Prevalence Inflation Hypothesis

The observation that reported rates of mental health reports have paradoxically increased alongside efforts to raise public awareness of mental health issues. The hypothesis highlights an unexpected trend – when people are more aware of mental health issues and better able to recognize them, they are more likely to overinterpret milder forms of distress as a mental health issue. When this happens, people start behaving in ways that genuinely increase their symptoms – the labels they use to describe their experiences affect their self-concept and behaviour in a way that is ultimately self-fulfilling. See also anxiety expectancy.

Reference:

Foulkes, L., & Andrews, J. L. (2023). Are mental health awareness efforts contributing to the rise in reported mental health problems? A call to test the prevalence inflation hypothesis. New Ideas in Psychology, 69, 101010. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.newideapsych.2023.101010