I listened to a Modern Wisdom podcast hosted by Chris Williamson, and his guest was Freya India. She discussed something I had witnessed over the past several years but hadn’t put a name to it: therapy culture.
In a positive light, we have seen increased awareness of mental health needs, appropriate diagnosis, and acquisition of necessary mental health services.
But, on the other end of the spectrum, we see it shifting from helpful naming and awareness to identity consumption, rumination, and hyper-fixation.
People are no longer nervous; they have anxiety.
People don’t struggle to focus; they have ADHD.
People aren’t sad; they are depressed.
People don’t have ups and downs in their moods; they are bipolar.
And people inevitably find trauma somewhere within their childhood.
Again, on the positive end of this, there are many people gaining beneficial awareness and help from identifying a mental health disorder that they have long lived with but never understood. And they are receiving the necessary help to get better.
But there’s this other part, particularly in teens and young adults who diagnose themselves, and this labeling doesn’t become healing and freeing; it becomes constricting, consuming, and a core part of their identity.
If your whole friend group, social media presence, and primary topic of your social interactions is anxiety, what happens when it gets better? Do you still have community?
If labeling yourself as having ADHD takes away from the shame of not being able to accomplish necessary tasks and stay focused, what happens when you take the label away and the shame is still there?
Add on the social media algorithms continually fueling you with more and more content of people similar to you and the consumption tricks your brain into thinking there is no longer a community for you outside of your diagnosis.
One of the poignant points Freya made in this podcast is that she felt this therapy culture takes away from people living their lives. We no longer identify an emotion and allow ourselves to move through it and keep going with our day. We shift it to an assumed diagnosis, and it becomes a core part of who we are.
Life is meant to be filled with ups and downs. That doesn’t mean the downs won’t hurt – they will. But that, too, is part of life. There will be days we are nervous, sad, unable to focus, struggle to get things done, get hurt, and so much more.
This is the plight but also the beauty of being human.
Warmly,
Kylie Larson, MA, LPC
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