and depression will ever go away. It's been with me 90% of my life, so I think it will stay. Mind you, there are periods of my life they don't make an appearance, as long as I'm on my meds (they definitely make a difference to me!), so I'm quite ok with that.

Actually, only just clocked the reference to epigenetics, sorry; thought the discussion was just about trauma in childhood

Still very interesting, though, but pretty sure it doesn't apply to me

I should read more thoroughly before replying, but I'm new to internet forums and a bit overexcited by having people to talk to.

haha, no worries! My writing style is certainly not concise - skim reading is forgivable! There was a lot about trauma in childhood and it not necessarily being the degree of trauma that determines any reaction. That would be way too simple. Have you come across the trauma definition 'too much, too fast, too soon'? If you look at it like that then there's no objective amount of trauma that would cause mental illness and it will be different for different people. But I'm sure organic/chemical is equally as likely for you - especially with the OCD. I'm very swayed by the genetic argument for eating disorders too. I have an anorexic grandmother, an aunt who was once bulimic and a morbidly obese mother. I tend to say eating disorders run in my family but I've also had an ED consultant tell me that was an excuse to absolve myself of responsibility (I wasn't trying to do that at all as it happens!)

I agree there seems to be this confusion and blurring in recent years when it comes to mental health and mental illness. There's a difference between what are (or used to be considered) normal human emotions and reactions to the ups and downs of life, and what is a mental illness.

Periods when we feel anxious, panicky or very sad / depressed because of events in life are normal, things spiralling out of control is a different ball game. My children are at primary but I hope in the future when they're older there is some decent education for them about mental health at school. I will obviously do my best to talk to them about mental health, how much I'll share my own experiences with them I don't know.

A friend who also has a diagnosis of gad jokingly said to me recently that we should be pleased because anxiety is trendy with millenials these days, I think what she meant was that being anxious and "having" anxiety is perhaps considered trendy by some. Maybe posting about it on social media is the latest trend, but I never seem to hear anyone discussing it in real life. Maybe it's just easier to open up about from behind a screen though.

I just had a flashback to when I was a teenager, and Richie from the Manic St Preachers carved 4 real into his arm, there were girls at my (all girls) school then doing the same, quite a few walking around I remember. Wtf, it's horrendous now I think back on it, but was normalised by a lot of teenagers around me at the time, I suppose that was an example of some kind of mental health trend.