Bringing mental illness into the open was hailed as a breakthrough. Today, over half of Americans are comfortable discussing their emotional well-being, with openness and self-awareness now key pillars of mental health care. But recently both have come under fire. Despite greater openness, rates of anxiety, depression, and self-diagnosed disorders have soared across the West. The former chair of the American Psychological Association warns of ‘rampant’ diagnostic inflation as a result of medicalising normal behaviour, whilst studies from the National Institute of Health reveal that widespread mental health messaging may actually harm many individuals.
With this growing awareness, will the future be one where we shift from protecting people from discomfort to preparing them for it, normalising pain, and seeing it as a natural part of life? Or will we continue to see diagnostic inflation, and will this be a positive step towards our wellbeing? More radically, should we see mental health issues as primarily social rather than medical?
