Gemma Spake

I don't know if there's something else you want us to include in this episode, but I just wanted to put it out there that this is obviously an ongoing discussion that society is having and this is just our small contribution to the conversation.

So without further ado, let's get into the episode.

To begin with, before we can even start to dive into this very widespread idea that everybody has a diagnosis these days, we firstly have to actually fact check that.

Is that true?

Our start point here has to be whether the data or rates of certain conditions are actually increasing.

Because if they're not, this conversation is kind of

nullified, you know, we have to actually be able to distinguish between actual numerical shifts and shifts in public opinion.

This is what the research says.

The research says that rates of certain conditions, specifically all forms of depression, all forms of anxiety,

have experienced a very, very sharp increase in the last few decades with a major increase like during three years after COVID.

Those numbers, they are very easy to see.

It is very easy to look at any, literally any data on this and see that things are tracking up per capita per 100,000.

What you may not know, though, is that for other conditions, specifically to do with neurodivergence, the way we actually measure rates can be really confusing.

So we don't actually and can't actually always have an accurate number, if that makes sense.

It really depends entirely on which condition you want to talk about and then what kind of rate we're talking about.

So whether we mean true prevalence, lifetime prevalence, recorded diagnosis, self-diagnosis,

medication use or like wider public conversation because these things do not rise and fall in exactly the same way as we would typically expect, right?

So for example, prevalence rates could be reducing but medication use could be increasing.

So that gives us two different stories.

Lifetime prevalence could be increasing, but diagnosis rates at the current moment could be staying the same or reducing.