Which mental health conditions don't you believe are real? Can we get a list?
Which mental health conditions don't you believe are real? Can we get a list?
Like V said human cognition & behavior are a spectrum. It's not for me to tell other people who they are or what their strengths or limitations are as I only know my own experience.
I'll throw out all the ones I was diagnosed with (as chronologically as I can recall) and comment on those.
ADHD : got this one @ age 6, my mom was obsessed with 'figuring out what was 'wrong' with me' (couldn't be her or my dad of course) and the psychiatric industry was happy to 'help'. ADHD is characterized by dislike of sitting still & being bored by s*** that's of no interest or relevance to one's live & the desire to move around, joke around & generally not be subject to arbitrary rules or authority in a factory farm education setting. Guilty as charged. Also, ADHD kids can typically focus very well when self-directed & left alone to pursue what they want to. Also guilty. So do I score high in this cluster of traits? For sure! Do I think I have a brain/behavior 'disorder' that needs medical intervention? Absolutely not. The doctors who treated me & my parents & educators to whom this 'disorder' was inconvenient/disruptive thought differently & I was put on speed (Ritalin) at age 7.
Autism : My anxious mom brought me to a bunch of docs, one postulated I may have slight autism, meh, I don't think I do, more like this grown man getting all up in my s*** at age six & I didn't want to engage with him so I seemed autistic. This is the problem with no objective criteria for measuring these 'disorders'.
Depression : Back in '92 it was known as simply depression or major depression. There's some dignity in that label, crisp & to the point. Now it's 'major depressive disorder' which uses more words to say less and is less honoring & more pathologizing.
Was I depressed @ age 13? Absolutely! I'm not going to go into the traumas I was dealing with at that time. Did I think depression is real? Absolutely, it certainly felt real af. The symptom list fit me to a T, even down to dry mouth. I could type for hours about my issues with depression but I don't care to. Depression is very real & I suffered with it for about a decade (I still deal with depression now but not to the level I did at age 13-23, it's more like a low grade anhedonia now that coats my life).
The way I was treated was with a slew of antidepressants. Prozac was trendy at the time so I was put on that first. It did reduce my depression somewhat but it also numbed me out, minor de-personalization you could call it. With my unmedicated depression I would avoid conflict at all costs, on Prozac I lost some of my sensitivity, I became like low-grade sociopathic, if I kid wanted to fight me, I would fight, when I rode my bicycle down the street I'd swerve & take risks for fun, I flew off once I sliced up my leg & stomach & barely cared. When, years later the Columbine shootings happened & it came out that Dylan Roof was on anti-depressants I wasn't surprised. I don't want to be hyperbolic here, at no point at this time was I actively suicidal (or homicidal) but I got a taste of what that might feel like so to speak.
I quit Prozac tho because of sexual side effects, my mother made sure I got on some new drugs almost immediately. All in all from age 7 to 23 I was on at least 20 different drugs.
BiPolar/Manic Depression : At 15 I was put on Wellbutrin (Bupropion). Long story short it made me more pro-social/acceptable in the eyes of my caretakers (I was no longer living w my parents @ this point) but it also made me extremely manic. Once I didn't sleep for 72 hours, I became a bit delusional at this point (as one tends to get after 72 hours of no sleep). I was diagnosed with BiPolar & put on more drugs (the usual mania/anti-seizure drugs used for manic depression).
Do I think that was the correct diagnosis (playing along that these diagnoses have merit/are useful)? No. This was medication induced. I have no manic symptoms now & since I quit pharmaceuticals in 2003 I've had zero instances of mania (a little
hypo-mania now & then with friends but that's part of a good life
![[party]](/images/smilies/partytime.gif "Party [party]")
).
Oppositional Defiant Disorder : Collected this pokemon at age 15 and obviously it's my favorite. Won't say much but if you're a healthy teenager in our sick society & you don't have at least a touch of this you're kind of a puss. Do I think it's real? For me? No. When I was awarded it I was going thru a lot of mistreatment at the hands of those who were supposed to care for me so this diagnosis (in my case) was simply gaslighting.
That's just my experience (a very, very cliffnotes version of it). If these labels are helpful/useful for you, embrace them. But I would never want to artificially limit anyone else's range in terms of personality/capacity by applying them (especially not a young person who's identity is very much in flux). The concept that an 'expert' (someone steeped in the lore of the DSM) can meet for an hour or less with a child, understanding very little of their family, history or peer group besides some cookie cutter questions and accurately diagnose a 'disorder' that then becomes a core part of their identity (both self-identity & the identity as seen by parents/teachers/peers) is... well, I think it's largely profit driven, to provide quick & reassuring 'answers' with a shallow analysis is not in line with the Hippocratic oath, IMO.
I find it curious that those who are quick to point out the perils of Capitalism in other aspects of the medical industry & society/identity formation at large largely steer clear of this subject as taboo. Perhaps Scientology & other anti-psychiatric movements play some part in this? Or perhaps they don't want to offend those for whom psychiatric identities or drugs provide comfort. I can understand that and I hope I've made my opinions understood without giving offense (without watering down the fact that I suffered from medical malpractice & had my brain f-ed with again & again without my consent).
I'll come back to autism again, my elder daughter fits many criteria for it. I'll go into the personal details of her life not at all. I have my own theories about her of course as parents tend to do about their children. I don't think of her as 'autistic', she's simply Mara and as I would any other child (or friend, or myself) I try to nurture the best parts of her & accept or at least tolerate aspects I'm not a fan of. If she wants to have autistic as an identity, whatever, I wouldn't argue (altho she doesn't talk about it much) as long as she doesn't see herself as deficient or disorders or incapable (keep in mind ADD stands for attention
DEFICIT DISORDER). IMO, in general these labels are gaslighting, throwing 'disorder' or 'deficient' onto the individual whereas really it's the society that's got the disorder not the individual (but maybe you'll chalk that up to my ODD!
).
