Louis Weinstock, a psychotherapist, recalls how a teenage girl with acute mental health problems, including self-harm and suicidal thoughts, confided to him that she had begun to question whether or not her suffering was real. She had seen so many of her friends post about their “anxiety” and “depression” that “she felt like she wasn’t sick enough to warrant her experience,” says Weinstock, author of How the World is Making Our Children Mad and What to Do About It. regard.
Undoubtedly, the pandemic caused an uptick in anxiety problems among young people. But Weinstock worries that, for some, the idea of having a mental health problem has become an identity, and one for which they are rewarded.
inadequate understanding
On TikTok, the social media app that’s hugely popular with a largely younger audience, a growing number of social media stars have called themselves “mental health influencers.” Many of them are young women or teenagers who post videos of themselves experiencing symptoms such as Tourette’s tics or rapid changes from one personality to another due to what they say is borderline personality disorder. Without holding any medical credentials, they post videos that claim to help viewers “self-diagnose” their own mental conditions.
Weinstock believes that these phenomena are the inevitable result of letting psychiatric terms loose on society without a proper understanding of what they mean. Social media is especially primed for spreading misinformation, especially since those who post are rewarded with likes for the content. “We know that certain types of content are going to be promoted,” he says. “You don’t hear any positive stories about mental health issues. You just hear anxiety, depression, and self-harm popping up in the nervous system.”
The consequences of a disproportionate focus on the negative aspects of mental health were tragically shown in the case of Molly Russell. In September, an investigation found that unsafe online content contributed “more than minimally” to the death of the 14-year-old student who took her own life in 2017. Of the 16,300 posts Russell saved, shared or liked on Instagram in the six months before her death, 2,100 were related to depression, self-harm or suicide.
According to Weinstock, the problem with constantly scanning ourselves for signs that we’re not feeling well is that it can lead to a state of “hypervigilance.”
“If you’re looking for signs that you might be depressed or anxious, you can almost guarantee that you’ll find evidence that you are,” he says.
Tendency to pathologize
The American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) adds new terms with each edition. As soon as they are added, there are countless patients who fit the criteria. The manual, which began as a pamphlet in 1952, is now a thick tome. Conditions added in March of this year included mood disorder not otherwise specified, nonsuicidal self-harm, and new symptoms of prolonged grief disorder.
“People often think that these terms are very scientific and have something to do with the brain,” Weinstock observes. “But if you look at the history behind how these terms originated, it’s essentially a group of men who voted for them.”
This tendency to pathologize our behaviors, Cariss says, stems from our “desire to make something feel concrete in a world that feels really uncertain. People look for an anchor when they feel at sea.
But he worries that the act of labeling ourselves broken or sick might prevent us from digging a little deeper into what the causes might be. “There is a desperate need for quick fixes, rushing to a response that looks like it might ease the burden or pressure.”
She would rather people focus on how to change how they feel rather than label that feeling.
And the ways to change the way you feel can be quite simple: move your body, drink more water. Or have that difficult conversation that you may have been avoiding.
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