We’ve lost the plot on mental health.
The line between "normal" and "abnormal" has been drawn and redrawn so many times it’s barely there anymore—blurred into something unrecognisable. So here’s a question: why have impatience, impulsivity, and boredom become symptoms? When did these traits start making people "unfit," diseased, disordered? You’re a little different? That’s a diagnosis now.
They say we’re better at spotting it, that the science is sharper. But maybe—just maybe—it’s because the world has become so streamlined, so obedient, that anyone who steps out of line now looks like a threat. Classes sit quiet, workplaces demand focus, structures insist on compliance. In this hyper-sanitised, squeaky-clean environment, anyone with a restless mind, a burning impatience, a "let’s just do it already" attitude is an inconvenience—a disruption, a risk.
Imagine a world designed to flatten the edges, to sand down the rougher personalities. A world that files every square peg until it fits neatly in the round holes. It’s not about diagnosing anymore; it’s about conditioning. Conditioning to sit still, shut up, and play nice. The more you stand out, the more you question, the more they call you a problem. Not a human being. A problem.
It’s like society's "perfect system" can’t allow the dissonance. There’s a solution: stamp a label on it. ADHD. Autism spectrum. Personality disorder.
You’re restless? Label.
You're driven by impulse? Label.
You can't focus on a mundane task because you’re already thinking about ten others? Label.
Make them medical terms, make them technical, even dangerous. But it's not our brains that are at fault—it’s the world they’re putting them into. A world too tight for some of us, but no one’s allowed to say it.
And what happens to those of us who don’t fit? Well, they’ve got a prescription for that. Here, take this pill. This will make you manageable, governable. We’re the fish that swim upstream, and they’d rather we didn’t, so they medicate the impulse out of us. Medicate us into compliance. Medicate us into oblivion.
Because when people are tough to control, they get labelled, sidelined, marginalised. Strip away the humanity, call it something technical. Say it’s a condition. Then you’re no longer dealing with a person who thinks and questions; you’re dealing with a disorder, a syndrome. Just another stat.
Let’s get one thing clear. I’m not like most people. But I’m not some "disordered" version of a human, either. I’m just a different kind of human. And that difference—that spark of what they call "abnormal"—that’s what keeps things moving, that’s the part of the world that still makes sense.
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