Although things have improved in recent years, stigma is still attached to mental health disorders. Once a person is diagnosed with any disorder or condition, the label they receive can lead to societal shame, blame, misinformation, and rejection. Labels can grow outdated or judgmental as time passes, like the classification of homosexuality as a mental illness until the 1980s. This suggests that we should continually revisit and adapt classifications and diagnostic labels to fit modern medical and ethical interpretations.

The newest revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) proposes a change to how we categorize mental health disorders. It suggests that instead of a rigid, binary diagnosis, mental health disorders should be viewed on a spectrum. With this change, everyone would naturally be on a spectrum, and when they cross a set “line”, they would be treated for their mental health struggle. For example, instead of being diagnosed immediately with a personality disorder because of excessive cleanliness, a person would be viewed on a spectrum describing this behaviour: are they displaying a reasonable amount of tidiness, or has it passed the line into pathological and obsessive, which means that it disrupts one’s life.

This new classification method holds some advantages. It can offer a more flexible, less rigid, and more personalized approach to diagnosis and treatment. People diagnosed with a given disorder do not necessarily have the same experiences, and so this spectrum would allow some fluidity in how healthcare professionals interpret their symptoms. The lack of hard and fast labels could also eliminate some societal stigma, as it could lead to viewing mental health as something ‘we all have’. It may also lead to a more person-first (as opposed to illness-first) way of thinking about personality and other mental health conditions.

There are also notable disadvantages to switching to a spectrum. For one, it currently lacks standardization and clearly defined thresholds: who is to say that one therapist would interpret the same symptomology the same way as the next therapist? It could take decades for the medical field as we know it to adopt and integrate this new approach to mental health, and in that time, many people may fall through the cracks. Based on their years of work, some healthcare professionals may refuse to prescribe medication without a formal diagnosis. Moreover, some people are relieved to get a diagnosis, stating that it helped them understand themselves better, ask for help, and seek treatment. Lastly, spectrums can feel far more accessible to the public than formal diagnoses, which may lead people to self-diagnose or diagnose others without the medical understanding to back it up, potentially leading to more harm than good.

A stagnant mental health understanding that does not adapt with the times may become exclusive, irrelevant, and ultimately outdated. But understanding the risks and pitfalls of such a big change is equally as important so that unnecessary harm or confusion is reduced, especially for vulnerable populations.

–Nazila Tolooei
From Share&Care Fall 2026
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