Isn't this ad hom territory?
Of course it is ad hominen territory, which means Helpful Elf is as entitled to his opinion as I am to disagree with him. I used the term "unhelpful" as a play on his screen name, nothing more.
People unjustly apply psychiatric labels to themselves in order to receive attention or explain why they are the way they are. Honestly, you haven't heard one person say 'I'm depressed' when, at worst, they were just feeling a bit down/under the weather. If your thought processes were affected by aan illness, then they shouldn't be included in your 'diagnoses'. The rest is your experiences.
I would say people sometimes use psychiatric terns like "depressed" loosely rather than unjustly in order to get attention. Then, too, there is such a thing as a situational depression, the source of which stems from events in one's life, rather than an actual mental illness. The depression is just as real, but the source is not neurobiological as in a disorder such as unipolar depression.
I'm not clear about the meaning of the last two sentences in your paragraph. If what you meant was: "If your thought processes *weren't* affected by an illness, they shouldn't be included in your ' diagnoses,' then I would answer that people with psychiatric disorders are capable of clear reasoning unless they're ill at the time. For example, my son, who has schizoaffective disorder, has quite normal thought processes unless he is in the grip of delusions and it's quite apparent when this happens. To attribute everything he says or does to the symptoms of his disorder would be quite unfair most of the time. I am most baffled by the sentence "The rest is your experiences." Could you elucidate?
I doubt people who are applying these labels to themselves are going into interviews stating that 'They have aspergers'
Of course not. But if they want accommodations--and what better way to receive special attention--they must disclose their disability to their employer if it isn't evident. And I'll reiterate the example of the bar exam application. Had I been honest about my history, I would never have had the chance to take the bar exam, much less practice law; so it doesn't have to be something as direct as sitting down and announcong you have a disability you don't in fact have.
The problem with most of these people is that they self diagnose themselves, or read about it and start, maybe unconsciously, mirroring the symptoms and thus, with that, they get validation.
Most diagnoses of psychiatric disorders are based on self-reporting, so it seems it would be easy to convince a doctor that a disorder exists by presenting with the right symptoms, but in my experience--admittedly personal and not universal--this isn't the case. Precisely because diagnoses are based on self-reporting, most psychiatrists are reluctant to label a person with a disorder without some observation. My son was hospitalized several times and followed closely by his psychiatrist for two years before a diagnosis of schizophrenia was made. My own diagnosis of bipolar--the second one--was made based on a two-hour interview with me, but I was severely, classically manic at the time and the psychiatrist also consulted my therapist of six years, who was quite embarrassed that he hadn't reached this conclusion himself after so many years of treatment. My point is, psychiatric disorders are hard to diagnose and I have difficulty believing anyone could--or would want to--keep up a facade for the amount of time it takes to get a diagnosis. My first diagnosis of bipolar disorder came after examination by two therapists over a six-year period, several hospitalizations and two suicide attempts, and, finally, a psychiatric examination If you are talking about someone who self-diagnoses but merely shares his/her diagnosis with friends and family to explain behaviors, that's one thng. To get the validation you seem to be talking about-- diagnosis by a psychiatrist and treatment--that's something else again.
It's about 8 o clock in the morning, and I haven't sleep yet, I think this post is comprehensible but if it's not, i'll fix it.
the whole time....
