From The Guardian. “I have been a doctor for more than 30 years and a neurologist for 25 of those. I have recently grown particularly worried about the large number of young people referred to me with four or five pre-existing diagnoses of chronic conditions, only some of which can be cured. Autism, Tourette syndrome, ADHD, migraines, fibromyalgia, polycystic ovary syndrome, depression, eating disorders, anxiety and many more.
The startling rise in people diagnosed with mental health disorders, behavioural and learning difficulties features regularly in newspaper headlines and in our conversations: “ADHD: what’s behind the recent explosion in diagnoses?”, New Scientist, May 2023. “Autism prevalence rises again, study finds”, the New York Times, March 2023. The story is the same for multiple categories of mental health disorder. “PTSD has surged among college students”, the New York Times, May 2024. “Depression and anxiety rates have increased by 25% in the past year”, Forbes, February 2023.
What do these astonishing statistics say about the state of our health? On the surface, they make it seem as if we are considerably less mentally and physically healthy than we used to be. But there are other ways of interpreting them. Could they simply reflect the fact that we are much better at recognising medical problems and identifying people in need of treatment? Disorders such as autism may be on the rise because people are finally getting the right diagnosis and being given support. But there is a third possibility. It could be that not all these new diagnoses are entirely what they seem. It could be that borderline medical problems are becoming iron-clad diagnoses and normal differences are being pathologised. These statistics could indicate that ordinary life experiences, bodily imperfections, sadness and social anxiety are being subsumed into the category of medical disorder. In other words: we are not getting sicker – we are attributing more to sickness.”
