This is essentially it. The names are a fiction. You let somebody say that you or your dependant is "disordered" or what have you, even if functionally they'r

This is essentially it. The names are a fiction. You let somebody say that you or your dependant is "disordered" or what have you, even if functionally they're doing better than most people, and in exchange you get benefits. Insurance coverage, social assistance, access to specialized programs, certain social privledges. I do wonder if we're absolutely fucking up the minds of a generation of people by giving more and more people the made up labels. They come hand in hand with stigma and insecurity. We've been loosening diagnostic criteria continually on the dubious grounds that we "better understand" mental illness in the past. When it gets down to brass tacks we just decided as society labelling more people as "different" and treating them differently was for the best. Beyond the concern I have for individuals more and more people are qualifying for disability assistance every year and its unsustainable financially. I do wish we had a model of mental health that was more focused on addressing more granular individual strengths/weaknesses and one less prone to just saying a broad swathe of people who are nothing alike are part of the same "spectrum".