> One reason people prefer a diagnosis is that they prefer a label (even if it does come with some social stigma) to the greater social stigma associated with the same symptoms absent a "mental illness". Assigning such a label allows people (both the individual with the mental illness, and people around them) to view their symptoms in a different and more compassionate light. Most importantly, it allows people to think rationally about the best course of action for the person.
Labels do serve some use. But many people hate having the label and they hide it. Stigma is still very strong. For all the people who are open about their diagnosis there are many who keep it secret -- or who do not seek treatment because they are scared of the stigma.
And some labels have worse problems than others. A diagnosis of Personality Disorder (eg Bordeline PD) can be catastrophic. There isn't really any medication for it, and therapy options are limited. And people will often respond to anything you do through the lens of the diagnosis -- you did that because you have BPD and one of the symptoms of BPD is X and so that's why people like you do things like that. Even if that wasn't one of the diagnosing symptoms.
Depression is not just sadness. Imagine your favourite show going off TV. You may be sad for a while. You probably won't feel as if it's your fault it's come off air, nor that there is never going to be anything else worth watching, and the feelings won't be constantly with you throughout the day and probably won't last long.
Depression affects appetite, sleep, motivation, and cognition. There's some feedback loops in there. Sometimes these create someone who can function but at a reduced level. Sometimes it kills people.
I find it vaguely offensive when people suggest that feeling bad enough to overcome the human inante desire for self-preservation is somehow a normal part of the human experience. A broken leg is not shameful, happens to many people, but is not normal.
You also call cancer "real". That kind of attitude (here's a list of real illnesses, and here's a list of psychological illnesses) is really harmful. There are many people who reject any psychological interventions in their illnesses because they feel that it means people are saying their illness is not real. People with severe RSI pain reject cognitive behaviour therapy treatment because they feel as if they are being told they are making it up. People with long term farigue reject CHT for similar reasons; so much so there are now two forms of chronic fatigue in the online community - one the responds to CBT and real fatigue.
The link to cancer is that CBT is sucessfully used to treat pain in some people with cancer.
I think you have not read my post carefully. I was clear in separating believing in discrete categories (both their objective existence and their usefulness), vs believing that symptoms can be treated.
>Labels do serve some use. But many people hate having the label and they hide it. Stigma is still very strong. For all the people who are open about their diagnosis there are many who keep it secret -- or who do not seek treatment because they are scared of the stigma.
You've ignored my argument regarding why people seek out labels, apart from their therapeutic usefulness. I did also state that these labels have a stigma associated with them, but I made a claim, that you haven't addressed, that the stigma of the symptoms in the absence of diagnosis, may be greater than the stigma of the label.
>Depression is not just sadness. Imagine your favourite show going off TV. You may be sad for a while. You probably won't feel as if it's your fault it's come off air, nor that there is never going to be anything else worth watching, and the feelings won't be constantly with you throughout the day and probably won't last long.
It is this sort of claim, that I was asking for evidence for. I agree that a person might feel all these things, and that it might be reasonable to label this cluster of symptoms as "depression". But you are taking it much much further, and claiming that this is in contrast to ordinary experience, and not an extreme part of a spectrum. I can guarantee you one things: every person on earth has experienced much more significant sadness than their favorite TV show going off the air, and when they experience these things, the result is going to be much closer to the symptoms you associate with depression, than to "being sad for a while".
>I find it vaguely offensive when people suggest that feeling bad enough to overcome the human inante desire for self-preservation is somehow a normal part of the human experience. A broken leg is not shameful, happens to many people, but is not normal.
If you are offended because you thought that I was implying that nothing should be done to help people who were in a state of mind that was so terrible to be in, that they preferred suicide, then you misread my post. If you are offended because I didn't draw a line in the sand separating such people from everyone else, because you find it offensive to the human spirit to suggest that, absent a very specific disease, a person would ever find themself in this state of mind, or anything resembling it, then I would answer that human nature is what it is, not what we want it to be.
>You also call cancer "real". That kind of attitude (here's a list of real illnesses, and here's a list of psychological illnesses) is really harmful.
That is not what I said. I never claimed that people should not seek help, or otherwise try to address the symptoms of mental illness. What I said is that cancer is different from depression because cancer is a discrete category. People don't fall on a spectrum of having cancer, and whether or not a person has cancer is not at all subjective.
Labels do serve some use. But many people hate having the label and they hide it. Stigma is still very strong. For all the people who are open about their diagnosis there are many who keep it secret -- or who do not seek treatment because they are scared of the stigma.
And some labels have worse problems than others. A diagnosis of Personality Disorder (eg Bordeline PD) can be catastrophic. There isn't really any medication for it, and therapy options are limited. And people will often respond to anything you do through the lens of the diagnosis -- you did that because you have BPD and one of the symptoms of BPD is X and so that's why people like you do things like that. Even if that wasn't one of the diagnosing symptoms.
Depression is not just sadness. Imagine your favourite show going off TV. You may be sad for a while. You probably won't feel as if it's your fault it's come off air, nor that there is never going to be anything else worth watching, and the feelings won't be constantly with you throughout the day and probably won't last long.
Depression affects appetite, sleep, motivation, and cognition. There's some feedback loops in there. Sometimes these create someone who can function but at a reduced level. Sometimes it kills people.
I find it vaguely offensive when people suggest that feeling bad enough to overcome the human inante desire for self-preservation is somehow a normal part of the human experience. A broken leg is not shameful, happens to many people, but is not normal.
You also call cancer "real". That kind of attitude (here's a list of real illnesses, and here's a list of psychological illnesses) is really harmful. There are many people who reject any psychological interventions in their illnesses because they feel that it means people are saying their illness is not real. People with severe RSI pain reject cognitive behaviour therapy treatment because they feel as if they are being told they are making it up. People with long term farigue reject CHT for similar reasons; so much so there are now two forms of chronic fatigue in the online community - one the responds to CBT and real fatigue.
The link to cancer is that CBT is sucessfully used to treat pain in some people with cancer.