If it wasn’t dysfunctional, it wouldn’t be a diagnosed with mental health condition to begin with.
I think this is a concept that is getting lost in mainstream mental health discourse: There is a big difference between anxiety the emotion and anxiety the mental health disorder. Similar story for depression and concentration struggles.
It’s normal to feel anxious at times. It’s not healthy when anxiety becomes so dominant as to interfere with normal activities of life, manifesting as the type of pervasive avoidance behavior described in this study.
This is becoming a huge problem among the young people I’ve mentored recently; They will go through phases where they become convinced, often by TikTok or Reddit, that they have ADHD, anxiety, and/or depression because they aren’t perfect robots who do marathon study sessions with a smile every day. I feel like I’m always explaining to them that it’s normal and healthy to feel some discomfort as they learn and grow. It’s not reasonable to expect everything in life to come easy. Of course, there are students who struggle with mental health issues as well, but the difference between someone struggling with lifelong ADHD and someone who just learned about ADHD through a serious of TikToks a few weeks ago and now thinks they have it is obvious when you’ve been working with them both for a long time.
> I take a more neutral approach on the finding and don’t yet assume this is something that is best medicated out of.
The study doesn’t say that this is “best medicated out of”. It specifically highlights exposure therapy as being effective in normalizing this in individuals who respond to it:
> and exposure therapy has been shown to restore frontopolar function in those PTSD patients that benefit from treatment.
I think this is another issue permeating pop culture discussion of mental health issues: The assumption that strong medications are the default response. Every medical professional I know prefers lifestyle interventions and therapy modalities to prescribing medications, but patients often arrive convinced that they need medication. If the provider recommends therapy or lifestyle interventions they often get angry that at the perception that the provider is being dismissive or not taking their problem seriously.
I've shared my experience in being diagnosed as ADHD as an adult already[1][2], but in this context, the net is that I fought even the concept of going on any kind of medication for a long time. I wanted to go hard on lifestyle interventions and all kinds of different "tricks" for working around my constant reshifting to different priorities.
Ironically, while I love my therapist still, my psych has been an absolute pill pusher. I've routinely told her that I'm not interested in _also_ being prescribed Xanax because I'm having some anxiety after a long, shitty breakup. That discomfort is part of the human experience. But she is SO eager to throw more Rx at me...it's been kind of eye opening how easy it could be to abuse prescription meds.
I think it would be wise to disassociate your concept of yourself and your psych.
Are you on adderall, have you tested if it works for you?
If you are now medicated for ADHD which everyone with symptoms should at least experience. Knowing it even exists and that you can feel that way is extremely grounding.
If you are concerned with abuse, do some research and on the drugs they are recommending. I am hypersensitive to some drugs, so I tell anyone prescribing me the drug that I am going to ramp and if they have a problem with that. Most of the time they are and they like someone engaged in their own outcomes.
You probably need a combination of a lot of things, therapist, life changes, deliberate drug use, etc.
Yeah, I've been getting regular therapy for years, that's all a part of it. I allude to it in the links, but I've gone hard on going into the gym, building better routines, etc.
I've also taken plenty of steps backwards, but I'd like to hope that's part of the process...
> They will go through phases where they become convinced, often by TikTok or Reddit, that they have ADHD, anxiety, and/or depression because they aren’t perfect robots who do marathon study sessions with a smile every day.
I was struggling to put a name to this phenomenon but I recently learned about the term "semantic contagion" as coined by Ian Hacking. There is an article I found interesting that speculates the rise of a rare disorder with the proliferation of the Internet in the 1990s.
I think the idea that an influx of readily available information can confuse people with tempting theories or misinterpretation is more relevant than ever today.
> The assumption that strong medications are the default response. Every medical professional I know prefers lifestyle interventions and therapy modalities to prescribing medications
Moreover, these two aspects nearly always coincide: Every credible institution will require you to engage in therapy in tandem with commencing medication. Often, once your condition improves, the discourse shifts towards the possibility of gradually decreasing your medication (though this is obviously a conversation, not a mandate).
This is the wrong approach imo. Therapy, lifestyle changes, learning to cope with it without meds should always be the first line treatment. More and more, you see the approach of just handing out meds like candy with a small mention that you should also seek therapy AFTER you get the meds. You can go to a general doctor and they'll write you up a prescription for an SSRI with hardly and convincing at all, there is no requirement for therapy so I'm not sure where you're getting that from.
The side effects of meds for anxiety issues are far too downplayed imo. Benzos, ssri's etc. all have very detrimental side effects and are very difficult to get off of.
Preface: I'm speaking as someone who is diagnosed with OCD and generalized anxiety disorder, and I will be speaking about my experiences.
