{"id":2655477,"date":"2026-09-07T08:19:01","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T12:19:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignamericas-obsession-with-mental-illness-is-a-mental-illness\/"},"modified":"2026-09-07T08:23:59","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T12:23:59","slug":"utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignamericas-obsession-with-mental-illness-is-a-mental-illness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignamericas-obsession-with-mental-illness-is-a-mental-illness\/","title":{"rendered":"America&#8217;s Obsession With Mental Illness Is A Mental Illness"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Futm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignamericas-obsession-with-mental-illness-is-a-mental-illness%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2655477&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The article discusses the film *Thank You For Sharing*, which critiques the modern obsession with mental health and its expansion over the past century. It argues that society and the medical industry have exaggerated and commercialized mental illness, transforming it into a profitable industry that encourages unnecessary treatments, including hormone therapies and medications for children and adults. The documentary highlights how diagnoses like depression, ADHD, and gender dysphoria have increased considerably, partly due to a diagnostic manual that now recognizes over 300 disorders, broadening the criteria for many conditions. It also emphasizes the financial gains for mental health industries, which are projected to grow substantially. The film criticizes how social media and <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >celebrity culture glamorize mental health issues<\/a> and foster victimhood, often excusing violent or erratic behaviors under the guise of mental illness. It uses the Lindsay Clancy case to illustrate how mental health can be misused to avoid accountability.the film warns that the overmedicalization of mental health has led to societal problems, including the normalization of harmful behaviors and a victimhood culture that erodes personal duty.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Our culture has an unhealthy obsession with mental illness, and the Lindsay Clancy trial is just the latest reminder. Children and adults alike build their entire personalities around their perceived illnesses, whether by going to therapy five days a week or identifying as transgender. <em>Thank You For Sharing, <\/em>the newest film from director Sonia Zawitkowski, argues that this alleged crisis is predominantly artificial. <\/p>\n<p>The documentary tracks how we invented and gradually expanded the concept of mental health. It exposes how the modern field of medicine, originally centered around soldiers suffering from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/watch-gary-sinise-launches-new-initiative-with-home-depot-founders\/\" title=\"WATCH: Gary Sinise Launches New Initiative With Home Depot Founders\">post-traumatic stress disorder<\/a>, has spiralled into an industry that encourages children to take <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/doctors-biden-administrations-dangerous-push-for-trans-treatments-for-kids-falsifies-science\/\" title=\"...: Biden Administration\u2019s Dangerous Push For Trans Treatments For Kids Falsifies Science\">wrong-sex hormones<\/a>, get hooked on SSRIs, and rebuild their identities around their perceived illness. <\/p>\n<p>For decades, the corporate media have pushed the narrative that we are caught in a mental health crisis. As <em>Thank You For Sharing <\/em>argues, the problem isn\u2019t that mental health doesn\u2019t get enough attention but that it gets far too much attention. The industry is extremely predatory, seeking out vulnerable people and coaxing them into believing they need treatment. <\/p>\n<p>In a recent report from the Department of Health and Human Services, titled \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hhs.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/hhs-wolves-in-white-coats.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Wolves in White Coats<\/a>,\u201d the Trump administration exposed how doctors and other medical professionals encourage young people to pursue transgender procedures. Doctors diagnose their young patients with gender dysphoria, setting them on a path to \u201ctransition\u201d that will cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars over the course of their lives. The cost of long-term cross-sex hormones, puberty blockers, and surgeries can cost more than <a href=\"https:\/\/medinstitute.org\/youth-gender-transitions-counting-the-cost\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">$600,000<\/a>. Throughout <em>Thank You For Sharing, <\/em>doctors and longtime industry professionals pull back the curtain on the mental health cash cow, revealing how diagnoses such as depression and ADHD became much more common once the insurance-health care racket realized the massive profits from affirming \u201cmental illness.