The Daily Beast recently
reported on eight illnesses that are rumored to appear in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder (DSM). Here's the list:
1)
Binge-Eating Disorder: An eating disorder where sufferers consume uncomfortably large amounts of food. I've read that it's even more common than anorexia or bulimia.
2)
Night-Eating Syndrome: Similar to the above, but at night.
3)
Internet Addiction: Involves many of the same symptoms as substance addictions, including withdrawal and building up a tolerance.
4)
Sex Addiction: This disorder actually used to be in the DSM but was eliminated in 1994. In addition to having large amount of sex, sufferers tend to view their sexual partners as objects or things, as opposed to people.
5)
Compulsive Shopping: Symptoms include obsessive thoughts and anxious feelings that are temporarily alleviated after making a purchase.
6)
Embitterment Disorder: In the same vein as post-traumatic stress disorder, patients are haunted by memories of past failures and feel chronically victimized
7)
Pathological Hoarding: Once a subset of obsessive-compulsive disorder, sufferers of hoarding often create illogical associations with items—like, if they throw out a wrapper from food their mother bought them, it means they hate their mother.
8)
Pathological Bias: Describes patients experiencing intense feelings of racism, homophobia, or other forms of bigotry.
Whenever a new disease becomes recognized by doctors, people usually rant about how "everything is a disease nowadays" and how America is so over-medicated. The reporter from The Daily Beast definitely took a tongue-and-cheek approach to reporting on these disorders, but a good number of them seem legitimate to me, especially Binge-Eating Disorder and Pathological Hoarding.
What are your thoughts on these new disorders? Are these real problems or just another example of over-labeling? Is anything missing from the list?Image Source
Comments (66)
I definitely think that these disorders exist. However, I think our society uses these disorders and diseases as an excuse for being lazy sometimes. I'm not saying every person who has a mental disorder is lying or milking it but, I think sometimes it's way overboard. And people seem to think they can take a pill and be cured....but most mental illnesses don't work that way.
I always enjoy the DSM. :)
Schizoaffective disorder might also be be amended or removed in the DSM-V (which will be published in 2012). As someone who was diagnosed with this illness, I wonder what that might mean for me in the future.
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/703312
Jesus Christ.
I don't really believe in mental illness, much less this garbage. Oh well, just more stuff to diagnose you with, so that Big Pharma/Physicians/FDA can pad their pocket books by either locking you up or forcing their toxic substances (medication) down your throat.
I hate the medical community....with a passion.
Everything that isn't politically correct is a "disease". If someone has a strong opinion on something it's a "disease". I think it's lame. However, I do think that binge-eating is....not bogus.
I tend to agree
mathematicalbagpiper with on this one...
@methodElevated@xanga - I am concerned about the schiz affective too... I have been told I am either schiz-affect with a mood disorder, or bi-polar I with psychotic elements, I guess i will just stay under the BPI
I think people who bash mental disorders have simply never experienced them. Have you seen the effects medications for psych conditions have on people? Nobody would fake an illness just to feel that numb and miserable, trust me.
The disorders are all real.
The only problem is they may sometimes be incorrectly diagnosed.
@HurricaneAlla@xanga - agree
@methodElevated@xanga - The classification of Asperger's is also planned to be going away as well. It will be classified in the general "autism spectrum disorder", not in its own category. Definitely not happy.
As for the OP, I kind of agree with @XxFireXboltxX@xanga - I believe they EXIST. But I do think that some people just like to have an excuse to behave the way they do.
@mathematicalbagpiper@xanga - Working somewhere that I closely deal with those that have mental disorders, I can tell you 100% that they are real. ODD, ADD, and those disorders that are related are however, overdiagnosed.
You seem closed minded. And paranoid as hell.
@silvershell2000@xanga - I AM closed-minded on this issue? Why? Doctors only care about their bank account, they don't care about your well-being!
I'm not paranoid, I just know the truth about the medical industry. Of course, being a "healthcare professional" yourself obviously you're going to work to protect doctors. This world would be better off without doctors. There's a reason I don't take medicine of any kind, and refuse ANY AND ALL routine and emergency medical treatment, as indicated in my advance directive.
@mathematicalbagpiper@xanga - Yup. God forbid anyone in the medical field gives a shit about people.
All those people in Doctors Without Borders--what selfish pricks!
@Ailean@xanga - They seem altruistic but are not. The physicians in Doctors Without Borders trying to build a good reputation for themselves so people think they're all good and they'll have a bigger clientele when they return. Which means, of course, more money.
See, it's all in the grand scheme of things.
@Ailean@xanga - Oh yeah, did I mention Doctors Without Borders is funded by anti-semitic interest groups?
