[_doctor_love]

> It is proposed that happiness be classified as a psychiatric disorder and be included in future editions of the major diagnostic manuals under the new name: major affective disorder, pleasant type. In a review of the relevant literature it is shown that happiness is statistically abnormal, consists of a discrete cluster of symptoms, is associated with a range of cognitive abnormalities, and probably reflects the abnormal functioning of the central nervous system. One possible objection to this proposal remains--that happiness is not negatively valued. However, this objection is dismissed as scientifically irrelevant.

Reading this I can't help but feel that the person who wrote it is a POS.

[autoexec]

I'm guessing that it's just a joke, but I'll admit that it reads like something you'd expect from somebody who doesn't know the difference between "sad" and "depressed" and thinks that there's some vast conspiracy to medicate people for normal human emotions. I'd bet this is smugly shared all over facebook by ignorant people who think that things like depression or ADHD don't exist.

[doubled112]

If I count on my fingers, just the ones I know the parents, I'd guess 7/10 kids in my neighbourhood have some sort of diagnosis or suspected diagnosis.

To be honest, I'm also starting to wonder if we aren't medicating people for normal human emotions.

[autoexec]

What do the parents you know say when you tell them that they're medicating their children for normal human emotions? My guess is that they could give examples of things that aren't actually normal which caused them to seek out a professional in the first place.

In previous generations children with corrective lenses were rare, and kids used to fear being made fun of and being called "four eyes" for wearing glasses to school. Recently it's gotten a whole lot more common for kids, even toddlers, to wear glasses. It might be tempting to think that Big Eyeglass was treating people for normal human blurriness, but it's more likely that eye glasses, and eye care more generally, has gotten more accessible and that more kids getting the care they need and recent environmental factors are contributing to the increase in kids needing glasses (and needing them at younger and younger ages).

It's the same with mental health issues. We have increased awareness of mental health, reduced stigma around seeking and receiving treatment, improved treatments, a better understanding of various conditions and how to diagnose them, and recent environmental factors that may be exacerbating problems if not inducing them.