People Are Strange

[Crunchy Frog]

73. I have to take some issue with this post.

I have recently become unusually sensitized to both the casual labeling of people as having "personality disorders" and the making of sweeping generalizations about people so labeled.

This is likely because (full disclosure) I was given that "diagnosis" and label ~15 months ago by and inexperienced, poorly supervised, and overenthusiastic, student therapist who did my intake assessment at a local mental health clinic that takes Medicaid, where I went to get help with my issues with depression and anxiety.

While I did manage to get the diagnosis removed from my record, it left a major impression on me, and it led me to doing lots of research on the subject of personality disorders.

Just FYI, as of the DSM5, these disorders are no longer listed on a separate axis. There is also, now, a good deal of research suggesting that their is a strong genetic component to these disorders.

These disorders are considered to be difficult to accurately diagnose, and there is general agreement that they should only be diagnosed by highly qualified clinicians utilizing appropriate diagnostic tools, or other means of gathering and analyzing large quantities of relevant information about the person; hence the agreement that my own diagnosis was an invalid one.

People who receive this diagnostic label are often highly stigmatized. It can impact their job prospects and their standing in court proceedings, among other things. There are therapists who will refuse to treat people who have this label on their record. There are doctors who will dismiss, even serious physical complaints, from people with this label, with sometimes lethal consequences. Thousands of soldiers who served in Iraq and Afghanistan and suffer from PTSD, TBI, or have been victims of sexual assault, have been unjustly labeled with "personality disorder" in order to discharge them from the military and avoid having to give them the veteran and medical benefits that they earned. Disposable Soldiers

While you may very well be qualified to make this sort of diagnosis, I don't believe that there is anyone who is qualified to make it on the basis of someone's internet postings. I would urge you to be a little more sensitive and careful in throwing these labels around.

I apologize for the hypersensitivity and the lecture, but I lived with this label on my record for 15 months, and only got rid of it through the grace of God. And this could happen to anyone who happens to walk into the wrong therapist's office. And not everyone can get rid of the label, no matter how invalidly it was arrived at.