The dangers of labelling

A fortnightly column about emotional well-being

- Sonali Gupta

Labels like 'high functioning' trivialise internal distress.

(ISTOCKPHOTO)

Over the last 20 years, I have noticed a significant change in the language that clients use to describe their mental health struggles and inner world, and most importantly, how they carry it. I increasingly hear clients—young and old alike, and especially in the past eight years—use terms such as “high-functioning anxiety” and “high-functioning depression” to describe themselves during our initial conversations.

They talk about being perceived as individuals who are excellent at multitasking, managing personal and professional lives, and are seemingly happy with their lives, but their appearance doesn’t sync with how they are feeling. It’s this dissonance that contributes to an invisible suffering.

These clients say that neither their family nor their colleagues have an inkling of the distress they are experiencing. They feel that they are crumbling internally, struggling to sleep and feeling exhausted all the time.