The idea that mental illness is being over-diagnosed

Katie590

It’s hardly surprising that children have mental stress the pressures are far higher than when I was a teen. It’s our generation that put all the extra stress onto children.

Adult suicide is much lower than 1980 (ONS) probably because more help available

We did have pressures when I was a teenager too.

Starting with the 11+, exams every year, GCEs, A levels and whether or not to go to university (few did back then despite their excellent exam results), the Cold War, etc.

We didn't have mobile phones or the internet which cause their own problems.

Thankyou Sago

This is a very interesting thread. I agree that mental health issues can be overdiagnosed and certainly spoken about too much. I, in common with others here, have suffered bouts of crippling anxiety and depression, including two cases of burnout - l have carried on working beyond common sense. I have needed medication for depression and still take it - this is common for many musicians; probably because we live on our nerves at the best of times. I think that the reason we hear so much about it now compared with years ago is because it was treated as something shameful. I am only now beginning to talk about it myself more as I feel the stigma lessen. I believe that I had my first depressive episode as a teenager, but was told by my mother that I was "too young" to suffer from depression - she has since realised how wrong she was. I believe that the root of my depression is the mastoid surgery and the dreadful ear infections beforehand, followed by severe deafness in one ear for most of my life plus undiagnosed dyspraxia. I believe in resilience and getting on with things as far as possible, but I think l would have had more support and certainly been eligible for concessions such as extra time in exams these days. In those days (the seventies), I was told that although the hearing in my left ear was severely damaged, the hearing in my right ear would compensate. The only problem l would have would be that l would have no directional hearing. Of course, l "got on" with it, but a little more sympathy would not have gone amiss. I think it is good that we are more open about mental health issues and their causes on the whole, but I think that we have to be aware of the company we are in. I also think that carrying on as normal, where possible, is the best thing we can do to help ourselves as well as others.

@tictacnana

It does set my teeth on edge to hear glamour models say they have “mental health”. WeALL have mental health just as we all have a blood supply !

Hear, hear!
I've been screaming this for several years.
We all have mental health, it's a case of whether ours is good or not.

There have been times in my life when I've felt depressed or anxious, but never to the point of feeling I've needed to see my doctor, or even really acknowledge it. As others here have said, we all feel anxious or depressed at times, obviously being 'clinically' diagnosed is completely different, but these are normal human feelings and are designed to prepare us for things in our lives.

Another thing I wanted to mention, is that hoarding has now been recognised as a MH disorder. This is because as many as 97% of people (questioned) who hoard, have been through extremely traumatic experiences, and it is now understood that these experiences are likely to have contributed massively to their hoarding.

I've mentioned this because I myself have hoarded for over 35yrs.
I never knew the real reason why, until I sat and told someone at a hoarding support charity meeting 4 yrs ago, about some of the traumas (yes, there have been several) I've experienced in my life.
The members of this group have been great. We support each other with coming to terms with our problems, and finding ways to try to declutter our homes. There have been some successes, whilst the rest of us are either procrastinating or working through sorting our homes.
We celebrate the small wins, which encourage us to go for even bigger wins. For some, it's allowing someone through the front door or emptying one carrier bag/box, and for some, it's been massive achievements like completely clearing a room and allowing workmen in to do things.
I've now come to terms with what I've done and why, and I'm working really hard on dehoarding my home. It's a work in progress, I do have some help, and I'm hoping that I'll have the home I want by the end of this year. It was difficult, initially, letting things go, but now I'm seeing joy in counting how many bags and boxes are heading out to the charity shops or the rubbish tip. The group have celebrated my progress with me because I'm now brave enough to share some of my before, during and after photos with them.

