Are We Over-Diagnosing Mental Issues?

If you spend even a few minutes on social media, you'll notice how easily mental health terms now enter everyday language.

- ERA DUTTA

“Oh! I'm so OCD about cleanliness.” “Everyone has ADHD these days.” “That gave me trauma.” What began as awareness has quietly slid into casual diagnosis and this shift has ignited a serious question across medicine, media and policy: are we overdiagnosing mental health conditions?Recent debates in the UK have brought this issue into sharp focus. A new survey of physicians suggests many doctors feel everyday stress, grief and dissatisfaction are increasingly being medicalised. Policymakers have echoed similar concerns, questioning whether rising diagnosis rates reflect worsening mental health or a system struggling to distinguish illness from normal human distress.

The truth, as with most things in psychiatry, is nuanced.