The Medicalisation of Everything
In pharmacies across New Zealand, we’re seeing a boom in dispensing medicines for mental health. It’s not just one area of mental health — it’s a wave across anxiety, depression, sleep issues, focus issues, you name it. The demand is so high that we’re now seeing worldwide shortages of some commonly used medicines.
This isn’t necessarily good or bad — it just is. For some people, getting the right medicine is life-changing. They finally feel like themselves again, able to work, study, sleep, and connect. But it does make you wonder: are we getting sicker, or just getting better at naming what was already there?
Neurologist Suzanne O’Sullivan calls this “the age of diagnosis.” She’s noticed that people are collecting more and more labels — anxiety, PTSD, autism, ADHD — but they’re not necessarily getting better. “Medical diagnosis is supposed to identify a problem so that you can be supported and feel better,” she says. “But instead, I'm seeing people accruing long lists of diagnoses, and they're not getting any better. We don't have happier, better-adjusted adults. We actually have worse mental health in adults.”
And this is where it gets tricky. Social media has made it so easy to connect with others who share our struggles, but it can also create a kind of confirmation bias. Watch enough videos or listen to enough podcasts on a topic and suddenly you start to see yourself in every symptom list. People are now walking into GP appointments already sure of what diagnosis they have — and that puts huge pressure on doctors to confirm or deny what the internet has already told them.
From behind the dispensary in our pharmacy, we see the ripple effect of these decisions: more prescriptions, more demand, and more pressure on a health system that’s already stretched. It does make you wonder — are we giving people what they actually need? Medication can be brilliant (and as a pharmacist — totally biased on this, haha), but it’s not always the whole answer.
A diagnosis can be a gift — it can explain what’s going on and open the door to treatment. But it can also become a box we live in. In pharmacy, we see both sides every week: the joy of people who finally get relief, and the fear of those who feel they can’t function without their medicine.
We don’t need to decide if this medicalisation of everything is good or bad — maybe we just need to notice that it’s happening. It’s given so many of us access to care we never had before. But we need to balance access to medication with building up the other supports — counselling, coaching, community — because sometimes what a person needs most isn’t a prescription; it’s time, connection, and a place to belong.
Andy and the team at Roslyn Pharmacy - Dunedins Friendliest Pharmacy
