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 think it is partly that people self diagnose and throw labels around without understanding the true meaning of poor mental health. I get very frustrated at people claiming "I have anxiety" when actually all they are experiencing is normal emotions (which may sometimes be disproportionate to the situation)
This blasé approach to normal human experiences diminishes those who are genuinely affected and applies equally to things like OCD, ADHD PTSD etc.

We are bringing up a generation who genuinely believe that they are depressed every time they don't feel happy and who will not grow up well rounded adults as they are surrounded by the message that any slightly uncomfortable or distressing experience will immediately trigger PTSD.

I also believe that MH issues are more prevalent than they used to be. Human beings need problems to solve, it's a survival instinct. With the main survival issues dealt with in our society, things that were so far down the list as to be irrelevant are now the top of the list of problems and they assume the same scale.

There is some very interesting research that shows eating disorders are basically non existent in countries where food is truly scarce. This suggests that things like anorexia are triggered by our environment and that body dismorphia develops when the basic requirement to survive is no longer a challenge (because our psyche needs something to be top of the list)

I'm not for a minute suggesting that these illnesses aren't genuine and life changing, just that there is a big change in society which has affected our mental health and the approach to it.

It's not just that a more supportive society recognises MH issues that have always been there. I actually believe our society encourages poor mental health by creating ridiculous and unnecessary social pressure and by making "MH issues" fashionable.

Sorry this ended up REALLY long!

ICantCopeAnymore yep

I agree with you OP.
I think it is to do with the commercialisation of distress. Medical companies want us to take pills for everything. They start off with a real issue, and then seek to expand the market.
There is real concern that the level of diagnosis for bipolar is far lower than it used to be. It used to be very hard to be diagnosed with this, and generally you had to have had psychosis. Now it is diagnosed at a level that would once have been a - lets wait and see situation. That matters because many with bipolar are given very strong drugs with potentially very serious side effects.
I also wonder if many young people simply do not realise that many of us struggle day to day. It is part of life. Anxiety in particular is common. Obviously there is a big difference between my friend who until recently would not leave the house as he was so anxious, ever; and a normal level of anxiety. But it is normal to feel at times very anxious about doing new things.
When I was younger the big thing pushed was to feel the fear, and do it anyway. It was all about acknowledging your fear, but finding strategies to overcome that and do what you wanted.

*pins and needles.

Personally, I think it's just more acceptable to say you have e.g. anxiety these days, it's not so much that people are "suddenly" getting it, just that loads of people have always had this and now it's not a dirty little secret any more.

And being able to function doesn't diminish the diagnosis or the experience. If you're anxious, you're anxious, if you're depressed, you're depressed. Getting up and getting on with things is preferable IF YOU CAN, but it doesn't make the feelings go away, and it doesn't mean you are somehow better than people who cannot cope.

VogueVVague

Because many medical professionals still write off people with borderline as manipulative attention seekers who are impossible to work with and incapable of improvement, and therefore not worth the effort. It says it all that in 2005, the NHS had to produce guidelines for medical professionals who may come across people with the diagnosis - included some pretty basic things like ‘treat people who require medical attention for self harm injuries with the same dignity care and respect as any other patient’. Sadly, I don’t think many A&E staff ever bothered to read it.

Are we saying that everyone who simply say's they have anxiety, depression, OCD actually have it?

I have heard so many people say "I'm OCD about this or that" and really they're not at all, it doesn't consume their life in any way, they just like things to be a certain way.

Then I realise how lucky I am and get the heck on with my life.
Then if you can good for you, but not everyone can.
Doesn't make them cowards, or mean they dont have m/h problems

We are bringing up a generation who genuinely believe that they are depressed every time they don't feel happy and who will not grow up well rounded adults as they are surrounded by the message that any slightly uncomfortable or distressing experience will immediately trigger PTSD

Exactly, they are enabled beyond belief.

PEople who say things like they are “a bit OCD” certainly do nothing to help because all that does is minimise the impact that the illness has on those who do have it

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.*

I have been diagnosed with various different Anxiety disorders at different times. The worst point, was when I couldn't go to pick my son up, I was shaking, crying, there felt like there was a barrier actually at the door. My heart felt like it was going to come out of my chest and I threw up. This was a matter of going maybe 20ft. Its not just the then and there, there is the build up to whatever is cause the anxiety and then the aftermath. Also if you don't do it, generally I fall into a depressive cycle.

