Are we over-diagnosing ourselves? Rethinking the language of mental illness.: As mental health diagnoses become more common and expansive, the labels meant to help us understand our suffering may instead oversimplify it. (Gavin Francis, May 5, 2026, Big Think)
“Life is inherently difficult,” wrote the English psychiatrist and pediatrician Donald Winnicott, and “it follows that in everyone there will be symptoms, any one of which, under certain conditions, could be a symptom of illness. Even the most kindly, understanding background of home life cannot alter the fact that ordinary human development is hard.”
When the feelings that filter through into our awareness are negative, then clinicians call them “symptoms.” When those feelings are positive, we tend to regard them simply as elements of well-being.