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Salon
Salon
Science
Mary Elizabeth Williams

INSANE: Are we all over diagnosed | Vintage Vibes

Hand unravels the tangle of thoughts of a woman with mental disorder, anxiety and confusion. Getty Images/Ponomariova_Maria

It means something to put a word to the feeling, to the experience. It carries weight to be able to say, "I have ____" or "I am ____." It opens doors to treatments and medications and plans.

But what if that word is not the correct one, or even the best one? There's no blood test for depression, no scan for anxiety. Our mental health is a slippery and often subjective thing to define.

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