Are people suffering from a psychiatric diagnosis or a hashtag?

I have been a Psychiatric Social Worker for 54 years starting in the field in 1968 at Kings Park State Hospital on Long Island, New York State. In over a half a century, I have been a witness to extraordinary changes in the mental health system in New York State and the country. Currently, there is constant media attention to a mental health crisis for children and adolescents in this post pandemic era. On May 14, 2024 Lucy Foulkes, an academic psychologist at Oxford University, posted an opinion video at the New York Times entitled “High - Functioning Anxiety Isn’t A Medical Diagnosis. It’s a hashtag.”

Foulkes states three important points in her opinion piece. The high rates of anxiety and depression in children and teens can be accounted for by increased awareness, overinterpretation, and self-fulfilling prophecy. This editorial video is making the point made in my earlier post about dynamic nominalism and labeling people who then have to live up to their label.

The psychiatric labels though are not being assigned by professionals but by web sites and social media where signs and symptoms are described and the consumer of the media is encouraged to diagnose themselves or their family members and friends.

There is no psychiatric diagnosis of “high-functioning anxiety” in the DSM - V, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, fifth edition, promulgated by the American Psychiatric Association which is the “bible” of psychiatric diagnoses in the US. However, it shows up as a hashtag on social media sites.

Psychiatric diagnoses are known to be contagious and spread through populations of like minded people who take on the signs and symptoms exhibited by others in order to belong to the group and communicate sympathy for the person afflicted by the named disorder.

Be careful when consuming mental health information from the internet and applying it to oneself and to others. Mental health diagnosing is not a parlor game and it is best, if the situation is serious, to consult with a professional.