Why are people so quick to diagnose themselves and others with psychological disorders?

And why are they always absolutely sure that they're right? Psychologists spend years in school to learn about these disorders and even then, they go slowly in diagnosing them. Does it make people feel better about their problems to have a label for them? (ooh, I'm not nervous about a test, I have Anxiety Disorder!) Do they use it to explain away flaws in themselves and others? (I'm not dishonest, I must be a Compulsive Liar! I can't help it, so its okay!) Then everyone is running around professing disorders that they don't have, and the people who are actually suffering from them aren't getting the attention they need..

Don't people realize that everyone has very mild signs of psychological disorders all the time, but that is completely normal and doesn't mean they actually have the disorder?

This just drives me absolutely crazy.. Why do people do this?

I call myself just plain Nuts and leave it at that. Sort of covers everything.

Except being in Love.

That is the only enjoyable form of insanity.

sb

because they think they know it all...

For some people it makes them feel important. For others to make themselves feel better because they are the sick ones who are jealous. I could not agree with you more! I would rather hear that I have a condition from a trained Doctor than some know it all that could get me into some serious hot water.

let us sit and diagnose them ... lol

In terms of diagnosis.......the guide that doctors use to diagnose psycholgical/personality disorders is called the DSM or the Diagnostic Statistics Manual - currently the DSM iv - TR or DSM 4, Text Revision.

One of the things I've noticed in psychology is how insecure most nearly everyone is and how we compare ourselves to others and how critical of ourselves we are. Most of the time, what I'm seeing is people are wrong - people have perfectly "normal" or "natural" responses given a set of learning or social settings.

You are right in that EVERYONE is dysfunctional in some area. Not only that, in diagnosing a problem, there is also the matter of time - psychologically we have winters, we all have falls, we all have summers and springs - just because we do something one time doesn't mean we have a disorder....the perpetuity of a behavior is an indicator of the illness....i.e. if it happens on ly one time, they don't have OCD or whatever. Similarly, as we passs through phases of life, depending on our circumstances, we may behave in a certain way that may be construed as "dysfuctional" but when one looks at the setting, is actually a natural response.

It is very difficult to become aware of our thoughts. We simply think our thoughts - we're in them - kind of like being on an airplane - you experience the airplane ride, but you can't step outside the plane and actually see what it is doing, why it is making you feel that way. It might feel like you're going down when you're actually going up...until you step outside and can SEE. This is why Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is becoming VERY popular and is being shown to be VERY effective if done properly on a WIDE RANGE of troubles. We become aware of what we're actually thinking, feeling, why, what impact it has and what affect it has.

There are four "axis" to mental health,
Axis I Clinical Disorders (i.e. ADHD)
Axis II Personality Disorders and Mental Retardation (Anti-Social-Personality-Disorder)
Axis III General Medical Condition (stroke causing dimentia)
Axis IV Psychosocial and Environmental Factors (family problems, incest, abuse)
Axis V Global Assessment of Functioning
(how you're functioning on a scale of 1-100.)

These all affect mental health...and play a factor in determining whether or not we have a "condition".

One of the criteria for a "problem" is "impairment" - you can be afraid of spiders, but that doesn't mean you have a phobia. You have a phobia when you miss your grandmothers dying in the hospital because there's a field by the hospital and there might be spiders in it and you could get bitten. Or you miss the wedding of your only child because there's a bridge between you and the wedding. THAT is when you have a phobia.

IMPAIRMENT is when functioning is maladaptive and disruptive and can't be accomodated or fixed.

This in mind, nearly everybody has SOMETHING, but most...nowhere near what they think. Usually I would say if you haven't been diagnosed, then you don't have anything because most people who have something aren't aware they have it - again going up to being aware of their thoughts. That's why it takes a psychologist - standing outside the plane doing an interview - to figure out what is going on. So if they are diagnosing themselves, without a knowledge of the criteria, you can't label yourself, and if you are, I might jokingly call them "crazy" because it just isn't done.

Even psychologists can't diagnose themselves.

email me if you want to see some of my latest discoveries on rehabilitation of deviant behaviors! WOW....this stuff is going to turn the world on its HEAD....in a GOOD way.