Mental health is important, don't let it be watered down

At some point during my 35 years on Earth, mental health problems went from being seen as shameful to being causes of celebration. Generally, they of course shouldn’t cause shame.

- Sebastian Murphy

But it’s been irritating in the extreme to see mental health elevated to sacred cow status.

UK Health Secretary Wes Streeting has found this out in the form of opprobrium for daring to suggest mental health conditions are being over-diagnosed in Britain. What the experts whingeing at Streeting don’t realise is that, if there is a lot of overdiagnosis, then not only does that punish the taxpayer forking out for certain benefits, but it also threatens the integrity of the thing they claim to be defending.

If you think that mental health is important, then surely you would balk at any watering down of its manifestations?

Surely you'd be concerned for a depressive on the point of suicide not being taken seriously because he’s lumped in with a bloke who’s pretty fed up and not working as a result?

Surely you'd want to know if this is happening, rather than go after Streeting?