Mental health is a narcissistic scam
Mental health has become the most pathetic cope in history. In my humble medical opinion, the modern mental health label is meaningless. You either have a psychopathology or you don’t. There should never be a stigma around either of those. But the mental health movement has produced a few tagalongers, a few people slipstreaming in under the guise of mental health to justify all flavors of being a prick.
False positives, false negatives, and a clinical framework
There is a clinical concept called false negatives and false positives. We have a fire alarm and that is a signal that says, “Hey, check this out.” It’s triggered by smoke. A false positive would be that the alarm goes off, but there’s no actual fire. A false negative would be that there is a fire, but the alarm doesn’t ring.
This happens all the time in medicine. The problem comes when anybody is allowed to ring the bell if they’re feeling a bit sad or if they just smell smoke.
There are some people in the false negative corner who need a hug and they need the bell rung for them. There are other people who are just ringing the bell every time they fancy a cigarette and those people need a slap.
Then to compound it, the false negatives and the false positives think that they should be in the other group. The ones who will be triggered are inappropriate users of the system, and they’re the ones who benefit from flagging up and ringing the bell.
Why this has become a recent problem
Two trends in the last decade explain this. Baseline narcissism has gone up where everybody has a platform and they can monetize attention and get approval for talking about my trauma, my anxiety, my labels, my beliefs. There’s also an algorithmic echo chamber: you can build an audience of people who agree with you.
Collecting labels and dodging self-honesty is a cope, but because of the way the feedback loop is structured, it produces a loop that’s really hard to break under the guise of self-care. The brain goes, “Okay, I’ve put that in a box. I’m safe again. I don’t need to question it.” Or worse, it configures its entire identity around it.
What happens when a term loses its definition
When it stops there, mental health becomes this vague umbrella term that is not clinically useful because it just describes a spectrum of being a human that we’re all on. If you ask any psychiatrist, they’ll agree that it’s not a thing. There is no boundary or definition to the word, which is a slippery slope in itself because without clear boundaries you lose agency. You can’t make judgments. You can’t see reality properly. You can’t then say no to claims.
This is bad for you and it’s bad for people with diagnosable psychiatric issues, which stops people from getting the actual treatment they need.
Identity desire as the root motivation
The core human desire at the root of everything is the desire for identity. That desire is stronger than the need for approval, for control, for safety. So there’s no evil intent here. It’s just another way for people to reinforce their identity with labels and picking the easy way out.
What if it’s not actually true? Then I might have to accept that this is just part of being a human and I’ll have to take responsibility for my own actions.
It’s particularly tempting to pick a label that doesn’t have a particular definition and without getting it confirmed by a professional, because if it turns out not to be true, then it’s just the challenges of being a human, which is boring and doesn’t make you unique and special.
Who benefits from lack of boundaries
Bullies and victims benefit from lack of boundaries, and sometimes they’re two sides of the same coin. Vague problems require vague solutions: endless therapy sessions and medications and self-help books. It’s a great way to feed the anxiety train because it carries this payoff of a reinforced sense of self.
When you have a specific diagnosis with a specific treatment, most things are treatable. You would get better and you’d stop being an endless customer or an endless seeker.
My dad was a psychiatrist and he once had a patient with a treatable condition. He said, “Look, this is actually a very easily treatable thing.” The patient said, “Oh, well, but then what will I have?” She realized the slip she’d made: she’d invested her identity in having this problem.
Specific conditions are different from vague excuses
Depression is real. Anxiety is real. PTSD is real. But these are specific conditions with specific diagnostic criteria and treatments. They’re not vague excuses for poor behavior or avoiding responsibility that people can hide behind.
It’s possible to be severely mentally ill and still be a prick. A diagnosis doesn’t strip you of your free will or your right to have a personality and character.
Get checked out rather than wallowing in the gray zone
If you have a symptom, go and get it checked. Don’t wallow in the gray zone. Then you’ll get a clear answer with a set of tools on how you can function better.
The ADHD label as a case study
A consultant I worked with in pediatrics clocked an increase in parents pushing for an ADHD label for their kids. His theory was that these parents wanted an excuse for their bad parenting. Oh, it’s not my bad parenting. It’s just my child has a special thing that means he’s going to get a special laptop and extra time in exams.
In trying to normalize mental health issues, we’ve done the opposite. We’ve pathologized being a human. And now the echo chamber has created this economy around victimhood.
The systemic incentive to stay broken
Trauma is real. ADHD is real. But there is a global incentive to staying broken. Cognitive dissonance causes people to slither out of accountability and seeing reality for what it is, because it’s so much more comforting to go, “Oh, it’s not my fault.”
“I can’t do X because of my mental health” has become the universal get-out-of-jail-free card. Even 50% of new doctors coming in this year have put in extenuating circumstances. The risk is that people with actual diagnosable conditions get lumped in with everyone who’s just playing the system or having a bad week, and the ones who really need help get marginalized once again.
The real work: internal and external boundaries
The real work for all humans is creating boundaries, internal and external. Taking ownership of your responses to the world. You can’t do much about the cards you’re dealt, but you can do a lot about how you respond. Developing a clear value system rather than inheriting it from others without checking, and building an internal locus of control.
The way to do that is start consuming information that you don’t agree with. See what happens when you go up against things that challenge your world view. Actually changing your behavior is a bit hard. Much easier to say, “Oh, it’s my mental health,” and just keep doing the same thing. In which case, you’re going to keep getting the same results you’ve always got.
The simple lifestyle check
The simple check is: am I anxious because I’m in debt and I’m scrolling Instagram 8 hours a day? Can’t I focus because I’ve trained my brain on 15-second TikToks? If so, there are a lot of easy wins to get yourself out of that.
If you’re lifting heavy, doing cardio, getting social connection, cutting out the toxic relationship, quitting the job you hate, sleeping properly, getting sunlight, meditating, doing all that stuff, then great: you can’t self-heal everything. That doesn’t mean you should stop trying. It means that when you do get treatment, it works better because it’s on a stronger foundation.
Trust in God, but tie your camel.
Not everything can be manifested. If you’re suffering, do the basics and see your GP. They’re not mutually exclusive. Get a referral. See a therapist. You’ll get a more accurate picture from somebody outside of yourself and you’ll stop looping.