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Thrilled to see The Verge showcasing one of my favorite bands. :D

1 day ago on The Verge Playlist: Lush

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The problem is that we don’t understand the underlying biological causes for a lot of mental illnesses, in many cases we’re not even starting to understand them. The DSM not being treated as an absolute isn’t a bad thing, but it’s important to remember that symptom clusters are what define mental illnesses as we understand them and, while some people may not like that, it’s not magically going to change without decades worth of research. I feel like this is going to just end up with more complex disorders that don’t have a known biological source or may even just be purely psychological getting denied research and, if the idea that mental illnesses without a known biological source catches on, even denied treatment. None of that is good.

16 days ago on Federal institute for mental health abandons controversial 'bible' of psychiatry

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Perhaps not intrinsically bad, but I certainly don’t want someone who has a vested financial interest in me not being sick making the decisions as to whether or not I’m actually sick. Especially when they’re overriding the decision of the doctor who is actually treating me. Abuse happens, and will happen anywhere there is money to be made, but when people’s lives are on the line it is ALWAYS better to err on the side of allowing potentially unnecessary treatment than denying potentially lifesaving treatment. People are worth that. Until we become a race of cold sociopaths, people will always be worth that.

16 days ago on Federal institute for mental health abandons controversial 'bible' of psychiatry 1 reply

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Not necessarily, political rage and violence are not in themselves warranting the classification of a disorder. I couldn’t say anything else about them without giving them a thorough psychological checkout (and being a qualified doctor). Analysis without examination is just speculation, and that’s damn poor grounds for trying to determine if someone should be considered to have a disorder or not.

30 days ago on Controversial update to 'bible' of psychiatry fuels debate over foundations of mental health 5 recommends

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I don’t get your point, with the exception of the pulling out your own hair thing [I had an ex who did it compulsively and it can be harmful], I don’t see why any of those things would qualify as a disorder. Are you implying that the should (you at least seem to be)? Half of them are just fetishes.

30 days ago on Controversial update to 'bible' of psychiatry fuels debate over foundations of mental health 1 reply 3 recommends

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Things that harm a person’s ability to live and function, as is the case with the rest of medicine?

30 days ago on Controversial update to 'bible' of psychiatry fuels debate over foundations of mental health 2 replies 3 recommends

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There are much bigger problems with the way that mental illnesses are treated than the wording of their diagnostic criteria, and I think articles like this (which is the dozenth instance of basically the same thing I’ve seen on different sites, though The Verge’s is more balanced than some) serve to distract people from the real problems faced by the mentally ill by creating an exaggerated controversy over the supposed turning of normal human emotions into disease. And while I do think that misdiagnosis, overmedication, and the poor efficacy of medications themselves are real problems, putting this much blame for them on the DSM skews the picture in the wrong direction by ignoring issues like: the social stigma faced by the mentally ill including stigma from mental health providers, irresponsible doctors, the poor state of many inpatient psychiatric units, and the fact that the bad reputation surrounding psychiatric hospitals discourages people from getting much needed treatment. There have been more than a dozen times in the past year that I should have been receiving intensive inpatient psychiatric care but adamantly refused to go because, even though my previous experience with them was mostly positive, there are more horror stories surrounding psychiatric hospitals than positive ones. It is, of course, a YMMV thing but I don’t really want to take that chance with people who can hold me and medicate me against my will, would you?

We, as the human species, owe the mentally ill better care and treatment, both medically and in society at large, but semantic arguments over the contents of the DSM do nothing to create that. If anything, they’re only furthering the stigmatization of the mentally ill by giving readers that mentally ill folk are probably just experiencing normal human emotions or pawns of the pharmaceutical industry which, while we certainly can be victims of overmedication and mismedication, does nothing to help us.

Signed,
A Crazy Girl

30 days ago on Controversial update to 'bible' of psychiatry fuels debate over foundations of mental health 3 replies 10 recommends