So, a few weeks ago, I was approached by the lady who runs this charity, with a view to doing a tv interview about hoarding. 3 of us were asked to do it, and despite our anxieties about what we might be asked, or who might see us talking about it on tv (friends, family, etc), we all agreed. The cameraman and interviewer were great and handled it very delicately, which reduced our feelings of anxiety a little. Then, we had to sit back and wait to see what exactly they showed of our several hours of recording in an 8min slot on tv.
Here in the UK, it's Mental Health Awareness Week 13-17 May, which also encompasses Hoarding Awareness Week, so we were told our slot would go out during that time, but we got the news on Friday lunchtime that it had already aired. Fortunately, I was able to find it on iplayer, and apart from tv adding its usual 10lb+ to me, it was actually quite well done. Needless to say, I'm no longer anxious about it, and don't mind telling people I did it.
So, yes, I hoard.
Yes, it's a MH disorder.
No, I'm still not proud of the state of my home, but am I now doing something about it? YES!
I now consider myself to be a 'recovering hoarder'.

It’s hardly surprising that children have mental stress the pressures are far higher than when I was a teen. It’s our generation that put all the extra stress onto children.

Adult suicide is much lower than 1980 (ONS) probably because more help available

MissInterpreted

Thank you, OldHag, but I'm no stranger to 'getting on with things' or facing up to my fears. I've already said in previous posts on this thread that I do agree that some people are too quick to label every little worry as a 'mental health issue', but there is a massive difference between that and true depression or anxiety. I hope some people on here never have to find that out for themselves. Talking can help, yes - but it's not always that simple. Teaching our young people to be confident and resilient and to care for both their physical and mental wellbeing should be a major priority for everyone. And so should getting rid of the stigmas which still surround many aspects of mental health. Suffering in silence helps no-one and telling people they should just get on with things often doesn't help either.

👏👏👏👏👏

The people who assess for PIP have little or no understanding of MH issues. It has taken my daughter over 5 years to be able to interact with her children’s school without support. She has had her PIP considerably reduced because she can do that but there is no understanding that she cannot do that with other organisations or people. Because she cannot overcome hurdles if the MH team cannot see her for any reason, she disengages (which is often the case with her disorder) so loses out again. PIP assessments cause ructions in our lives.

@germanshepherdsmum

I think talking about ‘mental health’ has swung too much the other way. I have always been entirely open about my depression because I think that’s a good thing and people shouldn’t be afraid of taking, or ashamed to admit taking, appropriate medication. But nowadays, yes I think many overplay the ordinary stresses of life and talk about being anxious or depressed when they are just a bit nervous or fed up. And they refrain from doing things ‘to protect their mental health’. It’s really not good to obsess and navel gaze so much.

I totally agree with you here.

May years ago, I worked for an organisation which sat between the Dept for Health and MH services on the ground, trying to destigmatise MH, getting it the same standing as acute health and acceptance that when someone suffers with a physical issue, there can also be the possibility of some knock-on mental effects.
We worked tirelessly across the whole of England for just over a decade, until David Cameron said the country didn't need Health Authorities anymore (we sat within HAs), so our work was then halted and we were all made redundant. Although, we'd done the biggest part of the raising awareness aspect of what we'd been set up to do by then, and it was only a few short years later that many celebs, royals, etc, started talking about MH.
We felt so proud that we'd been involved in bringing this about.
But now, seeing how the needle has swung so far, and how very minor issues are being blown out of all proportion, and some of our snowflake kids are jumping on the bandwagon, saying they're suffering with their MH because they've broken a fingernail, it really makes me worry whether we did the right thing at all.
There used to be a time when if you wanted to skive off work for a few days/a week, you'd claim you had food poisoning or you'd fallen off a ladder and pulled something in your back. FP generally could get you 2-4 days off, a bad back could run into several weeks/months and would miraculously disappear just as an appointment for tests and xrays landed on the doormat. Now, it's so easy to claim depression or anxiety to get a few weeks off work, because there isn't really any test to disprove it, and the wait for an appointment with MH services is so long. So MH issues have now become the bad back excuse for skiving.
Thankfully, there is a middle ground, and those who do have genuinely poor MH issues are being diagnosed and helped, albeit very slowly due to the lack of MH professionals available. And there is also the acknowledgement that severe MH issues constitute some form of disability, which could result in the patient being able to apply for a Blue Badge and PIP (Personal Independence Payments), although, those in themselves are another contentious issue. Should the badges be blue? These were initially intended for those with physical disabilities to be able to park closer to shops, hospitals etc, whereas a MH issue doesn't affect a person's ability to walk, so maybe we should have 2 colours of badges and put the MH colour spaces a little further away than those for the blue badges. And the PIP forms as they currently stand don't really work for either mental or physical issues, they've tried (unsuccessfully) to create a form to deal with both, when they should have left the original form alone ( for physical issues) and added a new form for mh issues.
It's all an enormous mess that needs sorting, but for now, unfortunately, those who truly need MH support are having to wait ridiculous amounts of time whilst those 'swinging the lead' get away with it, and there's nothing we can do about it. Or is there?

