Misunderstood Populations in Mental Health
- Yasin Choudry, MD
- Oct 15, 2025
- 3 min read
Updated: Dec 20, 2025
I've spent 28 years watching the mainstream mental health system fail certain people. Not because providers are incompetent—but because the paradigm itself has blind spots.
I'm a triple board-certified physician: psychiatry, addiction medicine, and integrative-holistic medicine. I work part-time in a hospital setting. I believe in evidence-based treatment.
I've also been on the receiving end of that system. I know what it's like to be missed.
Here's who keeps getting overlooked.
The 5 Populations That Get Missed
1. Complex Trauma Survivors
They 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.
2. Highly Sensitive People
They're told they have anxiety disorders when what they actually have is a nervous system that processes everything more deeply. High sensitivity isn't a disorder. It's a trait. The treatment approach should be completely different.
3. Late-Diagnosed Neurodivergent Adults
Especially women. They've spent decades masking, burning out, and being told they have depression or borderline personality disorder—when the real issue is they've been pretending to be someone they're not their entire lives.
4. People Experiencing Existential Suffering
The deep thinkers. The ones asking "what's the point?" They get prescribed antidepressants for something that isn't clinical depression. It's a crisis of meaning. Medication can't answer the question "why am I here?"
5. People Using Addiction to Self-Medicate
They're numbing pain the system never identified: trauma, sensory overwhelm, neurodivergent coping, the unbearable ache of a life without purpose. The addiction gets treated. The underlying wound doesn't.
These aren't edge cases. These are the people filling our offices, being told they're treatment-resistant when the truth is we're treating the wrong thing.
The Pattern
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
It ignores the connection between nervous system dysregulation, unprocessed trauma, attachment wounds, and the need for meaning
Wrong diagnosis → Wrong treatment → "Treatment-resistant" label → More of what isn't working.
Two Examples From My Practice
The "anxious" woman.
She'd tried three SSRIs. Nothing helped. When I actually listened to her story, she was a highly sensitive person who'd been overwhelmed by sensory input her entire life, raised by parents who told her she was "too much."
She didn't have an anxiety disorder. She had a sensitive nervous system that was never taught how to regulate—and a core wound that said "something is wrong with me."
The treatment wasn't more medication. It was nervous system work, boundary-setting, and healing the relational wound.
The "depressed" man.
In his 40s, depressed for years. Multiple antidepressants. Therapy focused on "cognitive distortions." He described his life as empty, meaningless, going through the motions.
This wasn't clinical depression. This was existential suffering. He didn't need serotonin. He needed to build a life that matters to him.
Completely different approach required.
Is This You?
If you've felt unseen or failed by traditional psychiatry...
If you've been told you're "treatment-resistant" when you suspect they're treating the wrong thing...
If you've tried everything the system offers and you're still suffering because something deeper is being missed...
You're not broken. You've been misunderstood.
I Want to Hear From You
Which population do you see yourself in? Complex trauma? Highly sensitive? Neurodivergent? Existential suffering? Self-medicating unidentified pain? Something else?
Leave a comment. I read all of them and your answers shape what I write next.
If this resonated, share it with someone who's been told they're treatment-resistant when the real problem is being mis-seen. This work spreads through people like you.
