Bitterness, The Next New Mental Illness?
I generally consider myself unshockable when it comes to new disorders and illnesses that some psychiatrists want to include in the DSM, but a new proposal to include bitterness in the forthcoming edition of DSM-V real shakes me up. It would officially be called “post-traumatic embitterment disorder,” essentially lingering bitterness as the result of a traumatic event. And yes it’s modeled after PTSD.
I’m sorry but the American Psychiatric Association is proving itself to be far worse than a tool shed if it seriously considers this a disorder–the APA would count as an entire tool factory.
At his Psychology Today blog, Christopher Lane notes:
“[I]t feels positively insulting to have our justified anger at such incompetence [he refers to the George W. Bush presidency] discussed as a sign of mental illness, doubtless because drug companies—anxious to prod their faltering revenues—are promising relief from the disorder with pharmaceutical remedies.
“(Imagine, if you will, the inevitable ads: ‘Think it’s just bitterness from job loss, foreclosure on your home, or that nonexistent pension for which you’ve been saving all your working years? It may be “post-traumatic embitterment disorder,” a mental illness that some doctors think is due to a chemical imbalance . . .’)”
No kidding. The APA should do itself a big, big favor and put a sock in the mouths of whomever is pushing for bitterness to be counted as a mental illness. The organization has already lost a ton of credibility in recent years–not that it had lots to begin with–with social anxiety disorder, bipolar disorder type 2 and the like, and it can hardly stand to lose anymore. Or will the organization not stop until it declares normalcy a mental illness?
Beyond Meds had this to say:
“I’m sure they’d happily label all of us who have been harmed by psychiatry with this disorder as we work out our dismay after realizing we’ve been had.”
Yes, like stockbrokers they want to get us coming and going.
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Posted in Furious Seasons