Mental Health Overdiagnosis: What It Is And Why It Happens
Overdiagnosis of mental health is a phenomenon associated with the attempt to pathologize an individual’s behavior that is simply due to a mental illness that cannot be classified as a mental disorder. This happens in the field of psychiatry and leads not only to misdiagnosis but also to the use of drugs when it is not necessary.
Diagnosis has long been one of the most difficult aspects of psychiatry. This is because this is a highly subjective area where the psychiatrist determines what a person has based on their own perception and inaccurate instruments. Under these conditions, errors often occur, leading to a phenomenon called mental overdiagnosis or overdiagnosis.
On the other hand, the most widely accepted reference instrument is the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders ( DSM ) . This handbook, in turn, was designed by a group of psychiatrists, and almost all of them Americans, and the definition and inclusion of the disorder has been decided by a vote. Its first version had only 60 glitches; in the latest, fifth edition, there are more than 500 of them.
Is there overdiagnosis in the mental health sector?
All indications are that overdiagnosis of mental health is a real phenomenon. If we stick to the latest edition of the DSM, experts have reported that as many as 70% of the population would have some form of mental disorder, and therefore this 70% should also take some type of medication.
In addition, the latest edition, the DSM-5, contains hypothesized interference that is questionable even among professionals. For example, it includes an entity called “ psychosis risk syndrome,” which in turn would be a syndrome with features that significantly increase the risk of developing psychosis in the future, which in turn would allow the use of antipsychotic medications.
Almost everyone can basically suffer from this syndrome. Most of us have encountered situations where we “feel like we’re going crazy,” but that’s not really the case. It is absurd to treat any disorder that may occur in the future. It’s like giving antihypertensive drugs to a child of a person with high blood pressure because he or she is at risk for that disease.
Another example of the many strange diagnoses in this handbook would be “character dysfunction with dysphoria”. In simple Finnish, this would mean a lonely wolf, a selfish and not very empathetic person. According to the DSM, this disorder would also deserve medication, where in reality it is the common nature of some people. In addition, according to the latest version of the DSM, if a person is very sad for more than a week after the death of a person who is important to him or her, he or she may be diagnosed with depression.
Feeling unwell and mental disorders
The boundaries between health and illness cannot be defined so precisely at the level of the mind. We need to start with the idea that “normal” is a very subjective concept and is always related to a particular context. It should also be noted that some form of ill-feeling is an element typically associated with humanity, as living is a journey through uncertainty.
We never get everything we want, and we can never achieve perfect balance. We all also deal with a certain bad feeling because death is always present and this is a cruel compulsion for all of us. No one can avoid even some sort of frustration in circumstances that cannot change, and we all have some selfishness or evil within us.
It is understandable that we go through stages where grief is dominated by other emotions or anxiety is dominated by other emotions. In fact, some psychoanalysts find it perfectly normal for us to have up to three episodes of psychosis in our lifetime if we have encountered or are going through certain triggers for psychosis. So perhaps for this same reason, a different kind of malaise that is perfectly normal is treated as a disorder, and for this same reason, there is also a lot of overdiagnosis of mental health in the field.
Dealing with malaise and mental disorders
Until recently, situations such as the grief a person goes through after a near loss were received in the immediate environment of the sufferer. Family and friends took part in this evil feeling; they considered it normal for a relative to go through a period of suffering, and this was accepted and sorrow was tolerated. Today, however, these social support mechanisms have weakened.
Currently, emotional pain is much more difficult to express and often sufferers see themselves only in their circumstances. Likewise, many people no longer even allow grief and suffering in the face of the presupposition that dictates us to “force well” without boundaries. The way out then is to turn to a psychiatrist and take the pill he gives us.
Medications fulfill this good or bad function and help control individual and collective malaise. Overdiagnosis of mental health is a two-way reality. On the one hand, there are traditional psychiatrists who follow only a very narrow field of diagnostics and intervention. On the other hand are the people who suffer and refuse to understand their pain. That’s why they turn to help that helps them prevent being unwell.
