Mental Health

I'll admit I only read the first several paragraphs. I do get a bit frustrated at times with the number of people nowadays that claim to have ADHD just because their house is messy or autistic because they have one thing they are passionate about.

The tricky part is that like the article states...yes, basically all mental illnesses are essentially a part of the normal human condition! So it actually really is a spectrum between "normal" and "mental illness". So where do we draw the line? That's the problem. It's blurry. It's not a binary.

Where the line is theoretically supposed to be drawn is when the issue is severe enough to have an impairment of functioning or severe distress in an area of your life. Do you have mild social anxiety where you get a little bit of butterflies in your stomach before an event but are able to attend and function just fine? You don't have a disorder. It's natural...some people just have more or less of this than others. Do you have anxiety so intense that you have a panic attack at the thought of ordering food at a restaurant so you never go out to eat? That is functional impairment. You have a diagnosable disorder.

But again, this line is blurry. What I will say is that even though the first example shouldn't technically be classed as having a disorder, it is always a good idea to try to improve your happiness in life by seeking out how to cope with things like therapy! That's always a good thing and we should strive for everyone to live their best life! But if the first person were to receive medication for that, I'd say they were overmedicated. The second person would heavily benefit from medication.

It's just dumb to me how people go around and are like "I have trouble paying attention to boring things. I am so quirky with my ADHD, guys"! Yet they have always been able to function just fine. People often get overmedicated this way and two other things happen. 1. They are pathologizing normal human reactions and 2. They almost "cheapen" (not the word I'm looking for) people who really really struggle with "actual" ADHD because they make it look "easy" to live with the condition, while those who "actually" have the condition struggle.

I will say that a lot of this in the US at least is insurance related. Often, a provider needs to tack on a diagnosis, even if not necessarily accurate, in order for insurance to pay for anything. If they just said that a patient was seeking help for "life improvement" (which is a good idea!), insurance is going to be like "fuck no, you're not getting any money". So like in my case, my providers immediately diagnosed me with both of your standard "anxiety and depression" for billing purposes, when really it's kind of innacurate.

Anyway goddamn I am always so wordy on the internet lol. Just my views is all.

tl;dr - I both agree and disagree with the artilce

🙃