It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood...or is it? A discourse (rant?) on the Fine Art of Modern Psychiatry and how it sometimes relates to everyday life

Date:   5/27/2005 5:58:12 PM ( 19 y ago)

Still drinking at least an 8 ounce cup of pomegranate juice each day, and loving the results. Powerful antioxidant. Very cleansing too.

About my neighborhood: what I define as my neighborhood is the community where I live, the place where I work, which is several miles from my community, the studio where my alt health business is, and all of the people and animals and beings and inanimate objects, animal, vegetable, and mineral, that surround my life.

Big definition, but at least I didn't include the solar system; maybe I should.

In my neighborhood, and often in the most unlikely places, I find that I am closely associating with people who could easily be categorized by mental health professionals as having various personality disorders. Who am I to categorize as such, you might ask...

A researcher, I would answer, and a lifelong student of the human psyche.

Doesn't make me an expert, but in my humble opinion there are no experts, and indeed we are all students, as no research is yet complete, and no-one has really found the answers yet.

Here's a definition from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association:

The DSM-IV-TR defines a personality disorder as an enduring pattern of inner experience and behavior that deviates markedly from the expectation of the individual's culture, is pervasive and inflexible, has an onset in adolescence or early adulthood, is stable over time, and leads to distress or impairment.

In a way, this definition sounds very general. Here's a helpful link if you want more technical information: http://www.focusas.com/PersonalityDisorders.html

I usually know in a brief amount of time if I have mistakenly entered into a frienship or other kind of partnership (such as business) with someone who has a personality disorder. There are red flags that go up for me, and I see them, and politely extricate myself from all interaction with such a person.

I do not have the strength to deal with people who have personality disorders. It's actually quite a complicated issue. Most of those who have personality disorders do not know that they do. Nobody tells them. Not even most who see psychiatrists or psychologists on a regular basis are actually told that they have been diagnosed with personality disorders. Why? For most personality disorders there are no medications that can balance or correct the problem and the behaviors associated with it. Also, someone diagnosed with a personality disorder alone (Axis II disorder in the DSM IV TR) is not eligible for insurance payment for services, as there needs to be an Axis I diagnosis in order for reimbursement to the provider to be possible.

Another reason that often clients are not told they have been diagnosed with a personality disorder is that for a human being it most likely feels quite insulting and demeaning to be diagnosed with any of the personality disorders, and many may have sued for slander after being diagnosed as such, feeling wrongly diagnosed.

Yet these types of personalities definitely exist, and are scattered about all around us. They have the freedom to live their lives too, and I wish them all well.

There are simply certain types I cannot spend time with or have a close association with in my personal life. Type #1 is the Borderline Personality Disorder. Here is a definition that includes causes, incidence, and risk factors, as well as symptoms:

Borderline personality disorder is a condition characterized by impulsive actions, mood instability, and chaotic relationships.

Causes, incidence, and risk factors:

Personality disorders are chronic patterns of behavior that impair relationships and work. The cause of borderline personality disorder (BPD) is unknown. People with BPD are impulsive in areas that have a potential for self-harm, such as drug use, drinking, and other risk-taking behaviors.

Risk factors for BPD include abandonment issues in childhood or adolescence, sexua| abuse, disrupted family life, and poor communication within the family. This personality disorder tends to occur more often in women and among hospitalized psychiatric patients.

Symptoms:

Relationships with others are intense and unstable, swinging wildly from love to hate and back again. People with BPD will engage in frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment.

BPD patients may also have uncertainties about their identity or self-image. They tend to see things in terms of extremes, either all good or all bad. Such people also typically view themselves as victims of circumstance and take little responsibility for themselves or their problems.

Other symptoms include:

Frequent displays of inappropriate anger
Recurrent suicidal gestures such as wrist cutting, overdosing, or self-mutilation
Feelings of emptiness and boredom
Intolerance of being alone
Impulsiveness with money, substance abuse, sexua| relationships, binge eating, or shoplifting.

Vibr8 here again. I just want for you to understand this: I am not a snob. I am also a compassionate human being. I just have been burned too many times when extending friendship to people with this personality disorder. And this week I've done it again. Didn't realize it until I was right in the midst of an elaborate manipulation by this person, this so-called friend. I am so busy with my 50+ hour a week job, and my business, from which I derive the $$ with which I help support my daughter through college, and support myself, just barely, in today's economy.

I do not have extra time to spend playing ridiculous manipulative mind games that someone else has set up for me to play. Fortunately, I had the good sense to curtly excuse myself from the manipulation and walk away from it.

I do not want to delve more deeply into any of this right now. It is still too painful for me.

Personality disorders really do not have much to do with natural health. I would like to end this discourse with another link, though, to the website of Dr. Thomas Szasz, who has spent most of his career looking into the absolute audacity of modern Psychiatry and the myth of mental illness. Fascinating man!

http://www.szasz.com

My neighborhood is full of all kinds of creative & positive potential, and, by golly, I am going to find it!





 

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