The End of Normal?

The redefining of what is and is not normal will have a tremendous impact on the lives of hundreds of thousands, and perhaps millions, of people - http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/01/130111092455.htm


"The DSM (American Psychiatric Association) editions are criticised for constantly lowering the thresholds for qualifying for a psychiatric diagnosis."

"We are in the process of turning the disease into the norm and where the normal becomes the exception."

"Just like the super models on the catwalk we risk seeing the normal as an aberration and it becomes something that lies beyond what's humanly achievable"

"..this could easily turn into a "bonanza for the pharmaceutical industry but at a huge cost to the new false positive patients caught in the excessively wide DSM-5 net."

Many critics of the diagnostic manuals believe that a number of general human features have become pathologised over the last few years. For example, in a proposal submitted to DSM-5 it is argued that post-death grief qualifies as an unconditional symptom of depression.

" It has become far too easy to be diagnosed for depression, Svendsen argues. - One has to remember that depression is classified as one of our most severe diseases by the World Health Organization (WHO) and is considered as debilitating as blindness or Down's syndrome."

"There is the danger that your diagnosis becomes your identity when the thresholds are lowered. But what we should keep in mind is that the diagnosis says nothing about the positive beliefs and resources inherent in a human being," says Lars Fredrik Svendsen.

Given that psychiatric drugs are the most over-prescribed drugs with the worst side-effects, this will lead to greater numbers of unnecessary deaths and disabilities.