Psychiatrists to brand grief lasting longer than two weeks a mental illness

[sibelian]

123. So - a safety net for people *actually* suffering from major depressive disorder...?

Perhaps not a bad idea in principle, but how does establishing an arbitrary time limit for grief help with this?

What you're describing clearly should be a solvable quandary, but the two week limit for grieving is a horrible solution. These new diagnostic guidelines will start to subject people undergoing ordinary emotional reactions to the same stigma that other people with genuine mental health problems already face. Why can't the exclusion from a diagnosis of genuine major depressive disorder in these cases simply be managed better? You detail some effects of grief and/or depressive disorder that are threatening to life - why can't these effects themselves be taken as sufficient to validate a diagnosis in cases where actual mental illness has resulted from grief? Why must ordinary human behaviour be re-classified and our perceptions of it distorted?

I believe that your position is very well-intentioned, cbayer, for which I respect you, but it seems to me that this solution is like using a sledgehammer to fix a music box.