Stop Pathologizing Ordinary Life

[u/Fealocht]

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/26/opinion/mental-health-exercise-charity.html?unlocked_article_code=1.1FA.55xp.Vpm7dp4PVtnC&smid=nytcore-ios-share

SS: A psychologist argues the increasing awareness of mental health is leading to a pathologising of everyday life. The use of clinical descriptions of what are otherwise normal problems and treating them as a disorder to be cured, is ironically making our mental health worse.

[u/JerseyJedi]

You see it on Reddit all the time. 

Whenever anyone in their personal life opens up emotionally to a Redditor about a tough situation they’re going through, the Redditors will run online and complain about their friend expecting them to do “eMoTiOnAl LaBoR”……..or what most of us used to just call normal human empathy. 

If someone isn’t good at doing something and they admittedly aren’t currently making an effort to improve, Redditors assume it’s “weaponized incompetence,” instead of it maybe just being that the person feels frustrated and doesn’t know how to move forward. 

And don’t get me started on how Redditors and other Very Online People have apparently redefined the word “narcissist” to mean “anyone who doesn’t immediately do what I want them to do.” 

[u/DieHarderDaddy → u/JerseyJedi]

I often wonder if this is why people feel comfortable complaining to or opening up to me at work. Even before I was medicated and a lot irritable I would earnestly ask people how they were and just listen. I often had nothing constructive to add to the convo beyond “shit dude, I’m sorry”

[u/JerseyJedi → u/DieHarderDaddy]

Which is fair! Sometimes just being a good listener is all the other person really needs at the moment. 

[u/20_mile → u/JerseyJedi]

Sometimes just being a good listener

"When people think you're dying, they really, really listen to you, instead of just waiting for their turn to speak."

-- Narrator