The Trouble of Over-pathologizing to Schools

In the past, young people didn’t discuss their mental health. But nowadays, it feels like there is a mental health awareness campaign almost every week. However, this societal push to talk about mental health might not be helping everyone. In fact, it could be making things worse.

These campaigns encourage people to interpret essentially all negative thoughts and feelings as symptoms of a disorder or a problem, consequently making them feel unnecessarily weak and leading them to view themselves as having a disorder when they don’t. This kind of over-pathologizing may lead to further problems in schools. An increasing number of young people are saying that they don’t want to do something by labeling themselves as having anxiety.

Sometimes, the most appropriate response is to make adjustments for that person. For example, they shouldn’t be asked questions in class, or they shouldn’t have to sit exams in a big hall. But this genuine, useful principle has been blown out of proportion. In some cases, students in schools are automatically being given excessive freedom or privileges with no intention to ever review them.

The trouble is that the worst thing you can do in terms of managing anxiety in the long run is to allow people to avoid the things that scare them. Actually, the most useful therapeutic approach is to support them, step by step, in facing their fears. If, with support, they gradually do the things that make them anxious, they learn two things: first, that it isn’t as bad as they thought it would be, and second, that even if it is bad, they can cope.

So there needs to be a better understanding of who really needs one-to-one support and who can be supported simply by teachers being helpful, rather than applying a one-size-fits-all approach to adjustments.

参考范文：

Increased mental health awareness has led to over-pathologizing, causing some students to label normal struggles as disorders. Schools sometimes allow these students to avoid what scares them, leaving their anxiety unresolved. Schools should encourage those students to brave fears while ensuring that only those truly in need receive specialized assistance.

本文是一篇说明文。文章指出，过度关注心理健康可能导致过度病理化，使学生将正常的情绪问题视为疾病，从而在学校中引发更多问题。学校应鼓励学生勇敢面对恐惧，同时确保只有真正需要的人才能获得一对一的支持。

(详解)

1. 要点摘录

①Nowadays, mental health awareness campaigns are everywhere, but they might not be helping everyone.

②These campaigns encourage people to see all negative thoughts as symptoms of a disorder, making them feel unnecessarily weak.

③In schools, this over-pathologizing leads to students avoiding things that scare them, which doesn’t help in the long run.

④Instead, schools should support students in facing their fears gradually and ensure that only those who truly need it receive specialized help.

2. 缜密构思

将第1、2两个要点进行重组，将第3、4两个要点进行整合。

3. 遣词造句

Increased mental health awareness has led to over-pathologizing, causing some students to label normal struggles as disorders.

Schools sometimes allow these students to avoid what scares them, leaving their anxiety unresolved.

Schools should encourage those students to brave fears while ensuring only those truly in need receive specialized assistance.

(点睛)

(高分句型1) “Increased mental health awareness has led to over-pathologizing, causing some students to label normal struggles as disorders.” (运用了现在分词短语作状语，表达高级。)

(高分句型2) “Schools sometimes allow these students to avoid what scares them, leaving their anxiety unresolved.” (使用现在分词短语作结果状语，表达高级。)

(高分句型3) “Schools should encourage those students to brave fears while ensuring that only those truly in need receive specialized assistance.” (使用while引导的时间状语从句的省略。)