Our overdiagnosis crisis
Amid a sharp rise in mental health conditions, critics say we have started to pathologise “ordinary human unhappiness”.
ByMental Health
Discover all the New Statesman’s mental health content including personal stories, expert advice, and comprehensive coverage of the latest research and societal issues surrounding mental well-being.
Caution should prevail on the assisted dying bill
It is far easier to give the right to an assisted death than to take it away.
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Janet Frame’s asylum dreams
The New Zealand author, born 100 years ago, was both tormented and inspired by her experience of mental illness.
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The tension between patients’ rights and public safety
The report into the case of Valdo Calocane may impact the government’s commitment to “modernise” the Mental Health Act.
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Ghada Karmi: “The physical damage of Israel’s assault is real enough. The mental trauma will be far worse”
We have no idea about the scale of suffering – there is no historical precedent for the war on Gaza.
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On TikTok, familiar childhood dynamics are pathologised
From “gifted kid burnout” to “eldest daughter syndrome”, influencers are rebranding familiar human experiences as a trauma diagnosis.
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Anxiety has its own logic and momentum
Immersion in the tragic, personal art of the photographer Nan Goldin provides some counter-intuitive comfort.
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Why therapy apps are all talk
This form of counselling – cheap, fast, requiring little commitment – is antithetical to how therapy is supposed to work.
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The pain of writing a very personal memoir
Also this week: All change at the Evening Standard, and Rishi Sunak’s karaoke song.
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Our mental health crisis won’t be solved by pills alone
The number of people taking antidepressants has doubled since 2011, but the side effects of long-term use are broadly unknown.
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Are girls “growing up too fast” online?
Viral videos of pre-teens documenting their skincare regimes and “love lives” have sparked a moral panic.
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The curse of climate brain
Global warming is not only destroying our environment; it is altering the way we think and act – for the…
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The government is launching an all-out assault on people with anxiety and depression
Rather than tackle the cause of “sick-note culture”, the Tories are simply scapegoating people with mental illnesses.
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The lonely land
Why are so many young people feeling so isolated? Is it because of smartphones, as the American social psychologist Jonathan…
By Neurodiversity is usually just part of being human
With referrals for ADHD, autistic spectrum disorder and other conditions swamping the NHS, we need to rethink medicine’s role in…
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Inside the collapse of the Tavistock Centre
Why the world’s largest gender clinic for children is closing.
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When meditation goes wrong
A new podcast uncovers a wellness retreat linked to mental breakdowns and suicides.
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How Big Tech rewired childhood
Jonathan Haidt’s The Anxious Generation shows how smartphones have damaged the teenage mind – and urges us to fight back.
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The case against therapy in schools
A provocative new book argues that the therapy industry is exacerbating our children’s mental health crisis.
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The Research Brief: young people are too ill to work
Your weekly dose of policy thinking.
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