A new documentary, Thank You For Sharing, directed by Sonia Zawitkowski, argues that America’s growing focus on mental illness has been shaped less by rising need than by a profitable industry with incentives to diagnose more people, more often.
The film traces the modern concept of mental health back to treatment for soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder and argues the field has since expanded into territory including youth gender transition, widespread SSRI prescriptions, and identity built around diagnosis. Doctors and longtime industry professionals interviewed in the film say that diagnoses such as depression and ADHD became far more common as insurers and health care providers recognized the financial upside of affirming mental illness.
The documentary’s release follows a Department of Health and Human Services report under the Trump administration, titled “Wolves in White Coats,” which described how doctors and other medical professionals encourage young patients toward transgender procedures. According to the film, diagnosing gender dysphoria can set young people on a path toward treatment costing more than $600,000 over a lifetime, including long-term cross-sex hormones, puberty blockers, and surgeries.
How Diagnosis Rates Have Changed
The film cites figures showing how the scale of mental health treatment has shifted over decades. In 1950, nearly 580,000 people — about 0.38 percent of the U.S. population — were receiving long-term hospital care for mental illness. By 2022, inpatient hospitalizations for mental health and substance abuse combined reached 1.65 million, or 0.5 percent of the population.
The documentary also points to survey data suggesting the reach of mental health identification now extends well beyond hospitalization: 72 percent of Gen Z respondents say they believe they have a mental illness, more than 40 percent report having received an official diagnosis, and 60 percent say they take pharmaceutical drugs to manage their mental health.
One expert interviewed in the film notes that the first edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders listed about 100 disorders. The current edition lists more than 300, including additions in the past decade such as “prolonged grief disorder,” “unspecified mood disorder,” and “stimulant-induced mild neurocognitive disorder” — a diagnosis the film says describes forgetfulness associated with long-term drug use.
The Business of Mental Health
The film puts a dollar figure on the industry it examines: the U.S. spent about $118 billion on mental health in 2025, a number projected to rise to $159 billion by 2030. More than 14,500 mental health companies currently operate in the country, employing more than 750,000 workers, according to figures cited in the documentary.
Thank You For Sharing also examines how a diagnosis can become tied to identity, pointing to public figures such as transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney and celebrity Demi Lovato as examples of how sympathy for mental health struggles can shape public perception. The film touches briefly on how platforms including Tumblr and TikTok have amplified discussion of mental illness among young users, though it does not explore that dynamic in depth.
The documentary was released as the trial of Lindsay Clancy has drawn national attention. Clancy has admitted to strangling and killing her three children and has raised a defense of “temporary psychosis.” The case has drawn public sympathy from supporters who cite her mental health, a response commentators reviewing the film have pointed to as an example of the broader cultural pattern the documentary describes.
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