An updated edition of a mental health journal for doctors may include diagnoses for “disorders” such as child rage, binge eating and internet addiction. Experts observe, “This could mean that, soon, no-one will be classed as normal.
(I) Could have told you that. For free…
The new edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), which is being tuned now for release in 2013, could devalue the seriousness of mental illness and label almost everyone as having some kind of disorder.
Like obsessive compulsive blogging or hummingbird speed twitter.
Many people previously seen as perfectly healthy could, in the future, be told they are ill.
The DSM, published by the American Psychiatric Association, contains descriptions, symptoms, and other criteria for diagnosing mental disorders. I imagine there should be something, perhaps a chapter on Facebook. At least a chapter.
The criteria are designed to provide clear definitions for professionals who treat patients with mental disorders, and for researchers and pharmaceutical drug companies seeking to develop new ways of treating them.
Members of the psychiatric community worry that the further the guidelines are expanded, the more likely it will become that nobody will be classed as normal any more. Worried? This is job security!
With the classification of so many new disorders, we will all have disorders.
Comforting.
There was a time that the phrase “If you have 9 friends and they are all normal… then you are messed up…” would give me a chuckle.
Now, it seems, we all have a screw loose.
So. The Earth is one great big asylum.
Also comforting. Anyway. Enjoy your neurosis – who knows… like coffee, at some point this new normal might be considered healthy…