We all have personality disorders now

[bubble sunglasses]

    http://www.newstatesman.com/200507110021

[Eriny]

I don't really agree with the article, I think it undermines true mental illness. Although I definitely think that it's getting more and more difficult to distinguish between what is normal and what isn't. Generally, I think the only difference between a selfish person and a narcissist, as an example, is the severity of it and whether the person in question is having their own free will overrided by a pathology.

[bubble sunglasses]

  Well, he argues that true mental illness does indeed exist, but [too] much attention is given to those whose traits can be found in everyone. [Though I agree with you in that sometimes the traits exhibited by those affected by serious disorders, (possibly including NPD), are simply extreme forms of normal human conditions: shyness, obsession, etc.]


"There are chronic illnesses such as schizophrenia and severe depression, which presumably Foucault never encountered, but what about the ocean of ordinary human vicissitude, in which most shrinks paddle and nearly all disorders lie?"

   This is the story of the Brian Blackwell case, if anyone is interested
 http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/article573094.ece

[happypuff]

This makes me angry
Especially this bullcrap: (revisions by me are in [])

An ambitious friend is striving for promotion and says he's not sleeping well. (Not sleeping equals major depressive disorder.) [Stressed and tired due to temporarily working harder, trying to look good, I am sure he will sleep even better than before once he gets his promotion]

A former classmate says she has never forgotten how you humiliated her in the playground. (Bearing grudges equals paranoid personality disorder.) [I very much doubt one memory means she thinks everyone is out to get her]

A colleague won't go for a drink after work and spends his weekends at home by himself. (A desire for solitude equals schizoid personality disorder.) [Introverted personality. Simple. Not everyone is designed to be a little party animal.]

A wife says that after ten years of marriage she is no longer aroused by the sight of her husband. (Absence of sexual interest equals hypoactive sexual desire disorder.) [Possible reason 1: she is 10 years older, these things decline a tad when you're no longer a raging blob of hormones, possible reason 2: </3]

Your sister cannot stop thinking about a boyfriend who has left her. (Infatuation equals obsessive-compulsive personality disorder.) [means she cared about him lul]

Your child won't listen to his teacher. (Lack of respect for authority equals oppositional defiance disorder.) [Lack of respect for authority equals the child needs to actually be disciplined by his parents for once]

A husband says his wife worries all the time. (Nervousness about the future equals generalised anxiety disorder.) [this could be the only legit one depending on how frequent 'all the time' is and how severe it is (is it preventing her from doing things?), but if you *didn't* get worried about anything I'd be more worried]

Those are all normal things (unless they were extreme cases where it is taking over your life, that is different). Shit article, making fun of serious issues.


Now, tossing the article aside (I read all of it, I am not acknowledging it further because it will make me rage more), here are some of my personal views:
-Yes there are many people being diagnosed with random things who really have nothing wrong with them. You get a lot of this in places like America where parents are getting their kids dxed with things so they qualify for extra help at school that they don't actually need so they can be more competitive/have an upper edge on everyone else.
-You have an awful lot of people who will go through life missed, or who will only be picked up once something major happens because they've spent the last 10+ years barely holding it together and one day they snap. Or you simply have people going through life missed who lead an unfurfilling/empty life because of it.

You will find that lots of conditions are both misdiagnosed frequently and underdiagnosed at the same time. Because of the 2nd half of that last sentence, anyone who makes fun of mental illness, says people fake it etc can meet my fury.



Also if you want to go along another train of thought for a debate: He said like 80% of people in jail qualify for a personality disorder. Why are we shortening their jail time then and releasing them back into society? Won't they just re-offend at some point (as they will be this way for life), and are we are better off instead using our resources to rehabilitate the 'sane' ones who don't lay claim to any mental illness and releasing *them* sooner?

[orsel]

Also if you want to go along another train of thought for a debate: He said like 80% of people in jail qualify for a personality disorder. Why are we shortening their jail time then and releasing them back into society? Won't they just re-offend at some point (as they will be this way for life), and are we are better off instead using our resources to rehabilitate the 'sane' ones who don't lay claim to any mental illness and releasing *them* sooner?

Two problems:

- Just because they have a personality disorder, it does not mean they are insane, or unable to be rehabilitated.
- Just because the 'sane' ones don't have any mental illness, doesn't mean that they won't re-offend.