"America is the land of labels. And yet, as the number and intensity of the labels we wear have grown, so has our collective crisis of health - mental, physical, and even spiritual. Our diagnoses, our maladies, our jobs, our titles, our sexual preferences - these are all real, but they do not define us. Or at least, they shouldn't - because if our labels define us, we're also confined by our labels."
"Neurologist Suzanne O'Sullivan, in her book The Age of Diagnosis: How Our Obsession with Medical Labels Is Making Us Sicker, warns that "borderline medical problems are becoming ironclad diagnoses and normal differences are being pathologized," and "ordinary life experiences, bodily imperfections, sadness, and social anxiety are being subsumed into the category of medical disorder." The latest Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), the so-called bible of psychiatry, lists 297 conditions. One in nine American children has now been diagnosed with ADHD - a million more than in 2016, with adult rates doubling in the past decade."
America emphasizes an expanding set of labels that shape identity. Diagnoses, jobs, titles, sexual preferences, and other designations are real yet should not define people. When individuals are defined by labels they become confined, limiting potential and contributing to a broader crisis in mental, physical, and spiritual health. Borderline problems are increasingly treated as fixed diagnoses and normal differences are being pathologized. The DSM-5 lists 297 conditions, ADHD diagnoses in children have risen sharply, and adult ADHD rates have doubled recently. Diagnoses can enable treatment and community but should remain explanations, not identities.
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