“What’s concerning, I think for everybody, is oversimplification,” said Lisa Henderson, a licensed professional counselor and past southern region
Questions that are commonly asked when determining a diagnosis throughout therapy and upon initial intakes may be, “Do your symptoms impact your daily life?” or “How are these symptoms impacting your ability to live your life in the ways you want?”. Intake assessment and therapeutic interventions are more involved than 60- second clips on social media and vary based on the individual, their proper diagnosis, background, family dynamics and other variables.
Social media influences have a tendency to portray mental health as “quick fixes”, whereas traditional therapeutic interventions and mental health treatment requires effort from the client to be open to new approaches in their life,
“Millions of people in the world may experience mental health disorder symptoms but do not meet the criteria for a diagnosis. The primary reason being when a qualified professional is assessing to determine a diagnosis (for most diagnoses), they are looking for what the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) calls “clinically significant impairment.”
According to the DSM-IV manual, the clinically significant distress or impairment criterion: …helps establish a threshold for the diagnosis of a disorder in those situations in which the symptomatic presentation by itself (particularly in its milder forms) is not inherently pathological and may be encountered in individuals for whom a diagnosis of “mental disorder” would be inappropriate. (p.7),”. (Slay, 2021).
