Misunderstood Populations in Mental Health

The populations missed and misunderstood by mainstream mental health. By Yasin Choudry, MD

My 28-year-long exploration and investigation is now complete. What I wanted to know at the outset was:

1. Why do some people have bad outcomes in mainstream mental health?

2. For these people, whose needs are not properly addressed by the mainstream mental health system, what are their options if they want to heal and recover?

   
   

What I have discovered is that there are actual populations that the mainstream mental health system fundamentally misunderstands and often misses. I've spent decades watching it happen to thousands of patients.

Who I Am

I'm a triple board-certified physician: psychiatry, addiction medicine, and integrative-holistic medicine. Three decades in practice. I work part-time within mainstream psychiatry, in a hospital setting.

I've also been on the receiving end of that system. I know what it's like to be missed, misunderstood, and given the wrong diagnosis. This happens because the paradigm itself has blind spots.

I've gotten better at recognizing what gets overlooked. The system didn't fail me because providers were incompetent. It failed because it wasn't designed to see certain presentations.

The Populations That Get Missed And Misunderstood

In my almost three decades of clinical practice, I've watched the mainstream mental health system repeatedly miss:

People with complex trauma who get labeled "treatment-resistant depression" and cycled through medications that were never going to work because the root cause isn't a chemical imbalance—it's unprocessed developmental wounds.

Highly sensitive people told they have anxiety disorders when what they actually have is a highly reactive nervous system that gets overwhelmed by stimulation. High sensitivity isn't a disorder. It's a trait. The treatment approach should be completely different.

Late-diagnosed neurodivergent adults (especially women) who've spent decades masking, burning out, and being told they have depression or borderline personality disorder when the real issue is that they've been pretending to be someone they're not for their entire lives.

People experiencing existential suffering - the deep thinkers, the ones asking "what's the point?" - who get prescribed antidepressants for a problem that isn't clinical depression. It's a crisis of meaning. Medication can't answer the question "why am I here?"

Those using addiction to self-medicate pain the system never identified - trauma, sensitivity overwhelm, neurodivergent coping, the unbearable ache of a life without purpose.

These aren't edge or unusual cases. These are the people filling our offices, being told they're treatment-resistant when the truth is we're treating the wrong thing.

What the Mainstream Misses

Here's what happens over and over:

• The system treats symptoms without asking, "What's causing this?"

• It uses one-size-fits-all diagnostic categories that miss complex presentations.

• It relies on medication as first-line treatment without addressing underlying issues.

• It pathologizes normal responses to abnormal circumstances—trauma, neurodivergence, sensitivity, spiritual crisis.

• It ignores the interconnection between nervous system dysregulation, unprocessed trauma, attachment wounds, and the human need for meaning and purpose.

  
  

Real example from my practice: A woman comes in with "anxiety." She's tried three SSRIs. Nothing helps. When I actually listen to her story, she's a highly sensitive person who's been overwhelmed by sensory input her entire life, raised by parents who told her she was "too much." She doesn't have an anxiety disorder. She has a sensitive nervous system that was never taught how to regulate and a core wound that says, "Something is wrong with me." The treatment isn't more medication. It's nervous system work, boundary-setting, and healing the relational wound.

Another example: A man in his 40s has been depressed for years. Multiple antidepressants and therapy that focused on "cognitive distortions." He describes his life as empty, meaningless, going through the motions. This isn't clinical depression. This is existential suffering. He doesn't need serotonin. He needs to build a life that matters to him. That requires a completely different approach.

Do you see the pattern? Wrong diagnosis → Wrong treatment → "Treatment-resistant" label → More of what isn't working.

Radical Recovery

I've branded my work as "Radical Recovery." "Radical" means "at the root" (not the surface). The populations I work with need recovery at the root level - not symptom management, not just coping better, but healing what was missed in the first place.

I'm not anti-psychiatry. I work in psychiatry. I believe in evidence-based treatment. I just believe that these 'missed' populations need a deeper level of healing and recovery.

What I'll Be Writing About

I'm working on a book that will be published in 2026 and creating content specifically for the populations the mainstream misses. Here's what's coming:

I'll be diving into:

• Complex trauma and why it gets misdiagnosed as depression or bipolar disorder

• The highly sensitive nervous system (and why it's not an anxiety disorder)

• Neurodivergent masking, burnout, and the exhausting cost of pretending

• Existential depression vs. clinical depression (a distinction that changes everything)

• Addiction as self-medication for unidentified pain

• The 5 R's healing framework: Recognition → Regulation → Reconnection → Reclamation → Re-alignment

  
  

The content will include:

• Deep explanations of why you were missed (so you finally understand what's actually happening)

• Evidence-based holistic approaches that address root causes

• Client stories (composites that protect privacy but illustrate the patterns)

• Practical tools you can actually use

• Guidance on finding the right support

• Hope that's grounded in reality, not false promises

  
  

This work comes from both professional training and lived experience. I walk alongside you with the benefit of both perspectives.

Is This For You?

• If you've felt unseen, misunderstood, or failed by traditional psychiatry...

• If you've been told you're "treatment-resistant" when you suspect the real problem is they're treating the wrong thing...

• If you've tried everything the system offers and you're still suffering because something deeper is going on that your providers aren't seeing...

• If you're exhausted from being told "it's just anxiety" or "you need to try another antidepressant" when you know in your bones that's not the answer ....

  
  

This work is for you. I have things you need to hear.

I Want to Hear From You

What's been your experience with mainstream mental health? What have you felt was missed?

Leave a comment below. I read all of them. I want to know who I'm writing for. Your story matters, and it will shape the content I create.

Also: Which population do you see yourself in? Complex trauma? Highly sensitive? Neurodivergent? Existential suffering? Addiction as self-medication? Something else entirely?

Know someone who's been failed by traditional psychiatry? Someone who's been told they're treatment-resistant when the real problem is being mis-seen? Share this post with them. This work spreads through people like you sharing it with people this content can help.

Radical Recovery is based on the idea that what gets diagnosed as mental illness is often an intelligent adaptation to your unique wiring, your history, and the life you've been forced to live. When we understand symptoms as information rather than pathology, when we heal the wounds beneath them, when we create lives that honor our true nature, something remarkable happens: much of what once looked like chronic mental illness transforms or dissolves entirely. What remains are the unique gifts we were always meant to offer.

Yasin Choudry, MD (Holistic Board Certified Psychiatrist)