OP - people with depression tend to have extremely low self esteem, so they're unlikely to talk about themselves much.

The people with bipolar - could have been going through a 'high' at the time, making them more talkative and likely to see connections between topics which you might not.

You're unlikely to have people come up to you and announce their schizophrenia because schizophrenia is a rare illness.

People with anxiety are very common and can find it difficult to manage their feelings internally, so they end up telling others.

I find it really frustrating that a the public awareness and information campaigns have backfired so badly. They were meant to reduce the stigma of mental illness, to make people aware of how common and unpleasant these conditions are. Instead there now seems to be an attitude of "it is common, therefore it can't be bad", completely missing the point.

@goodnessidontknow
That was a really interesting reply, thank you.

So here's another question:

Eccentricity.
Once upon a time, people would have been called eccentrics. It could be that the eccentrics of 100 years ago would nowadays be labelled as schizophrenic, or autistic, or OCD.

So could it be possible for eccentrics to exist today? I cant explain what i mean properly, i hope someone gets it. Basically, could a person simply be an eccentric, with no MH or SEN issue?

I work with clients suffering from anxiety. If you don't have it it can be very hard to understand. A certain amount of anxiety in life is fine, in fact I think it is essential. It keeps us sensibly cautious, stops us taking unnecessary risks and ensures we plan ahead in life. But for some people it is so pervasive it ruins their lives.

I have a client who can psych himself up to leave the house but then stand at a bus stop for hours, too scared to get on the bus in case he is assaulted. Another person turns down social invitations because she is so worried about developing a hereditary disease that she is constantly googling the symptoms and checking herself physically. One girl cannot leave the house without taking laxatives to evacuate her bowels in case she defecates in public and even then will plan her journeys around the availability of public loos, often adding miles to her journey 'just in case'. (Details changed here to maintain client confidentiality).

Concerns about getting an illness, or being assaulted or being caught short are normal for most of us. We take reasonable precautions and carry on but for clients with anxiety they are magnified to a level that stops them living normal lives.

Ive had my problems for ages but there was a thread earlier this week which made me think id now be classified as a Vulnerable Adult.

Doc has suggested DLA for me in the past but that puzzled me too.

There's been an explosion of cases because it is so hard to diagnose and some conditions are easy to copy, it's hard to know who is actually ill.

Like those who use it as a excuse not to do something, or as a reason for previous bad choices. Or to shut down conversation. Every other thread on here has someone with MH, but you can see from the rest of their threads they don't actually have a diagnosed condition.

whatis I get very cross with people that claim they have ocd when really they're just a bit annoyed because things aren't done a certain way.
Real ocd is not feeling pissed off because you haven't managed to put the vacuum round that day or your ornaments aren't quite right. Real ocd is all consuming and just fecking awful to be quite honest.

I think eccentricity is something different

It used to literally take me 8 hours just to use the toilet, still takes me at least an hour, usually hour and a half from all the rituals. Wear latex gloves while i go so i can't get anything on my hands and still sometimes wash them in neat bleach after and still don't feel "clean". Using a toilet outside my own home, total no go. Add in my totally shot bladder nerve and major urge to go at any moment that can trigger like im full to bursting with even only an egg cup full of fluid actually in there, that WILL result in an accident if i don't go even though i don't actually need it, and yeah, i've been completely house bound for over 3 months now with no prospect of leaving the house again any time soon. It only takes someone else mentioning to me (who i'm talking to online and nowhere near me) to mention then need a wee, and i absolutely panic at the thought of contamination incase they wet themselves.
THIS is genuine OCD, if youre able to be worried about something but *"Then i realise how lucky i am and get the heck on with my life" you really DON'T have OCD, at all, and its seriously offensive for you to suggest you do and that you're just superior to be able to ignore it. If it was OCD, you could NOT ignore it.

Good luck to all of those with issues, to most of you, the answer is actually in your own hands.