In recent years, the question of how varieties of mental distress should be categorised has been the subject of significant debate. Should a wide range of conditions such as bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and major depression be treated as discrete disorders? One of the major authorities on the subject, the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, does exactly that. Or should they be recognised instead as overlapping conditions, with mental health problems being seen as existing on a spectrum with ‘normal’ experience? The boundaries between different formal categories can be paper-thin, and many people who suffer from mental distress have a mixture of complaints and symptoms. The British Psychological Society has suggested that a better approach than applying different diagnostic labels would be to work ‘from the bottom up’, paying attention to individuals’ specific experiences, problems, and symptoms.