04/12/2025
WTF is going on with mental health “reviews” – and why I’m building MAGI
Wes Streeting has ordered a review into rising mental-health, ADHD and autism diagnoses because benefit claims have “soared”.
Translation: Are people genuinely unwell, or are we over-pathologising normal feelings?
On paper it’s “clinical clarity”.
In real life, for neurodivergent, hormonally sensitive, burnt-out women and girls, it lands like a threat.
4.4 million working-age people are now on sickness benefits — up 1.2 million since 2019 — and the biggest rise is 16–34 year olds. That’s not a vibe. That’s lived reality.
For many of us, diagnoses weren’t labels — they were oxygen. Access to meds, adjustments, actual survival.
And now the narrative is drifting back towards: are you really ill, or just not resilient enough for late-stage capitalism?
As someone misdiagnosed for years, neurodivergent, working daily with hormones, PMDD, perimenopause and nervous systems — this hits a very specific nerve.
We are NOT suddenly “weaker”.
The system is burning people out.
Women / AFAB folks are the canaries in the mine.
This is exactly why I’m building MAGI.
If the state is questioning:
• who “deserves” a diagnosis
• who “deserves” benefits
• what counts as “real” mental illness
…then we need our own receipts.
I’m building MAGI – My Adaptive Guide for Insight, a pocket bestie for neurodivergent and hormonally sensitive women and girls to:
• track what’s actually happening — mood, energy, sleep, cycle, overwhelm
• spot patterns clinicians miss — hormones + ND traits + life stress
• advocate with clear, visual patterns instead of “I don’t know, I just feel awful”
• hold your story in one place instead of repeating trauma to every new professional
MAGI isn’t about giving people more labels.
It’s about self-understanding, evidence for appointments, and reducing the mental load you’ve been carrying alone.
If governments are tightening scrutiny, then women must not be gaslit twice — first by the system that broke them, then by the system deciding if they’re “ill enough”.
How we can help each other right now
• Believe people when they say they’re struggling — especially teens and young adults
• Share resources, not shame
• Start tracking your reality (or soon, track inside MAGI)
• Talk about the intersection: neurodivergence + hormones + poverty + unsafe work — the exact group now being questioned
I’m not building MAGI to suit a welfare-reform narrative.
I’m building it so women and girls stop being invisible in the data that decides who gets help.
If you want to join early testing, share your lived experience or support MAGI, drop a 💬 or message me “MAGI”.
We’re not over-pathologised.
We’re under-supported — and finally being counted.
