We have over therapized ourselves as a society
Summary
A straphanger whose mom is a therapist argues that society has become obsessed with pathologizing every negative emotion instead of just living with discomfort. "Back in the day, I remember you could just be kind of weird," Kareem says, and the two riff on how constant therapy culture pressures people to eradicate sadness immediately rather than sitting with it. The rider shares that after getting diagnosed with ADHD and depression from a monotonous job, they ditched the pills and changed their lifestyle instead. Now they feel "pretty damn good." Their hot take? Imagine if Bob Dylan had therapized away his melancholy. We wouldn't have his music. Real mental health issues deserve treatment, they clarify, but not every bad day needs medication. Sometimes being a little mental is okay.
Full Transcript
So what's your take? We have over-therapized ourselves as a society. 100% agree. In the past, like, decade or so, it has become like a mission for our generation to be like, find out what's wrong with you. Get to the bottom of it, heal it, or else.
Well, back in the day, I remember you could just be kind of weird. Yeah. I think people are also really like scared to allow certain emotions to like exist for longer than like an hour. And so they'll do anything to sort of like keep that as distant as possible and then it ends up just kind of festering and coming back like five times stronger. And that's not to discount real ailments. Of course, some people are anxious, some people are all these things. Our mom is a therapist. Like, there should be therapists, but not everyone needs it in the way that like, if you're feeling down, you need to like get rid of that feeling now. Like eradicate it. Like imagine if Bob Dylan went to therapy when he was like feeling the way that he was feeling. We wouldn't have Bob Dylan.
Yeah. They were like kind of grumpy and depressed. Yeah. So your mom's a therapist?
Yes. My mom is a therapist. Yes. Like, there should be therapists, but we don't all need that. I mean, medicine is overprescribed. It's a fact. It is a fact. I think it's a fact. You have to accept discomfort and dysfunction into your life. It's kind of okay to be mental.
Exactly. I have uh, diagnosed untreated ADHD. I had a job and every day I would do the same thing and I was like, ADHD, and I was so sad and depressed because I had to do the same thing every day. And so I got on depression pills and on ADHD medication and then I was like, you know what? Why don't I just not do the pills and just try to have a different kind of life that suits my illness. Absolutely. Guess what? I feel pretty damn good.
Yes. And otherwise, otherwise you would have been swallowing pills every day doing the same thing and you just would have been a zombie. Don't be zombie mode. You don't want to be a zombie. Zombie mode's bad. And the feeling of when you finally reach a state of clarity independently on your own through your own remedies, uh, it's way more fulfilling and longer-lasting than a sort of like quick validation from a therapist telling you that it's going, it's going to be okay. But if you're feeling very, very, very, very bad, seek professional help.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.