To think we medicalise the normal throes of life?

[OneHonestSquid]

It feels like nowadays, anyone’s who’s sad about something is instantly labelled as “depressed” and anyone who’s worried about something is “anxious.” It’s like we’ve forgotten that experiencing emotions like sadness or worry is just a natural part of being human.

I get that mental health is important but are we over-diagnosing and medicalising things that used to just be part of life? AIBU to think we might be going a bit too far with these labels? Or is there genuinely a rise in mental health issues that need more attention?

Also menopause: every women is expected to suffer. Millions of women don't have any problems but are looked upon as weird and putting their health at risk if they don't take HRT

And while I'm posting, I'll also reserve some ranting for doctors who dismiss symptoms as "anxiety" when there may be other causes!

Which is exactly what drs do when you go for a diagnosis - pathologise normal reactions to life.

To a certain extent I agree. But I think largely it’s because society doesn’t give us time to process and deal with these feelings. Yes, depression and anxiety are part of the normal span of human emotions. However, in a more supportive society you would have time and space to deal with these things. With the world requiring two or even three incomes to survive, and no ‘village’ for childcare, how are we meant to solve these feelings? There’s no space and no time.

With the world requiring two or even three incomes to survive, and no ‘village’ for childcare, how are we meant to solve these feelings? There’s no space and no time.

Good point. To get that normal space you often need to get signed off by a doctor! So there is a slightly circular practical reason for it sometimes... which only goes towards blurring the boundaries.

That's very sad to hear. I worked in a really large office building circa 2016 a good few grounds staff had LD. I'd hate to think of them not getting out to work now.

I completely agree OP, and I say that as someone with a DC with a severe and debilitating anxiety disorder.

I was explaining her condition to a young colleague and was silently gobsmacked when he mansplained anxiety to me said that he also "had anxiety" and went on to explain his completely normal day-to-day human experience of feeling anxious. He is a really lovely young guy and was being completely sincere - this is the narrative he has been fed by social media etc.

I think there is a lot more self diagnosis of conditions now - social media has given people a platform to attempt to validate their feelings and experiences. And to make them appear more affected, more “important”, more “worthy”.

Normal human experience has become medicalised, pathologised, people want to feel more self aware and self conscious but often without self accountability.

I have seen a big shift over the years in my area of work, many more people seeking to diagnose their issues and seek medication or treatment. Most of these issues are what the rest of us just call life.

Having been depressed and sad, and having had anxiety and been anxious, there is a clear difference between the normal emotions and feeling mentally unwell.

Anxiety happens when you are just going about your everyday life and there isn't necessarily anything going on that would rationally make you feel nervous. And with depression you might feel sad, but more commonly you feel numb doing things you usually enjoy, or can't manage to do very much at all and feel overwhelmed or pointless.

Strangely enough when a psychologist said I have anxiety along with sever post natal depression. I said I didn't feel anxious/ nervous about anything, he said that what I had described though was anxiety disorder.

Being regular anxious about an event or something does not mean anxiety disorder.

Similarly, with the depression I said 'but sure most people feel like this' he not to that depth and not all the time. Looking back now how I felt about myself was actually horrendous, but I really thought I was grand.

I think people throw around the words without really knowing what they mean

It happens with other MH things too. I have a PD diagnosis, and it was blamed for my broken foot.

I think it's good having the language and words to use- I have been anxious all my life but didn't really know it was anxiety.

I do think sometimes medication is given too easily because the support isn't there in terms of mental health- I know someone who was a bit low, struggling with work etc, instead of getting help with anxiety got put on very strong antidepressants and things have just got worse and worse for her.

Far more often though women are suffering throughout perimenopause and menopause, or much younger, and their symptoms are dismissed by GPs as women's problems that you just have to put up with.

You're clearly suffering from Life Event Normalising Disorder. It's not in the DSM yet, but it will be when someone discovers an expensive treatment for it.

You mean opposed to people suffering with their “ nerves” back in the 1970s and getting Valium for feeling down?

The men have to rock, paper scissors over it first before it goes in there and to discuss if they could possibly be diagnosed with it. If possible they could it will never go in. If it can make money then yep it is in there! 😂

It’s a diagnosis, not a label.

if someone is physically unwell we need to know what exactly is wrong with them to know how to treat them and prevent the pain they are experiencing. We don’t call it “labelling someone as having cancer”, we call it diagnosing, so we can use all the right tools and treatments to help the person.

the same goes for mental health. A diagnosis, whether that be anxiety, depression, or a neurodivergence (no not suggesting ND is a mental health issue but the same principle applies) means that person can understand what they are experiencing and use this understanding to access the right support to reduce the pain they are experiencing as a result.

