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?

I'm confused about "anxiety" and how widespread it is.

Anxiety is about a lot more than feeling anxious about certain events. It is often all consuming, completely illogical and irrational. It can eat into all parts of day to day life.

For me it’s combined with depression which isn’t a nice combination!

Partly a desire to have a label on something and self diagnose ‘I have anxiety’ instead of understanding that feeling some anxiety is a normal response to stressful situations eg exams, some social events etc

Exactly.

I think a lot of it is misunderstanding and self diagnosis.

Lots of people seem to mistake normal feelings for mental illness. Feeling down for depression, feeling nervous for anxiety, liking things orderly for OCD.

Real depression, anxiety, OCD etc are seriously debilitating conditions. The amount of people self diagnosing or popping to the GP for normal stress and being given antidepressants like Smarties is really minimalizing real mental illness.

It's very frustrating if you actually suffer with severe mental illness. You say you have anxiety and it just isn't taken seriously any more, because at the moment, every man and his dog has anxiety.

I didn't think you were being goady at all for the record

It is often all consuming, completely illogical and irrational. It can eat into all parts of day to day life

Not being goady at all but can you give me an example? Some nights I can't sleep for worrying about work and the day to come, but every day I drag myself out of bed and go and face it.

@Furano
Maybe having a label on it is a way of feeling some control over your life

I've always been what I'd class as an anxious person. A born worrier. However, since some health issues my anxiety worsened. It was physical as well as mental. I had treatment and medication and this has helped to calm things significantly.

People do talk about it a lot more but that can only be a good thing. So what if it isn't full blown anxiety/ depression, recognising there's a problem and talking about it with someone will help the person overcome the issue that's obviously bothering them.

Just a shame you seem to have missed them all

Point me in the direction of one I should have seen please.

@A4710Rider
I was going to ask that too.

Well, they do say 1 in 3 people will suffer from mental health issues at some point in their life, so it IS pretty common.

Also in the last 2 years or so it has become a lot less taboo.
I've had severe, clinically diagnosed OCD since i was 5 years old, and Depression since 13/14, so over half my life. It's really only in the last 2 years or so that i've not felt the desperate need to do all i can to hide it. Before then it was very much seen as a weakness, where as now more and more people are opening up about their own struggles and it makes you feel much less like an outsider, like its okay to tell people so they can make adjustments to how the act around you to make things easier for you. Sure you argue with someone they throw it at you like major ammunition, but thats their prejudice not mine.

We're better at diagnosing mental health issues and psychiatric illness, just like we're better at diagnosing cancer.

The language in your post is very minimising. Mental illness is not glamorous or trendy, it's not something people gloat about or that 'everybody has'. Mental health conditions are legitimate and the fact that we are now better at diagnosing them and talking about them is a good thing.

@MrsBobtonTrent you probably did come across autism in your school but at that time people with it who would be regarded as high functioning were just regarded as "odd". If you have ever met/dealt with autistic girls often until someone tells you they are autistic you don't know.

What I think we're better about realising is that we all have a state of mental health all the time. Just as we all have a state of physical health. And sometimes that is good and sometimes that is bad.

You can have a mental illness but be in a good state of mental health on a given day. Therefore you can have no mental illness but experience frequent or even prolonged periods of poor mental health.

I think people are better at acknowledging and admitting that their mental health is not good. It doesn't mean there's more mental illness (though there may well be, idk). The two things aren't the same.

Lots of people can't sleep for worrying about things. That's completely normal.

Do you have panic attacks where you feel like you are actually dying? Can you leave the house without terror? Do you have repetitive behaviours to reassure yourself like pulse checking? Do you feel disengaged from reality? Are you overwhelmed by sensory issues like bright lights, people, noises? Do you have lots of physical symptoms like aching, numbness, stomach problems, menstrual problems, pins and needles, accelerated heart? Do you sometimes feel suicidal? Hysterical? Loss of a grip on reality?

If so, perhaps you have anxiety. If not, you are probably just worrying.

Theres also the french word "spleen", the feeling of overwhelming sadness about life that you cant tie to any one thing. Do we use that word the same way in English?

The fact that that exists suggests that feeling anxious or sad is a universal (at least in europe) sensation.

IMO, its always been very prevalent, just not diagnosed or talked about. Clearly there will be some teenagers who exaggerate "normal" ups and downs, eg "I'm so depressed, my bf didn't call me yesterday" etc but if they have a genuine diagnosis then that's absolutely not made up, who wants that? For every one that's making it up there will be many who are struggling to get help and having a very difficult time.

Is it not that it's just better understood and spoken about more openly now? The same as autism!

People bang on about how there was no autism when they were younger. Well there was but they were labelled as stupid or naughty. We have more knowledge, awareness and understanding now that's lead to more diagnoses. Presumably that's the same with mental health.

I'm sure you have access to the Internet A47

I'm on it every day. I've yet to come across any "awareness" campaign about "anxiety"

Spot on icant sums it up pretty well!