One of my assignments during spring quarter was to learn to distinguish among the various pathologies in the DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual). I think we might have skipped a few. And we didn't spend enough time on others. But it was an interesting experience all the way...
Now, I spent most of the quarter fighting the DSM-IV tooth and nail. I HATE that fucker. The DSM-IV lists a bunch of symptoms, and if a person exhibits a certain specified number of those symptoms, you can definitively diagnose that person with such-and-such mental disease.
(I will have you know that I did not exhibit enough signs for any of them, although anybody who doesn't KNOW me [i.e., a shrink], might easily mistake me for a full-blown loony.)
Now, the problem is, I've had a number of friends who were (are) really quite DIFFERENT from the rest of this world. Some of them are in pain, and really kinda deserve a break from their own heads. Some of them couldn't possibly be better. And, I'm sorry, but if you're happy the way you are, nobody ought to tell you that you're diseased, especially not a stupid piece of shit book that's never met you.
Furthermore, there's a section called "personality disorders." Those are interesting, because they're classified alongside mental retardation: things that medical/psychological science cannot fix.
The personality disorders are: paranoid; schizoid; schizotypal (neither schizoid nor schizotypal personality disorder has much of anything to do with schizophrenia); antisocial; borderline; histrionic; narcissistic; avoidant; dependent; obsessive-compulsive (not the same as obsessive-compulsive disorder); and "Personality Disorder Not Otherwise Specified."
Personality disorders are particularly creepy. People with them (and I absolutely deny even the remotest possibility that everyone who's been diagnosed with one actually HAS one...) are very fucked up people, according to the DSM-IV. Yet, they seldom recognize that they have problems. Why? Well, because a "personality disorder" is, as the name implies, a problem with your personality. It doesn't have to do with hearing voices in your head; that's a problem with the chemistry in your brain. A personality disorder is actually a problem with WHO YOU ARE, and how you run your own life. They're not "curable," either. You're stuck with a personality disorder in most cases.
Initially, I had a huge problem with this concept. I had a huge problem with the things that my stupid book decided were "pathological."
If YOU don't know you have a problem; if your health and life are not threatened; if you're pretty happy a lot of the time; if there's nothing anybody can do for you anyway -- then who the fuck gives the DSM-IV the right to say you have a problem? "Well," I imagine the DSM-IV saying, "You're different than me. Your moods, the way you approach things, your outlook on life, your relationships... well, they're just not RIGHT. Your perceptions and interpretations of the world just aren't right. Your emotional responses just aren't appropriate."
THIS from a book that doesn't even define what "mental health" or "normalcy" ARE?
So: if you have ever been diagnosed with a personality disorder, Helena hereby pronounces you, for the duration of this entry at least, non-disordered. I'm not saying there's nothing wrong with you; don't get that idea. But I am saying that it's nobody else's business how you perceive and interpret the world, or how "appropriate" your emotional responses are. For the rest of this entry, you're not "sick," but "different." Perhaps there mght be something wrong with you, or perhaps not -- but that's for you to decide.