Posted by CareBear04 on January 19, 2005, at 17:24:13
In reply to about having a dx or not, posted by terrics on January 2, 2005, at 10:43:36
hi terrics,
this is my first time reading your post, and i haven't had a chance to read the responses. i just wanted to say that i went through a two-year period of begging for diagnoses, anythhing to put into words and give a name to what i'm feeling. my first pdoc said, "diagnoses are good only for drug trials and insurance companies." it took me two years to find out that he was right. i think the DSM was designed to simplify people into labels so as to facilitate their treatment, not to limit it. there are many cases, like BPD or other diagnoses that scare pdocs off that really do hinder the quality of care that patients get. i've also sort of come to see the DSM as defining the parameters of what's considered normal. so outside those parameters can be those who fall short of normal functioning and also those who are more complex and maybe even more brilliant than psychiatry can understand. i think getting an accurate diagnoses always takes time, especially if your diagnosis includes something in the Axis II spectrum. my current pdoc said when we first met last year that you just get diagnose Axis II disorders like borderline in the hospital, because who doesn't look borderline or something under those circumstnaces and that kind of stress? my first pdoc asked that we stick to mood disorder NOS and not look to specify any farther. i wish more than anything that i'd accepted that and never looked to the DSM for answers that aren't there. we give a lot of power to the people who can diagnose us because once there's a diagnosis made and a paper trail in place, you can't easily shake the diagnosis. another pdoc i had recently-- it took 6+ miserable weeks of 3x a week therapy, just talking, for us to become familiar with each others' really complex thinking patterns. when we finally did, we had some of the greatest conversations i've ever had with anyone. if he'd seen me only in the hospital, though, and hadn't spent all that time trying to understand me or, for that matter, if he were in the hospital under psych care, we both probably would have been deemed pathological in some way or another when we are both actually high-functioning and complex and nuanced in our thinking.i would be careful in what diagnoses i accept. labels stick only as much as you let them, and if you get one that doesn't seem right, look further or stop looking at all and accept that you have problems that might not be DSM-definable.
hope this helps! i'm pretty anti-DSM right now because i think people are too complex to be shoved into labeled boxes when we're all different and most of us fall somewhere within the range of normal neurosis.
poster:CareBear04
thread:436755
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20050117/msgs/444345.html