Map of life expectancy at birth from Global Education Project.

Tuesday, May 07, 2013

Bloggers are human too

I'm afraid I can't say anything intelligent today because I'm feeling like the lowest piece of crap in the Delta quadrant of the galaxy. At least this gives me a chance to comment on the whole disease ontology thing. I can't claim to be enjoying the highest attainable state of social and psychological well-being right now, and I'm sure a psychiatrist would find something to diagnose me with, but no, i don't have a disease. I suffer from the human condition.

I don't think a robot could console me right now, and I'm not one who benefits from comfort food or shopping sprees. I'll just have to carry on. So shall you.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hope you are feeling better soon.

Cervantes said...

It will likely take some time, alas.

Don Quixote said...

"HELP!"--I need somebody, "HELP!"--not just anybody, "HELP!"--you know, I need someone, "HELLLPP" :-) Hang in there, C. DQ

Anonymous said...

C, it will all improve, I sincerely hope. Feeling bad:

The new version of the DSM has been creating waves. I’ve been waiting for this for 20 years. The original aim of the DSM evidenced in 1980 or so was to clear out etiology and cultural matter to concentrate on symptoms, to attain some consensus, some definition of what severe mental illness is. In a way, that has worked, in the sense, say, that some extreme forms, e.g. schizophrenia, though it is interpreted variously and treated differently around the world nevertheless shares many common behaviors/thoughts, and overall, world wide, incidence is quite similar. Recall that homosexuality was a perversion and a mental aberration in the old DSM.

But it soon went off the rails, just following social criteria, symptom lists, and subservience to big pharma - brain imbalance/dysfunction to be treated by dodgy pills - and now has attained an apogee of medicalization. Grieving too long after a family death, being too pesky and oppositional as a child, are mental diseases, related to brain disorders, dysfunction, hormone imbalance, what not - essentialist explanations.

‘Mood disorders’ are serious according to the DSM. (complete BS.)

The National Health System in GB has decided to ditch the DSM.

http://www.nimh.nih.gov/about/director/2013/transforming-diagnosis.shtml

Not that I’m optimistic about this effort.

The European Press has published many articles about these issues and it seems that opposition to the DSM and US control is growing.

Ana

Cervantes said...

Yes Ana, there definitely seems to be a move toward outright rejection in Europe. It's more mixed here -- the APA is after all a U.S. institution -- but the National Institute of Mental Health has officially repudiated the DSM. It will continue to be used in clinical settings, at least as a basis for billing and promoting sales of drugs; but it will be increasingly difficult to get research funding based on DSM categories. It may start to wither away.