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On the flip side: in some cases there are downsides to regular checkups, in particular false positive diagnoses leading to medical operations causing more harm on a population level than if the checkups hadn’t been done in the first place. Unfortunately our medical practices aren’t always good enough yet where doing early checkups at a large scale actually prevent harm.

Combine this with the sometimes shoddy diagnostics processes in mental health, and suddenly it doesn’t seem too weird to me that we avoid poking too much until people complain themselves. I think that if we were to ask people to fill out every mental health questionnaire that exists, most people would likely test positive for some disorders. But if those symptoms are not causing unmanageable harm in people’s lives, and given the current state of treatments (not nearly always effective), I think we should think twice before subjecting everyone to a list of mental health questionnaires.

There are questionnaires and tests in forensic psychology that are almost impossible to fake or get false positives from, like the MMPI-2.

It’s explained beautifully here: https://youtu.be/lLXcZZiecys?si=KmxSVPYQSXRbBJyr

I think most cultures have beliefs/norms for the suppression of emotion that influence our health more than we may realize. If we want to optimize for happiness, how do we do so without feeling sadness? Or fear? Anger? If I feel very happy with something, I will probably feel very sad if it is gone, afraid it will leave, angry if it gets taken away.

So I think more than physical health, there are hidden cultural forces that interfere with our desire for emotional health. Heck, we even call it mental health more than emotional health probably because of cultural dislike of "emotion." I won't even go into how attitudes in favor of monogamy may contribute lol.

Maybe it's the opposite though? The past century in the west was an age of relinquishing many of the "hidden cultural forces", including in particular "beliefs/norms for the suppression of emotion". Are we better off for it? Could it be the case that those older cultures had some of this stuff figured out right, or at least better than we have today.

Sure I think it's possible. I'm curious, do you have any specific examples in mind that might be in line with your argument?

> Compare it to physical health. For instance, everyone is advised to take regular tests (like blood tests). While things can still be improved a lot, this simple proactive measure helps detect many health problems before they cause serious damage.

Q: How many people actually take regular blood tests?

In the UK, only people on certain treatments or under non-interventional observation that require it or private patients.

Regular blood tests for normal children and adults (other than the elderly perhaps?) on a purely speculative basis are not a thing.

Edit: actually you do get a 5-yearly test after the age of 40 until 65, my mistake. This incudes a finger-prick cholesterol and blood sugar test and may incude a "real" blood test if thought necessary.

Nearly every working person in Japan. It’s mandated by law to get a yearly checkup from your employer, and family is covered too if they don’t have their own.

Part of the (quite extensive) checkup is a blood test.

"Maybe advances in AI can bring proactive mental health monitoring to more people."

Not sure I like the sound of that... bit dystopian sounding.

> Maybe advances in AI can bring proactive mental health monitoring to more people.

And how would proactive mental health monitoring work in practice?

A worthy goal We’re not even close to that, though. The various depression questionnaires used in research haven’t been updated in decades and the questions on them have little overlap.

A long way to go.