72% of Gen Z Girls Identify Mental Health Challenges as Core to Identity, Prompting Debate on Over-Medicalization of Traits

New York – A recent article by writer Freya India, published in The Free Press, argues that a growing trend among the younger generation involves pathologizing normal human traits, transforming them into symptoms of mental disorders. The piece, titled "Nobody Has a Personality Anymore," contends that common characteristics like shyness and forgetfulness are increasingly being re-labeled as conditions such as autism and ADHD. India asserts that this societal shift risks eroding individual identity by reducing complex human experiences to clinical diagnoses.

According to the article, this phenomenon is particularly prevalent among Generation Z. India notes, > "My generation is obsessed with treating every trait as a symptom of a disorder: You’re not shy, you’re autistic; you’re not forgetful, you’ve got ADHD," she writes. She further elaborates that being "lovably forgetful" or "gentle and sweet" is now often reinterpreted through a diagnostic lens, suggesting a medicalized view of personality.

The essay highlights a 2024 survey indicating that 72 percent of Gen Z girls consider "mental health challenges an important part of my identity." India suggests that this statistic underscores a broader cultural acceptance, and perhaps even embrace, of diagnostic labels as defining aspects of self. She argues that this trend is fueled by a "therapy-speak" culture that has permeated language and societal understanding.

India also critiques the role of the mental health industry and social media in perpetuating this over-medicalization. She posits that individuals are increasingly seen as "products" adorned with "labels," driven by an environment that incentivizes the identification and sharing of perceived disorders. This commodification of mental health, she suggests, can lead to a loss of mystery and a narrowing of how people understand their own suffering and identity.

The article concludes by questioning the long-term implications of this cultural shift, urging a re-evaluation of how society categorizes and responds to human diversity. It implies a need to distinguish between genuine mental health conditions requiring support and the natural variations of human personality.