> Why do some people's problems get the validation of the medical system and others don't?
I'm going to give a pretty out-there answer for this: because they piss us off.
A problem is medicalized when the people who have that problem can no longer be ignored, either because the effects are so severe that their demands for treatment become loud on a societal level, or because the effects naturally bother other people.
We started treating HIV/AIDS only after years of the affected communities refusing to shut up about it.
We medicalize mental health issues because the people with them cause problems for the people without them. It is notable that many mental health conditions have names describing the experience of being around them rather than the experience of having them. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder feels like neither, but people around someone with ADHD get annoyed that they don't pay attention and move around a lot.
For another example, we still diagnose some children with "Oppositional Defiant Disorder".
I'm going to give a pretty out-there answer for this: because they piss us off.
A problem is medicalized when the people who have that problem can no longer be ignored, either because the effects are so severe that their demands for treatment become loud on a societal level, or because the effects naturally bother other people.
We started treating HIV/AIDS only after years of the affected communities refusing to shut up about it.
We medicalize mental health issues because the people with them cause problems for the people without them. It is notable that many mental health conditions have names describing the experience of being around them rather than the experience of having them. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder feels like neither, but people around someone with ADHD get annoyed that they don't pay attention and move around a lot.
For another example, we still diagnose some children with "Oppositional Defiant Disorder".