I agree OP. Not about formal diagnosis necessarily as that's not always an easy or quick path, but I agree that we are increasingly self diagnosing and labelling normal experiences and feelings, rather than just seeing them as part and parcel of real life and trying to manage them.
It's perfectly normal to feel anxious, experience high levels of stress at times, but a change in language increasingly suggests a person experiencing stress or anxiousness 'has anxiety' or 'poor mental health' and I think this in part has led to a feeling that we should seek to be medicated.
Another example is HRT. I'm doing just fine without it, but have lost count of the number of people who tell me I should be taking it and are perplexed that if it's freely available why would I not seek it out.

It’s an interesting question… I don’t really care either way but tripped over some articles years ago while I was researching something tangentially to this subject.

There is some feeling relating to what the Op says in the first post. I don’t know if the DSM is used in the UK or not so these particular articles may not be hugely relevant but I wouldn’t be shocked if the same thing was being felt over whatever your diagnostic criteria is.

https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/is-psychiatry-shrinking-what-we-think-of-as-normal

www.nursingtimes.net/news/controversy-over-dsm-5-new-mental-health-guide-24-08-2013/

I meant more the casual way those terms are thrown around, especially online or in day to day conversations. Of course people can feel anxious or low without having a clinical disorder but I sometimes feel like we jump to pathologising very normal human emotions. I’m not saying real diagnoses aren’t valid, just that we might be overusing the language in ways that blur the lines a bit.

People do that with medical conditions all the time. Loads of people are very quick to label someone as a narcissist on here too, when all they mean is someone was a bit of a cunt. Or "gaslighting" instead of "lied to me"

I'm someone who suffers with debilitating anxiety. I literally shitting my knickers after a lift wouldn't open and I was stuck for ten mins, they won't be calling it anywhere near the same type of thing if being a bit nervous.

It consumes my every waking thought and I push though so much every day but sometimes my body still goes "NO! TOADY WERE GONNA VALIDATE THAT FEAR AND MAKE YOU SHIT YOURSELF IN PUBLIC and for good measure here's a new OCD ritual, press the butting to floor D and this will happen again. Hahahaha you should have cancelled and stayed home, told you so"

I have to go there a few times a week for various treatments over the next month and im panicking about having to press button D. Sounds stupid and I feel stupid but there we are. Using stairs isn't an option due to the disability that's for me there so frequently and fighting the stupid thoughts im having "just cancel, you're so useless you aren't worth the NHS time and resources anyway, scared to press a button, you shouldn't be in the gene pool" "if you go and press that button it's your own fault if you get stuck again" and those are just the milder thoughts and it's 24/7.

I feel absolute stupid some days over this stuff and it gets harder to bounce back.

Totally agree, and the drug companies are laughing every inch of the way.

I disagree, I think modern life as it is is unsustainable and is making people unwell. If you look at animals who are “depressed” or “anxious” a decent vet or trainer would tell you to change their environment to improve their life. But with life so demanding and pressurised from such a young age it is impossible for people to change things. We respond to our environment the same way as any animal.

Yes. OCD is one which drives me mad. When people say they have ocd cause they like a tidy house (for example). Whereas OCD is an absolutely debilitating mental health condition which can ruin lives. It's nor a term to be thrown round and in my opinion, offensive to the poor people who actually suffer from it.

I agree. Mental health is like physical health. It rises and falls in relationship to the circumstances around a person. I do think poor MH is more prevalent now though, probably a lot to do with social media and living in a more uncertain world.

Im not sure if it’s anyone medical that’s over-labelling though, it’s people with dr google. And controversially maybe, I think some people look to diagnose themselves with labels as a way of not facing that they have some emotional problems that only they can fix.

“I can’t do that because of my anxiety” seems increasingly common. Yes, some things cause anxiety and this is a perfectly normal state of mind. It is not immediately a reason not to do something.

I recently had a TA working with me who wouldn’t answer the class phone because of her anxiety. She thought it was reasonable that I stopped teaching a lesson rather than her talk to the office. She’s no longer working in a school, it just wasn’t possible to give her tasks to last the day which didn’t involve talking to people, supporting children with additional needs or providing personal care. All of which apparently triggered something. I’m not really sure how she thought special education would work.