@XxFireXboltxX@xanga - I agree. I can now hear people saying "I can't help that I am morbidly obese, I have binge eating disorder/night eating syndrome" or "I can't help but buy all of these things, I am a compulsive shopper", etc. Don't get me wrong, some people DO actually have these "diseases" and have every right to say these things, but I think the majority of people that say they do are self-diagnosed, without having the proper knowledge of the disease to do so.
@mathematicalbagpiper@xanga - You know, as someone who intends to go into the medical field, I feel like I must agree with silvershell2000. You do seem a bit close minded.
I intend to be a doctor of some type when I'm older (I'm thinking about oncology), and I know for a fact that I won't be in it for the money. I've had a passion for medicine ever since I was a child, and I could care less whether there was money in it or not. And I'm sure at least SOME doctors, are quite the same way. Because you may have had a bad experience with one, or even a several, doesn't mean they are ALL that way, because they aren't. They're human beings, they're going to think and act differently from one another. You can hardly say "doctors only care about their bank account", because that's not true of all doctors.
@AGreatPerhaps@xanga - Bad experience? I'll say. I have a myriad of health issues: cluster headaches, Graves' Disease/hyperthyroidism, WPW Syndrome, hypertension, major depressive disorder. I've done nothing but get screwed over by doctors offering me treatments that I gladly accepted at the time that did nothing but make me feel WORSE in the end.
Since I ditched "modern medicine" altogether, in favor of an all-natural lifestyle, I've seem my Graves' Disease/hyperthyroidism come to a manageable level, my hypertension has resolved itself, and my cluster periods are shorter and the headache attacks shorter in duration and fewer in frequency. My heart issues have also resolved themselves. No thanks to modern medicine.
Hence, I now have a no-doctor policy and will never see another doctor as long as I live. I've fallen in love with Natural Cures "They" Don't Want You To Know About because that book is so true on so many levels. I live that book everyday, and it's the key to my good health.
@mathematicalbagpiper@xanga - I've had pretty bad experiences with doctors too, but that's no reason to give up and assume that they're all bad.
You have every right to approach your health however you want to, but it's really not fair to go around saying that doctors just don't care, and they're no help, because bottom-line... they DO save lives. Maybe they couldn't help you, but they do help other people out.
All this mental illness bashing is giving my psych major self a headache.
The brain is a delicate structure. Of course it's going to have problems if it doesn't work right. Sometimes this requires medicine, but not all they time. Most of the new illnesses listed above don't even need medication and would probably need CBT as a means of therapy. I know the field of psychology has its problems. Believe me, I have problems with the DSM some of which include the actual illnesses (like the existence of GID or hypoactive sexual desire disorder as mental disorders) and the symptoms (certain symptom guidelines don't take into consideration that people exhibit symptoms differently). I know drugs are thrown around a lot to solve the problem, but it's insulting to say that based on this all of psychology is bullshit when plenty of people suffering from mental illnesses would beg to differ.
@HurricaneAlla@xanga - Thank you for this comment, really. :)
@mathematicalbagpiper@xanga - I'm curious as to what you mean when you say that you don't really believe in mental illness when you have said before that you have been diagnosed with major depressive disorder. I was just wondering if you could clarify what you mean or go more into depth so I don't make any incorrect assumptions.
@TheRiverIsEverywhere@xanga - I'll expand.
I don't really think depression is an "illness" per se. You're not considered "crazy" if you're depressed, be it clinically or situationally. Where I draw the line, seriously, is when people use these diagnoses to excuse bad behavior. I don't buy that for a second. Own up to your actions and admit when you screw up.
Make sense?
i think the addition of these will help people who right now exhibit these symptoms and are unable to receive treatment because an accurate diagnosis cannot be identified. the DSM is a useful tool for treating mental illness, whether people like it or not and something has to be out there to be used as a method to identify issues in life people face that need to be treated.
@mathematicalbagpiper@xanga - Yes, I understand what you are saying. Thanks for the clarification.
i think they are going a bit overboard ("night-eating syndrome"..seriously?!), but there's some legitimacy in there: binge-eating disorder should have been in years ago, and a couple others.
you gotta take the psychology community with a grain of salt. i believe wholeheartedly that mental disorders exist, but i also think they take things too far...to the point where every bad habit is deemed a mental "disorder", which de-legitimizes people that truly suffer from their mental illnesses. what's next?.."compulsive nail-biting"?
I am a second year medical student. I would absolutely, in a heartbeat, practice medicine for free. I know more than a few practicing physicians who would do the same. Not all doctors are in it for the wrong reasons.
For a disorder to be included in the DSM, it must cause the patient clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning. A person who truly has these disorders will have a very altered life... and if that is the case, why not diagnose and treat the person so that he/she can return to a normal level of function?