Do you feel mental illnesses like anxiety are over diagnosed and over medicated?

Question

In my age group it seems everyone self identifies as having anxiety or depression and many take medications for it. I just find it hard to believe that nearly 70 or 80 percent of an age group can be ridden with these mental illnesses. Maybe I dont understand them yet or maybe people just assume is they arent happy or worry that they have a mental illness. And I myself have been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and take medications while seeing a psychiatrist so I have no problem with anyone seeking help for mental illness and I always encourage people to. But is it over used like people saying they OCD when they dont?

Answer

I think the two major problems are that people are self diagnosing but I also believe that anxiety and depression affect more of the population than we believe because not everyone wants to go or doesn't know where to go and get help.
Not everyone has depression, some people just don't have good coping mechanisms and are too immature or entitled to want deal with things and they think that's depression. I don't mean that as an insult or anything, they just need to be taught. 
Like I was formally diagnosed with depression, but my husband has not been but I can recognise depression in him.
I have self diagnosed myself with mild anxiety. I'm clued up enough to know what's normal and what's not.

Answer

One of my professors described anxiety and depression as the common cold of mental health. It impacts a lot of people. Are people actually self diagnosed if they get medication for it though? I'm not being sarcastic, this is an actual question lol. I mean yeah it's not diagnosed formally by a psychiatrist, but a doctor has to agree at some point. I feel like that has to have a bit more validity than just saying you have something. The last bit is more directed at the comments about self diagnosis and meds.

Answer

I was diagnosed with depression multiple  times. It finally took the correct therapist to diagnose me with bipolar disorder. I would tell my therapists that I was experiencing extreme highs and extreme lows, I told them how long they lasted and everything. But for some reason, they would just say I had depression, put me on depression meds, which ultimately made me worse. They're very quick if you have occasional sadness or whatever to stick the depression label on you and get you on meds in my experience.

Answer

I feel like people want to have mental illnesses to be trendy so they just self diagnostic themselves

Answer

being diagnosed and self identifying are two different things — although i successfully self diagnosed myself. after seeing a therapist for awhile it turned out i was right about myself. 
either way...i think true support isn’t readily available enough in the states yet. beyond that, the root issue is being completely ignored which is super depressing.

Answer

Besides those who self diagnose it’s more common now days because of population and the time change in this day and age. As a population grows you hear more of it due to the amount of people who have it. With lifestyles today I wouldn’t doubt it’s a bit culprit of some mental problems today. A LOT of people have fast paced lifestyles and are constantly busy, sometimes day and night. Again, this is where population come in. The bigger the number the more there seems to be.

Answer

No. Look at the stats. Anxiety and depression are the 2 most common mental disorders

Do you feel mental illnesses like anxiety are over diagnosed and over medicated?

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