AIBU to think we over-pathologise very nomal human behaviour?

[Breakawaygirl]

Other threads have got me thinking about this....

We all know that diagnosis of anxiety, depression, autism and other emotional/mental health/neurological conditions are on the rise.

My question is, is it true that we are just paying more attention to conditions that were swept under the rug, or are we over-diagnosing very natural human behaviour.

I've often thought depression, anxiety and other conditions are very natural reactions to our modern world.

Many people wake up early only to be overworked, fed bad food, underpaid, come home to more work, unable to foster connections with loved ones and children, feel lonely, cut off (no community), big uncertainty in the future, pollution, overpopulation, extinction of animals, little nature in some animals and a very aggressive media that seems to have an agenda - surely to feel bad is NORMAL in these circumstances.

I often think the diagnosis is a way of saying it's the PERSON who has the problem rather than the way we conduct our society/culture as a whole.

That is not to minimise that many conditions are the result of neurology and genetics, but a huge component is nurture and lifestyle.

I've often felt that we live in human zoos and are behaviour and neurosis stems from that.

For instance exercise is a natural anti-depressant but most of us don't get enough.

Anxiety is proven to be exaggerated by social media and the idea that everyone is doing better.

Is it that people individually are sicker, or is society sicker?

Curious for people's thoughts.

zzzz No, but it does raise the question of whether it is real, or just an excuse for bright parents struggling with the fact that their child is not as academically able as they are.

You didn’t EwItsAHooman, I did. The paragraph break was supposed to indicate a change of focus. Apologies if that wasn’t clear.

It's okay, I didn't realise but thank you for clearing it up.

And I agree with your point.

zzzz Richer people are more likely to be believed and treated as if they know what they are talking about e.g. by teachers.
If my shameless style family had said the same, teachers would have ignored it.

zzzz No western countries with similar lifestyles do not have widely varying levels of diagnosis for other physical disabilities or illness. Only between countries with significantly different lifestyles. The exception is autism.

Perhaps parents who are themselves academic and highly educated are able to recognise intelligence beyond being able to spell. If I had a child who was articulate and able to understand complex concepts, but struggled with reading and spelling, I’d be pushing for any explanation and assistance that would help them meet their potential too.

MrsFrumble There are different kinds of intelligence. Also what would you view as complex concepts?

zzzz Not sure what you dont understand and making tea

But orange wasn't talking about "undiagnosed dyslexia" though, they're claiming that parents are getting their kids diagnosed with a condition they don't actually have. Actually they phrased it more offensively than that, they referred to "labels and syndromes"
And they said syndromes in the plural, so they aren't just referring to dyslexia are they? I mean if they meant dyslexia they would have just said that. People who post what they did usually mean "you didn't have any of this ASD/ADHD nonsense when I was growing up and its just an excuse for children who aren't intelligent or are badly behaved"

Partinor to give an example, my DS is 8 and has been fascinated with engineering from an early age. At 4 he was watching documentaries on structural and civil engineering aimed at adults, absorbing the information then applying concepts of physics; aerodynamics and load bearing etc in different contexts. He was able to talk about what he’d learned in great detail, using the correct technical vocabulary.*

Fortunately he doesn’t struggle with reading and writing (his spelling is no sloppier than the average 8 year old whose pen can’t keep up with his thoughts) but if he did, and I felt it was holding him back from meeting his potential, I’d want dyslexia investigated as a possible barrier to his learning rather than just accepting that he was less “academically able” than his dad and I had hoped.

• before I get accused of bragging, as I mentioned earlier, DS has ADHD and ASD and engineering is his classic autistic “area of special interest”

Jan, I never said parents are getting their kids diagnosed with conditions they don't have. I made a few points which may or may not be connected.

1. Children start formal education too early.
2. Children develop and mature at different rates.Our obsession with data and benchmarks then plays into the anxiety felt by some people
3. The children of some affluent parents are misdiagnosed chiefly with dyslexia but possibly other conditions because it is preferable to being ordinary.

and here's another one.......4. Thanks to Doctor Google we are all " experts"

People who post what they did usually mean "you didn't have any of this ASD/ADHD nonsense when I was growing up and its just an excuse for children who aren't intelligent or are badly behaved

Really?

insider I didn't mention 3rd world countries though? I said you don't get depression in places where deprivation and violence are rife. I'm very well aware that 3rd world isn't short hand for starvation and violence - that's why I didn't use it.

The pace and complexity of modern life can make it more problematic to a range of developmental/ neurological/ mental health conditions compared to a simpler, more routine past.

