Being Moody Isn’t a Mental Illness

We need to stop pathologizing normal life and calling negative emotions illnesses

Normal negative emotions are actually growth promoting and essential for human development and adaptation. They prompt us to address life challenges and opportunities and to develop resilience. Shutterstock

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It is difficult to open up a magazine or newspaper today without seeing a headline trumpeting the existence of a “mental health crisis”—particularly on our college and university campuses.

Indeed, if the media coverage is to be believed, we are drowning in a sea of mental illness that threatens to overwhelm postsecondary institutions.