What Is Normal?

Watch this short video by actor Bill Hader describing his anxiety.

Here at Circle Social, one of the core elements of our mission and messaging is to destigmatize addiction and behavioral health so that people feel more comfortable talking about it and seeking care when needed.

However, we also want to be careful that we don't create disorders where there aren't any. There has certainly been a trend within the US to medicalize normal, to ascribe a disorder label to anything that isn't indicative of happiness, success, and contentment. This message that "unless you're happy and stress free every minute of the day something is wrong with you" is not helpful.

The above video by Bill Hader is a classic example of everyday, normal anxiety. We all have anxiety going new places and meeting new people. We certainly all have anxiety if we were to appear live in front of tens of thousands of TV viewers. When you talk to big name speakers, they will tell you that, no matter how many times they've spoken in front of large crowds, there are always nerves before going out on stage. Anxiety in these situations is normal.

Bill's message is a good one that people are best served by learning to live with that normal human emotion and finding ways to work with it so it is not an impediment. Anxiety is a useful emotion that warns us about possible negative outcomes, just like fear. While we don't want such emotions to control our lives, they help us make valuable decisions. Everyone has their quirks and thinks or behaves a little differently. We want to make sure in our writings and communications that we don't confuse disorder with normal human emotions, a line that has become too blurred in recent years.

The Americanization of Mental Illness

As we've discussed elsewhere, values, ethics, and behaviors vary from culture to culture. Applying a one-size-fits-all approach is not appropriate across cultures.

This article explores some of the issues that can arise when assuming universality across countries and cultures. It opens the door for questions around what is normal and what may work where.

Is Psychology WEIRD?

Not only does psychology vary greatly across cultures in different countries, it also varies greatly among the many subcultures present in a single country.

Psychology quite recently came to realize that the vast majority of research done in its name was on a very specific subculture, which raises the question of just how applicable it is to society as a whole.

Saving Normal

Allen Frances is the former chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science at the Duke University of Medicine. He was also the chairperson of the DSM4 Task Force.

In his controversial book, he explores his concerns about the then soon-to-be-published DSM5 and its expansion of mental health disorders resulting in more and more people being labeled with diagnoses. As you can image, the book has been controversial and is an excellent addition to the debate surrouding medicalization and normality.

Allen discusses the subject in the article below.

Defining Normal