Something "simple" like going to the shops is a more intense sensory experience with superflouous music, bright lights, visual displays than it was a few decades ago. Places are bigger, busier and more impersonal being more difficult for social anxiety. Life in the past was hard and uncomfortable for the majority, but it was predictable and difficult experiences were mutually shared even if they went unspoken. The WW generations were traumatised, a legacy that still feeds down, but the stiff upper lip culture and the fact that it was "normal" stiffled the extent of mental suffering.

I have an intelligent quirky child. Very articulate at explaining scientific/ geographical processes. Loves WW1 & 2 in geeky detail. Still writes his name wrong at 8. For quite a variety of reasons, I suspect he is not neurotypical in some way (today we've been on the brink of meltdown because I suggested that he might need long socks with his shorts in the snow I know not to even mention trousers, and because his brother got the blue cup first, not solved by washing the blue cup and giving him the drink). I love my child dearly and want to understand him and help him function effectively through life. He needs to get through an inflexible education system, particularly in large impersonal secondary schools. He needs to demonstrate his intelligence on paper to pass exams in order to get a job in the areas of his interest and aptitude. I have entered the early stages of initiating investigations into his development because if he does have identifiable conditions, awareness of them will smooth the pathway through education into employment to some extent (obviously not a solution). Regardless, he is still my beloved DS and it doesn't change his "quirks".

We are better at identifying difficulties that inhibit peoples' abilities to function normally. It is progress that people aren't incarcerated in institutions because they don't fit in with "normal". Special education provision is regressing, but inclusion has integrated disability and nurodivergence closer towards normal experiences of life rather than hiding and ignoring it.

Yes there are people that are self "diagnosed" via a facebook quiz who don't appreciate the full impacts of the condition on life "a little bit OCD" because they are tidier than average comes to mind. Equally there are people who come to realise later in life that they struggle because of the traits of a condition, particularly if a relative is diagnosed as is common with autism/ ADHD which can be hereditary.

Ultimately people want to understand where they and their loved ones slot into the world, particularly if they are some kind of quadrilateral struggling against a series of round holes.

'Genetically' depressed? Seriously?! Depression is a mental illness, it's not just feeling bad. And your example of a narcissist is not just someone who is a bit selfish, it is a clinically diagnosable personality disorder. It's part of the problem with attitudes to mental illness that they're not genuine or really not that serious.

I was diagnosed with depression and I wish I just felt a little sad.

There are days when it takes every bit of energy just to get out of bed and face the world.

That's a little more than 'nurture and lifestyle' problems

I think that the onss who have something really small happen and treat it like a disaster have never lived through real proper shit and its as simple as that get the fuck up and get over it when there is a reall
True disaster happening in your life then have a melt down!!! People are so mollicoddled now that they dont know shit has actually hit the fan unstead they freak out when there selfie turns out shit on facebook/ instagram whatever and no ine has liked it 6 trillion times its all such crap! Soz to be so blunt

I think sometimes the OP is right. So from what I have observed it is common for people who have been bereaved to get diagnosed with depression. Bereavement is seriously tough, but many of the feelings are totally normal. Sometimes it does spill over into clinical depression. But most of the time what people need is support and time, not to be diagnosed with depression.

Hany Sometimes, sometimes there is lots of underlying things happening and that can be the straw that broke the camel's back. I know when someone very close to me killed themselves, I got upset by stupid stuff, that was really about that.

If you believe a narcissist is just a selfish person, you've never met a true narcissist.

I know a woman in early 20s who was "diagnosed" with anxiety and had to be given special treatment because... Pills and everything after 1(!) swift visit to a doctor.
She cried once after she messed a task up so badly it nearly led to a dismissal.It hasn't especially because she went to doctor that day. Don't ask me how she managed to get an appointment I assume they were worried about her because she cried.
Once. Everyone would cry or get really stressed if they messed up this bad. Don't leave things which take 5 hours till the last hour...

Anxiety is not 1 panic attack, because you f**ed up. It ruins and runs lives. And all this over diagnosing is making mockery of the real ilnesses IMHO.

People get sad, people get stressed, we all have mini panic attack when something goes terribly wrong. But that's not an ilness. That's normal range of emotions like anger and happiness. When it becomes constant then it is a problem which must be dealt with by professionals.

One bugbear of mine is the "I have anxiety" thing. No, you don't. Don't label yourself with a condition just to excuse your own behaviour. You are just worrying too much.
Anxiety is a crippling psychological disorder, and I speak as someone with a close relative who has been properly and officially diagnosed (by both a doctor and a psychologist) with social anxiety and had counselling for it.