* identify

Anxiety is a relatively unambiguous and closed set of symptoms. A good choice to support your thesis.

People can and do find support for anxiety online. I strongly approve of that, and am very happy that much good information on managing it is out there.

But most of the classifications in the DSM are as empirically well-founded as astrology or phrenology. Worse, really, because how the therapist interacts with the patient in accordance with their epistemology actually creates new realities. Symptom contagion, for example. Differential diagnoses rise and fall with professional literature fashions.

Most people who present in need of mental health assistance are just going through a rough patch, need some impartial advice or specific assistance/training.

The repeat customers (where the $$$ comes from), 4 out of 5 are mostly narcissistic f----ups who need to be told to work on their character flaws. The other 1 out of 5 lives with one or more of the above - and won't leave because #reasons.

The way /successful/ therapists handle those is to cultivate their narcissism, and use it to extort revenues from society.

Therapy is even more to blame than advertising for the trajectory of Western society.