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>What <em>Thank You For Sharing <\/em>addresses best is how Americans\u2019 fixation on mental health has been building for a long time. Part of the blame for our current situation falls on the experts, who developed the field of psychiatry but had very little scientific data backing their diagnostic process. During the second half of the 20th century, when pharmaceutical companies became more profitable, the rates of diagnoses began to climb. <\/p>\n<p>In 1950, nearly <a href=\"https:\/\/pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/articles\/PMC2690271\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">580,000<\/a> people, or 0.38 percent of the U.S. population, were receiving long-term hospital care for mental illness. By 2022, the number of inpatient hospitalizations for mental health and substance abuse, which often go hand in hand, reached 1.65 million, or 0.5 percent of the population. But measuring only the serious cases doesn\u2019t give the full picture of Americans\u2019 obsession. A whopping <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hercampus.com\/wellness\/mental-health-survey-2024\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">72 percent of Gen Z<\/a> <em>believe<\/em> they have a mental illness, with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.psychiatrist.com\/news\/survey-42-of-gen-z-diagnosed-with-a-mental-health-condition\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">more than 40 percent<\/a> having received official diagnoses and 60 percent taking pharmaceutical drugs \u201cto help manage their mental health.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>The documentary points out how what is considered to be mental illness has expanded over the past century. Doctors and patients alike testify about how fast many therapists and psychiatrists are to pathologize normal human behavior. One industry expert explains that the <em>Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders<\/em> cited only about 100 different disorders during its first publication. Today, it lists more than 300. In addition, the supposed symptoms have broadened, allowing for almost any human behavior to fit some criteria for \u201cmental illness.\u201d In the past decade, the DSM has added \u201cillnesses\u201d such as \u201cprolonged grief disorder\u201d and \u201cunspecified mood disorder.\u201d Another recent addition, \u201cstimulant-induced mild neurocognitive disorder,\u201d simply refers to how people who use drugs for a long time are more prone to forgetfulness. <\/p>\n<p>Perhaps <em>Thank You For Sharing<\/em>\u2019s greatest strength is its willingness to call out doctors and health \u201cexperts\u201d who have made a fortune convincing people they are ill. In 2025 alone, the U.S. spent about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.marketdataenterprises.com\/u-s-mental-health-treatment-market-worth-118-billion\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">$118 billion<\/a> on mental health. That number is expected to rise to $159 billion by 2030. More than 14,500 mental health companies currently operate in the U.S., employing more than 750,000 workers. <\/p>\n<p>In the documentary, several people reflect on how their perceived mental illness entitled them to victimhood status. This is a trend we see with transgender influencers like Dylan Mulvaney and celebrities like Demi Lovato. <em>Thank You For Sharing <\/em>shines a light into how public sympathy for neurological disorders gives people permission to behave erratically. It briefly touches on how social media sites such as Tumblr and TikTok have glamorized mental illness. The glorification of mental health has had terrible effects on American youths raised in the tech age; this deserves further investigation.<\/p>\n<p>What <em>Thank You For Sharing <\/em>doesn\u2019t predict is how the mental health field has affected the public\u2019s perception of horrific crimes such as murder. The Lindsay Clancy case is an extreme instance of someone using mental illness as a get-out-of-jail-free card. Although Clancy has admitted to strangling and killing her three children, she has claimed \u201ctemporary psychosis\u201d as a reason to avoid consequences. Clancy\u2019s trial has drawn support from thousands of other women, who have expressed sympathy for the violent killer because of her mental health.<\/p>\n<p><em>Thank You For Sharing <\/em>exposes how the mental health industry thrives off of telling people that all of their worst behaviors can be excused because of \u201cillness.\u201d It explains how a victimhood mentality has eroded our country and our culture. The neuroticism around mental health has enabled children to chop off healthy body parts, prompted the masses to sympathize with a child killer, and coaxed millions of people into thinking they are broken. <\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Brooke Brandtjen is a writer and journalist from Wisconsin who focuses primarily on culture, politics, and religion. She is extremely passionate about the arts and history, and is honored to write for a variety of distinguished publications.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Culture&#8217;s obsession with mental illness highlighted in new film<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3727,"featured_media":2655478,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Woman-Covering-Face.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[44135,35390,40699,38656,51127],"class_list":["post-2655477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","tag-american-culture","tag-mental-health","tag-mental-health-awareness","tag-mental-illness","tag-society-2"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Woman-Covering-Face.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2655477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3727"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2655477"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2655477\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2655482,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2655477\/revisions\/2655482"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2655478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2655477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2655477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2655477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}