I
rarely get pissed off but this just pushed me over the edge.
Apparently
in the world of medical assessment there has come a time where we
have to make a choice. Are we sick and able to deal with it without
complaint? Or are we sick and want the doctors to freaking well do
something about it? Apparently we can no-longer have both without
being told we are mentally ill.
I
repeat. If we complain about being ILL, then our doctors may be given
the option of labelling you with a psychiatric disorder. Yeh. That
well and truly pisses me off. MEGA amounts.
The
American Psychiatric Association wants to have the power of
licensing
the application of a mental health diagnosis to all medical diseases
and disorders. In laymans terms this means that if you think about
your disease, you think too much about the terrible pain you are in
because of your disease, you know you are ill, the doctors know you
are ill and yet they can't find what is wrong with you, then you are
automatically placed into the catergory of having the proposed
psychatric diagnosis of 'Somatic
Symptom Disorder'.
They
diagnose this as thus:
“Criteria
A, B, and C must all be fulfilled to make the diagnosis:
A. Somatic symptoms: One or more somatic symptoms that are distressing and/or result in significant disruption in daily life.
B. Excessive thoughts, feelings, and behaviors related to these somatic symptoms or associated health concerns: At least one of the following must be present.
(1) Disproportionate and persistent thoughts about the seriousness of one's symptoms.
(2) Persistently high level of anxiety about health or symptoms
(3) Excessive time and energy devoted to these symptoms or health concerns
C. Chronicity: Although any one symptom may not be continuously present, the state of being symptomatic is persistent (typically >6 months).”
A. Somatic symptoms: One or more somatic symptoms that are distressing and/or result in significant disruption in daily life.
B. Excessive thoughts, feelings, and behaviors related to these somatic symptoms or associated health concerns: At least one of the following must be present.
(1) Disproportionate and persistent thoughts about the seriousness of one's symptoms.
(2) Persistently high level of anxiety about health or symptoms
(3) Excessive time and energy devoted to these symptoms or health concerns
C. Chronicity: Although any one symptom may not be continuously present, the state of being symptomatic is persistent (typically >6 months).”
So
you have have a disease or illness that is distressing or disrupts
your life (YAY- you fit criteria A), your disease or illness also in
your distress makes you think about your disease or illness, (say you
have non epileptic seizures and you are worried you're going to die
as I did- YAY You fit Criteria B) and then if this continues for say
6 months, or more than congratulations you have the whole freaking
set and are the proud owner of a new psychiatric disorder...
Do
you see why i'm pee'd off. I have ME and Conversion Disorder, I have
symptoms that cannot be defined or diagnosed through one specific
test. Yet my illnesses disrupt my ife, distress me and cause me to
spend excessive time worrying that I need to conserve energy for the
next day and it has so far lasted 6 years.....
I
might as well diagnose myself now then eh, American Psychatric
Association...
Yes
this deals predominately with pain and symptoms without explaination
such as MEGA SHOCK; ME, but if you have a pain in your head, back,
arms, legs or ANYWHERE and the doctors can't find out whats wrong
with you then they are at fault not us! They need to find the cause
not stick another psychatric label on someone because they haven't
got the answer. And if they want the answer they need to spend more
on biomedical research!
BUT
APPARENTLY THATS NOT HOW MEDICINE WORKS ANYMORE!!!
As
a good friend of mine (who won't mind being quoted) said:
'My
guess is that the pharma companies will just have another cash cow
for all the drugs they have that are fast running out of patent time-
you have SSD- here take this little green pill that we have marketed
to doctors for the treatment of patients with SSD a brand new
psychiatric catergory.'
So
here is where you good people come in, this is still being debated
and decided on, in fact its in its final stages RIGHT NOW.
"The DSM-5 Web site (www.dsm5.org) is open to a third and final round of feedback. For six weeks, patients and their loved ones, members of the profession, and the general public can submit questions and comments via the Web site. All will be read by members of the appropriate DSM-5 work groups."
I
URGE everyone with an invisible disorder to register their feedback,
we CANNOT under any circumstances allow this to happen!! The medical
boards cannot be allowed to put us with legitimate medical conditions
in a group and label us with a psychiatric disorder!! We are NOT
mental. We are ILL. And becoming stressed and upset and having your
time consumed by the stress and distress of our disorders is NORMAL.
Please!
If you do nothing else today, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE submit your
comments on the website above!! They need to know how wrong and
damaging this could be for all of us. Because we all know as soon as
America signs up and categorises us as thus, the UK won't be far
behind!!