NYTimes had a podcast today about how the autism category—which used to mean something closer to nonverbal or mentally disabled—had broadened and includes a lot more people now but with symptoms that aren’t at the same severity.
I feel like that’s true for a lot of these categories. I feel like severity of illness is really important when talking about mental disorders since the spectrum is so wide.
This is in part because the term "Asperger Syndrome"[1] (which has always been related to / a subtype of autism) is no longer used and is now just under the Autism label.
It occurred to me the other day that young people rarely get described as 'shy' anymore. 'Anxious' is more common now.
Interestingly it was common to hear "they're shy, but they'll grow out of it". I don't think the same is ever said about anxious people (and I say this as someone who was very shy/socially anxious as a teen and 'grew out of it').
I'm thankful I struggled with this at a time when medications were not easily available or readily prescribed.
Not everyone "grew out of being shy". I know quite shy adults and shy old people. I also know anxious adults and old people. I kind of wish they had treatment back then, because some aspects of my life would be better if they would get therapy. Not having names for issues does not help at all. It just makes it hard to impossible to describe to others what is going on and get reasonable advice. And in the first place, it makes it hard to impossible to know it does not have to be that way.
Literally from the article:
> researchers found that the prevalence rate of neurological diseases and disorders has remained stable over time, with only a 0.2% decrease between 1990 and 2021. Over the same period, deaths from neurological diseases and disorders declined by 15%, meaning more people are living longer with these conditions. As a result, the number of years lived with disability increased by 10%.
People want pills and because you can't just get pills for symptoms cheaply the industry has responded to demand and diagnosed everyone.
It's like a cross between everyone at a bank being a VP and your doctor being a bro and prescribing you viagra for blood pressure so insurance picks up the tab.
If you're curious what type of disease/disorder they're talking about:
> The 36 medical conditions included in the systematic analysis cover the lifespan, from birth defects and neurodevelopmental disorders like attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder to migraine, which can begin in teen years and often peak in a person's 30s, to Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease, which can occur later in life.
> Researchers found the most prevalent conditions were tension-type headache affecting 122 million Americans, migraine affecting 58 million and diabetic neuropathy affecting 17 million.
>After adjusting for changes in the age composition of the U.S. population, researchers found that the prevalence rate of neurological diseases and disorders has remained stable over time, with only a 0.2% decrease between 1990 and 2021.
>Over the same period, deaths from neurological diseases and disorders declined by 15%, meaning more people are living longer with these conditions. As a result, the number of years lived with disability increased by 10%.
I feel like that’s true for a lot of these categories. I feel like severity of illness is really important when talking about mental disorders since the spectrum is so wide.
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asperger_syndrome
Interestingly it was common to hear "they're shy, but they'll grow out of it". I don't think the same is ever said about anxious people (and I say this as someone who was very shy/socially anxious as a teen and 'grew out of it').
I'm thankful I struggled with this at a time when medications were not easily available or readily prescribed.
Or 'having anxiety', which diminishes the subject's agency even more
Literally from the article:
> researchers found that the prevalence rate of neurological diseases and disorders has remained stable over time, with only a 0.2% decrease between 1990 and 2021. Over the same period, deaths from neurological diseases and disorders declined by 15%, meaning more people are living longer with these conditions. As a result, the number of years lived with disability increased by 10%.
It's like a cross between everyone at a bank being a VP and your doctor being a bro and prescribing you viagra for blood pressure so insurance picks up the tab.
> The 36 medical conditions included in the systematic analysis cover the lifespan, from birth defects and neurodevelopmental disorders like attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder to migraine, which can begin in teen years and often peak in a person's 30s, to Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease, which can occur later in life.
> Researchers found the most prevalent conditions were tension-type headache affecting 122 million Americans, migraine affecting 58 million and diabetic neuropathy affecting 17 million.
So are regular old headaches being included in these results?
>Over the same period, deaths from neurological diseases and disorders declined by 15%, meaning more people are living longer with these conditions. As a result, the number of years lived with disability increased by 10%.