(NewsNation) — How much of a role does social media play in mental health diagnosis?
Wellness Company board member Dr. Drew Pinsky told NewsNation host Leland Vittert on Tuesday that the “over-labeling” of mental health problems has gotten “out of control.”
“It’s been hashtagged. Peer-pressured,” Pinsky told “On Balance.”
Pinsky, better known as “Dr. Drew,” blamed COVID-19 lockdowns for contributing to mental health issues and said, “We destroyed an entire population of young people.” Simultaneously, Pinksy said, “If it’s not impairing functioning. It’s probably not an illness. … We have become a country that is unwilling to tolerate the ordinary misery of living.”
More than one-third of college students asked in a Gallup survey say they considered dropping out, with most saying it’s due to emotional stress or mental health challenges.
A Lumina Foundation-Gallup 2024 State of Higher Education Study conducted in the fall of last year found that 35% of 14,032 current and prospective students polled reported that they thought about leaving their program in the past six months.
Of those students, 54% reported emotional stress and 43% reported mental health as the reason they wanted to drop out. Cost was the third most-cited reason, at 31%.
NewsNation’s Cassie Buchman contributed to this report.
