Trauma or a tough time? How our mental health labels are changing over time

All In The Mind

ABC listen

Life Sciences, Health & Fitness, Science

4.4 • 785 Ratings

🗓️ 23 November 2024

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

We've come a long way in how we talk about mental health.

But while diagnoses like depression and anxiety can empower people to seek help and support — they also influence how we see ourselves and how others might see us, too.

Today, we investigate 'concept creep.' It's the idea that the labels we use to describe mental health are expanding and being applied to an ever-wider array of human behaviours.

We look at what's causing this, the impacts it might have (both positive and negative), and what it means for how we understand mental health conditions.

Looking for something to listen to next? Check out our episode about parasocial relationships: Moog became a Youtube megastar — and it messed with his mental health.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	ABC Listen, podcasts, radio, news, music, and more.
0:07.0	There was a time that admitting you were seeing a shrink, or talking openly about something like suicide, was utterly taboo, shameful even.
0:17.4	And women's mental health? Well, women are just hysterical.
0:21.6	PTSD after war? That didn't exist. That was shell shock. It was a weakness.
0:26.6	And while stigma, shame, and misconceptions about certain conditions definitely still exist,
0:32.6	we have undoubtedly come a long way. Not to toot our own horn, but it's why we do this show and why so
0:39.4	many pods on mental health and psychology have become so popular in recent years. But,
0:45.3	and there's always a but, it seems all this talking and normalizing could be having another
0:51.5	effect. Probably part of the story is that we're talking more about this.
0:56.3	That has some benefits in terms of improving mental health literacy,
0:58.9	but it probably also tends to lead us to see everything through a psychiatric lens.
1:03.3	And that can affect how we see others and ourselves,
1:07.5	because mental health labels have power.
1:10.3	And research shows if we apply them more casually, that power can run both ways.
1:15.6	And what we find is when you do experiments, those who receive the diagnostic label are seen more positively.
1:21.6	The downside was at the same time they also thought that the person who had the diagnostic label was less likely to recover,
1:28.5	was less likely to have control over their symptoms, and just generally had less agency.
1:34.4	So today, the power of labels and the impact of something called concept creep.
1:40.9	This is all in the mind. I'm Sana Khadar.
1:52.6	Cool. All right, so I'll just get you to start by introducing yourself your name, what you do, and where.
1:59.7	So I'm Nick Haslam. I'm a professor of psychology at the University of Melbourne, where I've been for about 23 years now.
2:02.5	All right, so take me back in time about a decade ago.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in -82 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from ABC listen, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of ABC listen and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.