When my mental health took a turn for the worse a few years ago, I was strongly encouraged by my therapist to start taking medication. I was admittedly skeptical upon hearing. I had never taken psychiatric medications before as I held many misconceptions of their side effects, and besides, I figured therapy was supposed to "fix me," so why should I need meds?
When I inquired as to why they wanted me to become medicated, their response was that patients tend to only reach out for help AFTER their mental health becomes severe enough that "learning to cope without meds" is not an option. When a provider is faced with such a case, they are trained to treat it with as much aggression as reasonably possible in order to prevent the patient from becoming even more despondent. This means medication.
From the perspective of the patient, it appears that they're being funneled into taking meds, but from the perspective of the provider they recognize the trajectory the patient is on, and suggest taking drastic actions before things get worse.
As I mentioned before, reputable establishments typically mandate concurrent therapy, particularly when dealing with conditions like depression and anxiety. Your therapist and psychiatrist will often work together and share notes to better treat you. Reputable psychiatrists will often ask if you want to try therapy alone first: The good ones have no lack of patients, so it’s not in their interest to even take you on immediately especially if you’re not committed to getting better through therapeutic means.
Sure: Just as you can unquestionably locate primary care physicians who readily prescribe large quantities of Vicodin, naturally, you can also come across psychiatrists and PCPs who readily prescribe SSRIs without much supervision.
"As I mentioned before, reputable establishments typically mandate concurrent therapy"
But, this is objectively false. Are you trying to say a GD is not "reputable"? Like I said, you can go directly to a GD almost anywhere in this country and they will give you an SSRI with no requirement or mandate to get therapy at all. They will all mention it but there's nothing that requires you to attend therapy.
In the capacity of a psychiatrist? No, a primary care physician is not a trustworthy substitute for a psychiatrist. Mental health disorders should not be addressed by a PCP, even if they have the ability to prescribe you medication for it. You should seek treatment from mental health clinics that almost always have both psychiatrists and therapists on staff or work closely with other clinics that do.
Furthermore, once more: Numerous primary care physicians excessively prescribed opioids like candy. Acquiring a medical license does not automatically equate to being reputable in all fields.
Whether they should or shouldn't be addressed by a GD is irrelevant. They are addressed by a GP in many circumstances. There are not enough psychiatrists around to cover everyone.
Your point is moot. The system is not set up to push therapy, it's set up to push drugs first. You mentioning that "reputable" psychiatrists wouldn't do that is irrelevant. Your ignoring the issue by marking everyone disagree with as not reputable.
I also see that some of these types of people you mention wear this (imagined or not) ADHD “status” as some kind of badge of honor, so that they may feel superior to or more special than “normal” people. Weird times.
I think it's always been that way to some extent. There's some element of being human, where we seek empathy from others or pity if you will to a degree. I know I've done it, where I made justifications for something I have difficulty in.
It's just now there's a lot more of it, where there is a lot more awareness of disabilities, and empathy rightfully but also means more people are inclined to maybe take the easy way out through diagnoses or taking medication to cover for some emotional issues. If there is no other way, then you should seek out meds,etc. But it is part of being human, to understand and overcome some difficulties through perseverance, resilience, or emotional work.
If it wasn’t dysfunctional, it wouldn’t be a diagnosed with mental health condition to begin with.
I think this is a concept that is getting lost in mainstream mental health discourse: There is a big difference between anxiety the emotion and anxiety the mental health disorder. Similar story for depression and concentration struggles.
It’s normal to feel anxious at times. It’s not healthy when anxiety becomes so dominant as to interfere with normal activities of life, manifesting as the type of pervasive avoidance behavior described in this study.
This is becoming a huge problem among the young people I’ve mentored recently; They will go through phases where they become convinced, often by TikTok or Reddit, that they have ADHD, anxiety, and/or depression because they aren’t perfect robots who do marathon study sessions with a smile every day. I feel like I’m always explaining to them that it’s normal and healthy to feel some discomfort as they learn and grow. It’s not reasonable to expect everything in life to come easy. Of course, there are students who struggle with mental health issues as well, but the difference between someone struggling with lifelong ADHD and someone who just learned about ADHD through a serious of TikToks a few weeks ago and now thinks they have it is obvious when you’ve been working with them both for a long time.
> I take a more neutral approach on the finding and don’t yet assume this is something that is best medicated out of.
The study doesn’t say that this is “best medicated out of”. It specifically highlights exposure therapy as being effective in normalizing this in individuals who respond to it:
> and exposure therapy has been shown to restore frontopolar function in those PTSD patients that benefit from treatment.
I think this is another issue permeating pop culture discussion of mental health issues: The assumption that strong medications are the default response. Every medical professional I know prefers lifestyle interventions and therapy modalities to prescribing medications, but patients often arrive convinced that they need medication. If the provider recommends therapy or lifestyle interventions they often get angry that at the perception that the provider is being dismissive or not taking their problem seriously.