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What I see in clinic is never a set of labels. Are we in danger of over-diagnosing mental illness? By Gavin Francis, read by Nuf Uzalam. Some Usalam.

Someone is shot, and almost dies.

The fragility of life is intimately revealed to him.

He goes on to have flashbacks of the event, finds that he can no longer relax or enjoy himself.

He is agitated and restless.

His relationship suffer, then wither.

He is progressively disturbed by intrusive memories of the event.

This could be read as a description of many patients I've seen in clinic

and in the emergency room over the years in my work as a description of many patients I've seen in clinic and in the emergency

room over the years in my work as a doctor. It's recognisably someone suffering what has in recent

decades been called PTSD or post-traumatic stress disorder. But it isn't one of my patients.

It's a description of a character in the 7,000-year-old Indian epic,

the Ramayana. Indian psychiatrist Hittes Sheth uses it as an example of the timelessness of certain

states of mind. Other ancient epics describe textbook cases of what we now call

generalized anxiety disorder, which is characterized by excessive fear and rumination, loss of focus,

and inability to sleep. Yet others describe what sounds like suicidal depression or devastating

substance addiction. Research tells us that the human brain hasn't changed much in the past

300,000 years,

and mental suffering has surely been with us for as long as we've experienced mental life.

...