Mental Health Diagnosis

Please note, I am not intending to point fingers. Negotiation & problem solving have always been core to me and I guess I like to approach things from that angle. So I am merely shedding information that might help others assemble issues into something tangible.

From my short time at #PrideInstitute, I was given both a crash course and a glimpse into the world of Mental Health and how it not only impacts, but disrupts lives. I am by no means an expert. But I do have a grasp on its bigger picture. From the science side - their experts are certainly the "bottom feeders" of the medical pyramid. If you have a fever - the cause can be A,B,C and the remedy can possibly be 1, 2 or 3. Even in complex cases like cancer or AIDS where there is no cure, the prognosis gets clearer each year and there is no doubt that diagnosis is usually conclusive - unless someone has mixed up a lab result. But with mental health, it has only been in the last 50 years that any sort of credence has been given. Asylums and shock treatments may seem archaic, but look at any text book and you can see that they are still recent solutions. And it has only been in the last 25 years that doctors have begun to agree and notate what constitutes a mental health issue or tried to create some notable criteria that science can agree on. These are the doctors - the public is light years behind on comprehending any of this.

So in most basic terms - a DSM code stands for a Diagnostic and Statistical Manual determination that serves as a current standard to everything from Bi Polar to Personality Disorders. A current notation of DSM V - refers to the latest update of the manual, current to 2013. To give some insight; homosexuality was wrestled with and first classified as a mental disorder by doctors in 1952. By 1972 only 20 years later, it was struck, as a new generation determined it was NOT an illness but a genetic trait. So one can see how tempestuous and temporary this slippery slope is.

Fast forward to our current political climate. Much mud has been flung at the walls, but it is the first time that scientists are entering the fray. Please look at the current diagnosis for Narcissitic Pesonality Disorder. There are 9 traits. This is not just bad mouthing someone's behavior. But trying to categorize it as a medical condition with specific parameters. Take time to read the approved list and tell me if this sum of the facts does not make some sort of logical sense? This does not offer up a cure. It is merely pointing out a roster of 9 possible traits that point to a learned conclusion. If you believe in this field, there is definitely some weight to the argument - even to an unlearned observer.

But because this field of the medical community does not have the same heritage, it also doesn't carry the same pedigree of someone examining a physical chart of chemical levels and prescribed medications. And up to this point, it has never been deemed necessary to ask for any sort of mental health consult. A military advisor can offer up experienced witness. A legal team can offer up constitutional advice. We now also expect an entire Cabinet to lead in areas of designated experience. But never before have psychiatric mentors felt or been asked to offer their observations. But they are speaking up!

So please, just consider. Do not react or debunk. But just look at the facts & logic and tell me if it does not at least offer up something new in the discussion.