Moody or Mentally Ill?

One summer when I was a teenager, I suddenly was sleeping all the time, not going out, not doing anything but sleeping and hanging out in my room. I withdrew from the world. Most days I did not even get dressed. At the time my parents just yelled at me for being lazy. Years later I was properly diagnosed with a thyroid disease. This thyroid disease was causing my depression and fatigue. I wish my parents had taken it seriously rather than just yell at me.

The major factor with any diagnosis is how it affects a person's life. Not how you think they got there, but how it affects them at that moment. You act like because they are diagnosed with a current condition that it will last forever, which is hardly the case. Any diagnosis and prognosis would take into consideration all the things you mention by any able psychiatrist.

What do you think happens? The parents take them to a psychologist and complain about the child and the doctor then agrees immediately with the parent and prescribes medications that are addictive and life-altering? The scenario you imagine sounds like a sloppy medical doctor versus and psychologist or psychartrist.

You mention an axis, but fail to understand the other component considered when using the DSM as a guideline. Also, if you think that SAD, ASD, PTSD are not mental illness, then you again, have issues.

But why bother answering you...you already show your bias with the word "shrink" and claim friends who are sound psychologists who will give a diagnosis without a complete case history. Obviously, you have your opinions and are not willing to accept that although what happened to you was not good, that others desperately need help.

I don't know about then, but you are the problem now. Did you miss the part where the boy said he was hearing voices and having other hallucinations? Minimizing other people's experiences based on your own personal agenda is a terrible way to get through life.

This is a load of crap! More propaganda from the administration that wants to label normal human behavior as pathological so that they can put everyone in therapy and on medications. I have a friend with a Ph.D. in psychology that told me clinicians, counselors, etc., are pressured to diagnose a mental illness, regardless of the validity of that diagnosis -- it provides a revenue stream (no money if there's nothing wrong with the "patient") and job security for the "providers" who need a steady supply of patients. Every facet of human behavior is now a mental illness...Can't focus: ADD/ADHD. Unhappy: depression. Nervous: anxiety disorder. Eccentric: schizophrenia, schizoid or schizotypal personality disorder. Get angry: oppostional behavior disorder, explosive behavior disorder. Neat and organized: OCD. Mood swings: bipolar. Etc. You want to know what's wrong with young people? Nothing! Adults who label everything children and young adults do as pathological, as some sort of disorder are the problem. Everthing is cause for concern -- your kid is interested in sex -- he or she is devious, a pervert, or rebellious. Your kid isn't interested in sex -- he or she has depression. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. Additionaly, our kids are growing up in negative, violent, unhappy environments. They are fed nothing but depressing messages (our economy is failing, the divorce rate is high, violent crime is going up, oil is running out, foreclosures are rampant, STDs are everywhere, retirement plans are failing, the U.S. is in an endless war, the U.S. is going bankrupt, etc.). In my case, I was in a high school with gangs and drug dealers. Kids at age 15 were wandering the halls, muttering gangster rap lyrics about raping "***" and shooting "haters" in the head, etc. Gang members on the bus bragged about who they shot, stabbed, or beat over the weekend. I was regularly slapped across the back of the head in the hallways and called "honky" and "cracker." Nobody gave a rat's ass. No wonder, then, at age 16 I was diagnosed with depression...Oh yes, I was the problem. I was sick, mentally ill. There was nothing wrong with my school environment, our society, or anybody else. It was me. Or so the establishment would have me believe. People need to wake up from their stupor and get real.