pen50

Well I'm one of the senior adults who suspects that a combination of ASD/ADHD has impacted my life - for good and ill. It would be helpful to me to have a diagnosis though I can't think of anyone I would actually share it with. But when I did seek help they wanted someone who's known me a long time to fill in a questionnaire - and that would mean breaking my own medical confidentiality. There's a lot of back story in my life that decades later I still feel awful about and wouldn't wish to share with anyone other than a qualified psychiatrist. So I remain undiagnosed.

I could have written this but have bitten the bullet to see if I can get a diagnosis. I have been on various antidepressants for the last 30 years so have been able to lead a less chaotic, emotionally unstable life. Now I am on HRT it is even better but my husband keeps me on track too so I worry what would happen if anything happened to him. Also, the antidepressants keep my mood flat so may not be my best option. All I want is to be the best I can be so if a label accesses the options I need, so be it.
One of the thing about mild anxiety is that if you give into it, it gets bigger so it is best to get it sorted as soon as possible.

apart from the severe mental illnesses, i used to think a lot of folk ,were well...... until family members got it, and i started to suffer,yes its an illness, why would people want mental illness?
people wanting a mental illness is an illness in itself. The thing is a mystery, no one has a cure as yet, seems to be part of the human condition, like physical illnesses .

I worked in the Mental Health field when it was just known as Psychiatry, only in the admin part of it, but starting in the mid 80's, there were not as many patients as there are now, nowhere near as many. Over the 25 years I worked there, the situation was always the same, no real money put into the system, perhaps that's why there are still problems today. It was always known as the Cinderella Service of the NHS, last in queue for everything. We all have brains, so in a way we all have the capacity of developing Mental Health problems, be they just anxious and feeling a bit fragile, or getting the big diagnosis of full on Mental Health issues. The problem today is that as I've heard from former work colleagues they are working with locum consultants most of the time, as no one wants a full time consultant psychiatrist post, so if that carries on, in time there will be no psychiatrists around.
Just my take on the subject, not a professional comment.

I think it's pretty normal for children to experience some misery in their teens, presumably hormonal. In days past they wouldn't have beem confined to school but out living their adult lives much earlier.
It seems a shame that normal teenaged angst should be termed mental illness, depressing is a very different thing.

I'm pretty sure austerity followed by a pandemic has affected lots and lots of young people's mental health. The thresholds for support have been set too high for well over a decade and we are seeing the fallout from this ime in schools and colleges. Diagnosing neurodiversity is extremely helpful in teaching people how to understand and manage their own behaviours, routines and regulation and is a good thing. The earlier this happens, the better. The pull yourself together mentality is crap and unhelpful to everyone.

Thanks for sharing this Baggs. Very interesting indeed. A topic which regularly has me confused but thankfully I've not suffered myself thusfar. Again..... thank you.

Thank you, OldHag, but I'm no stranger to 'getting on with things' or facing up to my fears. I've already said in previous posts on this thread that I do agree that some people are too quick to label every little worry as a 'mental health issue', but there is a massive difference between that and true depression or anxiety. I hope some people on here never have to find that out for themselves. Talking can help, yes - but it's not always that simple. Teaching our young people to be confident and resilient and to care for both their physical and mental wellbeing should be a major priority for everyone. And so should getting rid of the stigmas which still surround many aspects of mental health. Suffering in silence helps no-one and telling people they should just get on with things often doesn't help either.

