> The effect of all this push about "mental health" has been to convince more and more people to believe they have mental health problems.

> Suicide rates ... are skyrocketing.

I'm confused. You seem to be suggesting that having more conversations about mental health is to blame for an increase of people committing suicide.

This is the exact opposite of my lived experience.

Conversations about my mental health and my problems are why I'm alive (and have no intention of taking my own life) today.

If you have a different lived experience, then fair enough.

But I'd respectfully suggest to take care painting with such a wide, sweeping brush next time. Life ain't binary. Especially when it comes to mental health.

"You seem to be suggesting that having more conversations about mental health is to blame for an increase of people committing suicide."

I do not see him suggesting that. He was suggesting that "labeling" more and more people as mentally ill might cause more bad, than good.

Allmost everybody has psychological problems. And yes, it is very important to be able to speak about it openly. But it is a different thing to have "mental problems", or to have a "medical mental condition".

Is there a push to label more people as mentally ill? From what I’ve seen, the push to destigmatize mental health is done to avoid labeling and treat mental health the way we treat general health. For example, treat stress and anxiety as health concerns whereby you can/should take time off if you need to recover from stress as you would a cold. Or, if having difficulty reducing your stress, to see a therapist without any social stigma.

Labeling people mentally ill is how the mental health industry convinces insurance companies to pay them for their services.

It's also probably not possible to convince the government to let doctors prescribe potentially mind altering drugs to people unless they say the people taking drugs are "ill" and the doctors are treating the "illness".

So yes I'd say there is a push to label people as ill.

What I think would be awesome is if mental health was de-stigmatized. Like physical health is.

I feel like back in the day - our grandparents, or their grandparents, perhaps you'd see men who didn't want to go to the doctor.

Now it is completely normal and expected to get a yearly physical. IMHO we all should be getting a yearly "mental", as well (with a psychologist, not a psychiatrist), and it should be both normal and expected.

Back in the day a doctor might make you less healthy, not more, especially in the era before they knew to sterilize surgical tools.

You obviously aren't concerned that the "professional brain jargon talking person" will make things worse. I know from experience they sometimes do.

I don't trust mental health professionals nearly as much as you do.

I believe you are correct, specifically about the label; allowing a mental health concern to be your identity, or even just part of it, can be more disabling than the problem itself. It also allows many people who would otherwise find ways to cope (healthily or not) to use the label as a crutch. "My depression made me..." or "My autism causes me to..." are not uncommon phrases to hear now.

It can be. On the flip side, I think there are people, who have been labeled negatively (eg lazy) because of a behavioral or medical condition, and now associate the traits that have been viewed negatively with that condition.

Stigma is a huge problem, especially when initially seeking help. Burnout took years to be added to diagnostic manuals, and still people are scoffing whenever someone drops out after being worked to the bone for months.

In Finland, burnout is not considered a valid reason for sick leave. Depression is, so people are only given sick leave if they accept that diagnosis and medication.

It's basically the same in the US. Taking care of your "Mental Health" is corporate speak for burnout. There is talk about avoiding burnout, but if someone has to actually take leave because of it, there are no legal protections for burnout, but there are for mental health issues. Mental health can be treated, but burnout is harder to come back from in the eyes of the company.

This is a fun way to avoid the actual thing we should talk about: We have systemic issues in our society that make people sick. Treating impacted mental health exclusively as a cause in and of itself - a personal issue - is a serious oversight, especially when we know those that have to fear for their survival living paycheck to paycheck are at much, much greater risk.

I'm sure you can think of different social developments that relate to this too if you're a hardline "you are responsible for your own situation" capitalist without much thought given to individual privilege. There's plenty of others. Let's take social media incentivizing only sharing positive things, leading to bias when comparing your situation to others, for instance.

The current system is a band aid on top of structural issues, nothing else. No amount of CBT and SSRIs can fix these.

this, a hundred times.

the labels are a form of victim-blaming.

Agreed, but both can be true to varying degrees at the same time.

Bipolar disorder, clinical depression / major depressive issues, etc.

Plus, since each "band aid" in this case is a human life - a person who may then be able to go on to help others and reform the system, I'm definitely a fan of pursuing both avenues at the same time.

Of course mood affecting disorders exist on their own, it is just that they are heavily exacerbated in those susceptible to them if they have to constantly stress about their existence. By band-aid I meant more that they are a detraction from the root cause. As I said before, our forms of treatment can not cure these conditions as long as the root cause is not tackled.

Mostly agreed. However with, bipolar disorder for example, I'm not sure that the problems with our society are the root cause ... though I suppose perhaps increased pollutants might cause more issues with children/birth.

But still, my point is I don't believe 100% of mental health issues have the dysfunctions in our society as their root cause.

Which isn't to say that some do and that it's not a big deal - it is.

>Suicide rates... are skyrocketing

Not globally. A search suggests suicide rates are down 15% in 10 years. That is, suicides have gone down remarkably.

If we're talking about the UK/US (which I haven't sourced but I can believe), it's more likely that conservative policies are driving people to feel they have no alternative.

You may have your causation/correlation confused.