Mental Health

I feel like far too many people these days, are either being diagnosed, or worse, SELF-diagnosing "mental health issues" and disorders. Don't get me wrong. There are real mh issues, and some people do legit suffer from them and need various manners of help.

BUT, I also think it's very dangerous, this growing mindset that every single kind of behavior needs to be labeled, and often diagnosed as a "problem", that they often "need a pill" for. People self-diagnose as having this that or the other issues or disorder, when a lot of times, they actually don't.

To hear some people talk, you'd think that MOST people have some sort of disorder, and I find that very hard to believe. I am sure that I, myself, would be diagnosed by some as having some labels or other. The real problem here is, I think it's becoming too convenient, and also quite frankly dangerous, that SO many people are either GETTING diagnosed with issues, or deciding, after researching on Google for an hour, that they "have ____". This need to label and compartmentalize everything, and point everything out as a "disorder" or "functional disability", is rather absurd, and kind of scary.

Again, SOME people legit have mental health issues, very real ones, that they struggle with and need help with. But I find it very hard to believe that EVERYONE who has been diagnosed by a psychiatrist, or who have individually decided they must fall under ____ disorder, actually have them. "Mental Health" itself is a very vague, fluid term that can cover a LOT of territory, and yet at the same time meaning nothing specific.

EVERYONE has "mental health" to maintain, it is your cognitive and emotional functionality, how you handle and process thoughts and feelings. But just because you're sad, doesn't mean you suffer from "Clinical" or chronic depression. Just because you often feel anxious or uptight or scared, doesn't mean you absolutely have anxiety disorder. Just because you often have trouble focusing or paying attention, doesn't mean you have ADD, anymore than being super focused or detail oriented makes you OCD.

I think in many cases, there are people who actively WANT to believe they have some kind of disorder, to believe that there is something "Wrong" with them, or rather because they think if they are diagnosed as such, it makes them part of some larger group, it makes them "belong" in a very weird way. And, just maybe, there are folks who WANT to fit into one of these labels, because they think that will somehow make them special, because they claim to have "special needs" and thus expect people to treat them unlike everyone else.

And to me, that is a massive disservice to those who actually HAVE serious mental health issues. I myself have struggled and dealt with depression for most of my life. I do not need someone to tell me that it's because I have a chemical imbalance in my brain, nor do I need to be labeled with some official "disorder". The fact of the matter is, I've had hard life, and in general, life can just really suck at times, frustrations and sadness and loneliness and other negative feelings build, and it makes you unhappy, or even miserable. That doesn't automatically mean you have a "disorder", nor does it mean you need to get on some sort of meds, or pay some stranger to give you therapy.

Maybe some folks actually, legitimately DO need that kind of help. But me? I've made it literally decades, on my own, and I've suffered, and struggled, and survived, on my own. No pills, no shrinks, and no diagnoses. I do, in point of fact, have a very big Mental Health issue. It's called "Life". And it can really bring me down, or piss me off, or make me sad, or even sometimes make me not want to still be here. But I deal, I survive, and hope that as I continue struggling, one day I will ultimately triumph, and the many things that make me angry, or frustrated, or sad, or lonely, or afraid, or anxious, etc., will lessen, and I will as a result feel mentally and emotionally better. And if my life suddenly becomes great, and I have everything I've ever wanted, and I STILL am unhappy or miserable? Well then I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

Nothing I've said is meant to make light of people with mental health issues or disorders. I've dealt with depression that is, at times, utterly crippling, in my life. And that's just one thing. So I know that, to borrow a stupid meme, "the struggle can be real". I get it. But I am also just getting increasingly sick and tired of people talking about "mental health" as if it's the newest trend, when it isn't, and shouldn't be treated that way. There are an awful lot of things we can do in this life, to cultivate and maintain positive Mental Health, emotional equilibrium, etc. Most of them have to do with simply learning how to deal with other human beings, and more importantly, learning WHICH human beings to bother dealing with or not. No one ever said it was easy. But it also does noone any good, if everyone just wants to wear diagnoses signs around their necks, and not actually actively deal with their problems, or with life.

Food for thought.