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Pathologising

B

I'm just going to quote myself here from the Terminology thread:

" ... a lot of things I grew up believing were just a normal part of being human have names and are actually now labelled a 'condition' or 'disorder'.

I think I must now have about 20 conditions and disorders I wasn't aware of until recently.

It feels as though everything is being neatly put into boxes."

I read this article the other day

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-special-needs-racket-is-out-of-control/

(if a box comes up + it looks like you can't read the article, you can close the box down and read still).

I'm really undecided what I think about all this.

When I was younger I had 'anxiety' put on my medical records and I was very surprised as I thought everyone got anxious, although I'd been given meds to deal with it.

Anyway, I later heard about 'general anxiety disorder' and I still can't make my mind up about whether anxiety is just part of the human condition.

Do others have views on these thoughts?

Are too many things being pathologised and defined these days?

Parents

  • The main advantage of identifying something is so you can then either offer, or work on, a treatment to alleviate the negative aspects. Or perhaps to identify accommodations.

    If this identification provides some benefit, then it is of use and some value.

    If it is just a classification process for the sake of it, then it may isolate people and make them feel different or an object of curiosity. 

    I can't tell, for each of the conditions, whether there is a nett benefit or not.

  • in reply to Stuart333

    It's an old maxim in any magical practice that you can't have power with that which you cannot name, I feel this deeply, if I have a name for something then I can work with it instead of blundering around in the dark trying out random tactics to try nad make myself better. I have names for some of the things I live with daily, like dyslexia, I can tell people and explain why I'm having trouble, I can explain to opticians when having an eye test that I really do need lenses for the astigmatism that contributes about 60% of the dyslexia. I have power with it because I can name and explain.

    It's difficult when you can name something but strategies are limited, such as ND and fybromyalgia, accomodations can be made for ND's if the people I'm dealing with are willing and I don't have to fight to hard to get them to understand, sometimes I can't and have to walk away. Some people don't believe things like fybromyalgia exist, think it malingering and tell you they feel tired all the time too etc etc, its hard to deal with that sort of unwillingness to understand and the sort of anger and resentment behind it. But it is something I can tell people, there are things I can take and do which help, I can explain it to others and myself.

    A diagnosis can be used to empower someone, not everyone feels able to be empowered and will sit and wait for another to come along and make things better, I think these people are disempowered in general, this is something that can be worked with too. 

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  • in reply to Stuart333

    It's an old maxim in any magical practice that you can't have power with that which you cannot name, I feel this deeply, if I have a name for something then I can work with it instead of blundering around in the dark trying out random tactics to try nad make myself better. I have names for some of the things I live with daily, like dyslexia, I can tell people and explain why I'm having trouble, I can explain to opticians when having an eye test that I really do need lenses for the astigmatism that contributes about 60% of the dyslexia. I have power with it because I can name and explain.

    It's difficult when you can name something but strategies are limited, such as ND and fybromyalgia, accomodations can be made for ND's if the people I'm dealing with are willing and I don't have to fight to hard to get them to understand, sometimes I can't and have to walk away. Some people don't believe things like fybromyalgia exist, think it malingering and tell you they feel tired all the time too etc etc, its hard to deal with that sort of unwillingness to understand and the sort of anger and resentment behind it. But it is something I can tell people, there are things I can take and do which help, I can explain it to others and myself.

    A diagnosis can be used to empower someone, not everyone feels able to be empowered and will sit and wait for another to come along and make things better, I think these people are disempowered in general, this is something that can be worked with too. 

Children
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