There's quite a bit of interest now in art and creative activities which improve mental well being. It's an interesting approach and certainly helps people who are going through difficult times. Many schools of course cut their creative subjects to the bone because they were not consider of value. It would be great to see their real value recognised and might help many young people.

When many young people access counselling services they are rightfully guided into accepting that depression stress and anxiety are all normal processes .. especially in times of change that all young people go through. I think many young people, parents carers etc need to really get onboard with this and the strategies (including hormonal changes) and resilience needed to walk those paths when necessary… not from social media etc but from invested nuturing human beings…

An apt user name 'MissInterpreted', for I think you have misinterpreted what 'SheWho' has said, or are perhaps being a little over sensitive, possibly triggered by your own mental health situation. I think that all she's saying is that we all struggle with stress from time to time, and probably in the majority of cases, we just need to push through to the other side. However, having struggled with depression since the age of 23, (I am now 65), I do know the difference, and used to be told in the early days when I told people that I was suffering from depression to 'pull myself together', or 'just get on with it. In those days this sort of attitude led to many of us who truly suffered from mental health problems keeping quiet, however, now I think we've gone too far the other way, mainly as a result of covid, and as many on here appear to agree, the slightest touch of fear or 'anxiety', gets labelled as a mental health problem, and is often blown up out of all proportion, as I've seen with my own grandchildren, who all claim to suffer from 'anxiety'. A certain amount of anxiety is good for us, and as I explained to one of my granddaughters the other day, 'feel the fear, and do it anyway', is a phrase coined for a reason. I'm sure that the vast majority of us, whilst growing up, and even at later stages in our lives, have felt anxious about something, whether it be standing in front of a group of people having to do a presentation, going somewhere new, or even something as simple as catching a bus, but in order to live our lives properly, we have to 'feel the fear, and do it anyway', rather than wimping out the moment we get a little scared. So if you're a bit nervous of doing something, talk to someone about it, but don't label it as a mental health condition, as it's perfectly normal. She did listen, and I hope took what I said on board. Time will tell.

There is a whole lot of difference between feeling anxious about exams or a social event and feeling so desperate that you are struggling to remain here. Until it happens to you, you have no idea. Why would you?

SheWho

We all get anxious and depressed at times, especially when there's a trigger, such as exams, an interview or some worrying social event where a clash is feared. These things are temporary; thank goodness. There is no need at all to label ourselves as having a mental health issue. Most of the time we just need to get over it.

Wow, clearly you have never suffered from actual clinical depression or anxiety! It's very easy to say people should just 'get over it' - if only it was as simple as that!

Well I'm one of the senior adults who suspects that a combination of ASD/ADHD has impacted my life - for good and ill. It would be helpful to me to have a diagnosis though I can't think of anyone I would actually share it with. But when I did seek help they wanted someone who's known me a long time to fill in a questionnaire - and that would mean breaking my own medical confidentiality. There's a lot of back story in my life that decades later I still feel awful about and wouldn't wish to share with anyone other than a qualified psychiatrist. So I remain undiagnosed.

We all get anxious and depressed at times, especially when there's a trigger, such as exams, an interview or some worrying social event where a clash is feared. These things are temporary; thank goodness. There is no need at all to label ourselves as having a mental health issue. Most of the time we just need to get over it.

I suppose that it may be preferable to the early 70s when I had a complete breakdown - physical and mental- and had to lie about it. I was desperately ill and had the added stress of keeping it a secretin order to. at some stage, carry at university. Back then, it was stigmatised and not a badge of honour, an excuse for bad behaviour or fashionable. It does set my teeth on edge to hear glamour models say they have “mental health”. WeALL have mental health just as we all have a blood supply !

JennyCee

Lucy Anna and others.
What does “bump” mean? I keep seeing this and am no further forward in finding out what it means
Excuse my ignorance

“Bump” will push the thread up, the more comments the closer to the top the thread goes.

Talking to a small group of teenagers last week there were 5 one said they suffered from mental health as they called it the others all nodded in agreement saying they too had it I didn’t say anything as didn’t want to pry