Your Diagnosis Is Not Your Identity
Nearly half of Gen Z self-diagnoses after watching social media content, and a review from The Gospel Coalition points to the cost.
A 2025 LifeStance survey, cited by The Gospel Coalition, found that half of Gen Z self-diagnoses after watching content on social media. A diagnosis is not an identity, and that difference matters more than it seems.
The figure appears in a review by Brad Edwards, lead pastor of The Table Church in Boulder County, Colorado, of All in Your Head, the book by Fredrik deBoer, the Marxist writer who became known for The Cult of Smart.
DeBoer is not writing from the outside. He was hospitalized against his will for bipolar disorder, and he is grateful for the system that held him up. His frustration is different: that this kind of care has become the exception.
«A diagnosis describes what is happening in a fallen body and mind; it does not tell you who you are.»
An uncomfortable critic who says something true
For deBoer, mental illness stopped being treated as a disability that needs treatment and began to be celebrated as an identity. He speaks of a "gentrification of disability" (translation by Sígueme): diagnoses become trendy and take up the space that the most severe cases need.
The numbers Edwards gathers back up the complaint. Use of talk therapy grew 47% between 2019 and 2024. Twenty-nine percent of American adults have self-diagnosed after consuming content online.
Among Gen Z, that figure reaches 50%, compared with 9% of boomers. And of those who self-diagnose, 24% rarely or never feel the need to discuss it with a trained professional.
There is something here worth hearing without getting defensive. A young person can spend months reading about a disorder, building a vocabulary and a community around it, without ever taking the step that would change their life: sitting down with someone who knows. The label offers explanation and belonging fast; treatment demands time, money and patience. That is why the label so often wins.
I think deBoer is right at the heart of the matter. A diagnosis describes what is happening in a fallen body and mind; it does not tell you who you are, what tribe you belong to, or what you can contribute. Confusing the two has consequences: it leaves people suffering inside a character.
What the review leaves unfinished
Edwards points out two gaps. The first: the book does not address the rise in gender dysphoria diagnoses or surgeries on minors, perhaps the most sensitive effect of this culture. The second: deBoer denounces radical individual autonomy as the root of the problem, but his final prescription is political and materialist, with no remedy for the very culture he describes.
His best contribution comes at the end: the church has resources that no law can offer. Identity is not built; it is received in Christ and through family and church.
I would add one qualification. The opposite error also does harm: calling real depression a lack of character or faith. Scripture does not authorize contempt for the one who suffers. Elijah asked to die under a broom tree and God did not rebuke him; he fed him and let him sleep.
Image before symptom
"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them" (Genesis 1:27, ESV). That is the fact that comes before any clinical report. Before you are a symptom, you are an image.
And that same God does not pull away from brokenness: "The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit" (Psalm 34:18, ESV).
From there comes a practical stance: neither spiritualize the disorder nor reduce it to chemistry. Praying without seeking help can become neglect; treating the mind without praying leaves incomplete a soul that belongs to God. Both fit in the same week.
If you recognize yourself in that bio that repeats the label, take a step this week: tell someone you trust and reach out to a mental health professional or your pastor. If it is an emergency, call the emergency services in your country; at findahelpline.com you can find the helpline that corresponds to yours.
You don't have to figure out today who you are forever. You can start taking care of what God has entrusted to you. What would change in your conversations if you stopped introducing yourself by your diagnosis?
