410. Why does everyone have a diagnosis these days?
The Psychology of your 20s
iHeartPodcasts
4.8 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 27 April 2026
⏱️ 57 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Why does it suddenly feel like everyone has a diagnosis? From ADHD and autism to anxiety, trauma, burnout, and depression - mental health language is everywhere right now. But are rates actually rising? Or are more people finally being seen after years of being overlooked, misread, or excluded from the stereotype? In this episode, we unpack the psychology, politics, and culture of diagnosis: how diagnostic criteria have changed, why context matters, what social media has done to this conversation, and the tension between labels as affirming, or oversimplified.
We explore:
• What the data actually says about rising diagnosis rates
• Why historically missed groups are being recognised more now
• The role of context in shaping our experiences
• The risk of pathologising ordinary human struggle
• When scepticism is useful - and why it should be aimed at systems, not individuals
• Why a label can still be meaningful, helpful, and nobody else’s business
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Our favourite sources:
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7422602/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4810039/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11747871/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10251666/
https://reference-global.com/article/10.58734/plc-2025-0009
The Psychology of your 20s is not a substitute for professional mental health help. If you are struggling, distressed or require personalised advice, please reach out to your doctor or a licensed psychologist.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed human. |
| 0:09.6 | Hello everybody. I'm Jemma Spike and welcome back to the psychology of your 20s, the podcast where we talk through the biggest changes, moments and transitions of our 20s and what they mean for our psychology. |
| 0:29.5 | Hello everybody. Welcome back to the show. Welcome back to the podcast. It is, as always, |
| 0:35.4 | so great to have you here back for another episode and back for a very |
| 0:39.2 | big, big episode for us today. |
| 0:42.9 | Today we are talking about a major, pretty huge discussion happening in society at the moment, |
| 0:50.0 | whether that's online, whether it's in the medical community, amongst concerned parent groups, |
| 0:56.2 | friend groups, policy makers, and that is the idea that everybody has a diagnosis these days. |
| 1:03.0 | I'm sure you have heard it. Everybody has ADHD. Everybody's anxious. Everybody's on the spectrum. |
| 1:08.3 | Everybody could be depressed. Everybody could have OCD, BPD, |
| 1:11.7 | PTSD, etc. Is this true? Is it true? Does everybody, or could everybody actually have a |
| 1:20.5 | diagnosis in this day and age? Or is that just public opinion? Is that just public opinion making |
| 1:26.3 | a problem C, or not even a problem, making a change seem bigger than it opinion? Is that just public opinion making a problem see, or not even a |
| 1:28.3 | problem, making a change seem bigger than it is? Is it just increased visibility and reduced |
| 1:33.5 | stigma that is giving the impression that more people have diagnoses than before? And if numbers |
| 1:39.9 | are actually increasing, should it be cause for concern? You know, should we be worried about how |
| 1:45.0 | other people see themselves or are seen by the medical community? I have to say a lot of my |
| 1:52.2 | friends naturally work in the mental health space and this is something that we cannot shut up |
| 1:58.2 | about because it is so, so, so much more nuanced than what you may read or see |
| 2:03.2 | online. It's so much more nuance than what fearmongering would have you believe. So I thought it was |
| 2:09.7 | time to do this episode, do a whole episode on this topic and like crack open the lid on this |
| 2:17.1 | discussion. I want to thank our researcher |
... |
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