When my best friend, not long after her divorce, quipped that she probably was her own worst enemy, it hit me like a ton of bricks. But I immediately knew why.

Earlier this year, I finally managed to understand what it meant to pathologize mental health. For the longest time, I struggled to understand the word and what it meant. To us. It’s a cold, logical interpretation of human issues.

I compared it to, if you’ve heard of him, Patch Adams here in the US. He was an upcoming doctor who recognized the pathology before he graduated. Doctors, regular doctors, were seeing patients as numbers. Patient number 12345. Not as human beings with feelings. So, controversially, he started his own clinic.

He treated patients with down to earth humanistic, get this, person first, techniques. Once I finally understood pathology in mental health, I crossed a threshold. And, I think, a threshold bigger that mental health. I started to realize I could broaden the scope of this article and I reflexively had to stop myself.

I was entering into uncharted territory I didn’t expect before I started. A strong indication that I was onto something big, no? But I still decided to limit which groups of people and issues to be sure I wouldn’t go too far and could defend my conclusions.

Feel free to share this, or the logic behind it, in your work and, if, research. It surely is much bigger that what I’ve stumbled onto.

An honor that my favorite Christina from the UK took time during this busy holiday season to read and comment. Thank you.