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⭐️ Social ⭐️ DSM DIAGNOSIS IS POINTLESS-AT BEST

wudbutcher

wudbutcher

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Joined
May 15, 2020
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How many Bluelighters have been diagnosed with one or more "syndromes" by professionals? Last time came out with 3, which ones are irrelevant. Next question- has that new "enlightenment" honestly helped, hurt or made no difference in your life?
Feeds justification and excuses, IMHOP. No to mention adds a negative in the mind of an already insecure/troubled person. Addicts are at our core, chemically narcissistic. I can empathize with a fellow addict, offer encouragement, and assure them best I can that their problem is the result of a disease, they are sick, not bad. And I think we can all agree that accepting, let alone overcoming, is bad enough. But when I look in the mirror, I don't see sick, I see evil. I've never used against my will, I'm a grown ass man.

BULLSHIT!

I use against my will everytime I do it. Somewhere in my life it was no longer the wave I rode, but the dam that holds back the tide.Why did I turn out like this? Many factors, but like cancer, doesnt matter a hill of beans to the patient. And I read a lot of posts on here that declare diagnosis almost as an excuse for bad behavior, which its not.
Growing up, I never heard folks describe substance abusers with more than a few syllables. A drunk or a dope head. Nowadays, longwinded titles to defend or explain our lot/actions. As you waste time trying to get to the root cause, clock keeps ticking. You go to new kind of treatment facility, specially structured for your unique combination. You do the deal. And youre high within a month or two of release.All about the dollar.
I'm not as eloquent as some, and I ramble aftter a week or two. I ask each of you to consider one thing. If you believe that your most recent diagnosis is correct, then why do we constantly read on BL claims that the meds prescribed, meds with proven track records for their respective disorders, don't work? Because in many cases mine included, the behavior and thinking that earned the diagnosis is a result of our real problem, rather than the root cause of drug use.
 
I have three diagnoses. Bipolar I, Obsessive Only Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and ADHD. These diagnoses came with the psychiatrists' belief that the triggering factor was childhood sexual assault.

I received the diagnoses when I was around 40 after having a complete nervous breakdown fueled by IV coke during an ugly divorce. To be honest, I found it an enormous relief to receive the diagnosis. Prior to that I believed I was simply an alcoholic/drug addict with no willpower or moral fibre. At the time, the diagnosis provided a good explanation for why my life had been such an incredible roller-coaster of ups and downs and achievments and failures.

Initially the psychiatric treatment I received was very helpful for stabilising me. The combination of Rx drugs and psychotherapy (in rehab and with psychologists) helped me really understand myself and my behaviour. Being taught mindfulness and cognitive behavioural therapy greatly enhanced my ability to control myself and my emotional and psychological resiliance. The process enabled me to rethink my life and put it on a far healthier, happier, and productive track. In fact, it both allowed me to go through a long period of sobriety and eventually take hard drugs again without totally going off the rails.

However, I now don't put much stock in the diagnoses and consider them just convenient labels for my psychiatrist to match symptoms with Rx drugs and for me to receive insurance benefits for being unable to return to my former career. I don't take the meds prescribed for bipolar or OCD because of their terrible side effects. I do however take the ADHD meds because they genuinely seem to improve my quality of life. If I take hard drugs now I do so entirely out of choice for recreational value. Interestingly I now find the experience of such drugs completely different and far more enjoyable than I did before I received all this psychiatric treatment.

In short, I believe I initially took drugs to self-medicate following childhood trauma. However, I would still say that doing so was entirely a free and conscious choice on my part. I have never used my diagnoses as an excuse to justify anything to anybody - although they were a good temporary tool to help me get on top of myself.
 
Thank you At,so eloquently made my point.
Diagnosis took the spotlight off the real problematic habit that I'll wager wreaked the most havoc and got you where you are in life. And much easier than admitting being an addict. Hindsight is usually clear. At our age, it's irrelevant. is what it is. Betting your life goal wasn't to be on the government teat, any more than the unpleasantries you mentioned earlier were planned. Me neither.
But they are slapping labels on younger and younger, and coming up with all kinds of new ones every year.
And the world is lonelier than ever, cell phones and web have replaced human connection; last thing kids need is another reason to feel less than. Then they look for escape, fast forward couple decades and theyr'e posting on BL at 3 am instead of living life to the fullest, trying their best to put perfume on the pile of shit they call their life. And recalling their glory days.
 
wudbutcher said:
Thank you At,so eloquently made my point.
Diagnosis took the spotlight off the real problematic habit that I'll wager wreaked the most havoc and got you where you are in life. And much easier than admitting being an addict. Hindsight is usually clear. At our age, it's irrelevant. is what it is. Betting your life goal wasn't to be on the government teat, any more than the unpleasantries you mentioned earlier were planned. Me neither.
But they are slapping labels on younger and younger, and coming up with all kinds of new ones every year.
And the world is lonelier than ever, cell phones and web have replaced human connection; last thing kids need is another reason to feel less than. Then they look for escape, fast forward couple decades and theyr'e posting on BL at 3 am instead of living life to the fullest, trying their best to put perfume on the pile of shit they call their life. And recalling their glory days.
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Exactly. We should be teaching kids resiliance and that they are part of a community in which they are valued. Instead, we are increasingly teaching them they are helpless victims and that they have no future because of systematic oppression and corruption. It's bad enough for hetero white kids being taught this - but I greatly fear for all the minority kids increasingly being taught that they have absolutely no personal agency in life.
 
Atelier3 said:
Exactly. We should be teaching kids resiliance and that they are part of a community in which they are valued. Instead, we are increasingly teaching them they are helpless victims and that they have no future because of systematic oppression and corruption. It's bad enough for hetero white kids being taught this - but I greatly fear for all the minority kids increasingly being taught that they have absolutely no personal agency in life.
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Agreed. And kids, don't do meth. God didn't intend for humans to ever feel that way, you wont forget it and youll crave that feeling till the day you die. Please don't go there.
 
schizopath said:
One should use diagnosis as a way to understand themselves and then help themselves
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I agree schiz. Rhetorical question though, and be as neutral and unbiased when you answer yourself-
Has the diagnosis helped or hindered you in your own efforts to control use/ maintain or build fullfilling life? As defined by you, not society’s definition
 
Well I’m glad it has for you. In regards my addiction to amps, have always thought I might have adhd or ocd and just never diagnosed. Never stayed in one place long enough until adult, and by then I’d found my own meds lol. The very fact that they never affected me like did others ( no shadow people, mouth moving, etc)no matter dosage, sold me on that. With all the years of use, initial label is irrelevant. I’m an addict, which means that there’s no magic pill that’s going to remove my basic need to self harm and self destruct. Which is what illicit drug use is. At least for me.
I used to call myself high functioning, after that tag put on me after psych listened in on conversation with a family member who was in rehab.
Ive met a few that “maintain”, but never knew one that reached their full potential.
 
I disagree with the notion that every drug addict wants to self-distruct. I also have to admit that it bothers me a bit when people use their addiction to justify harming others or even themselves, or engaging in reckless behavior. I think that kind of behavior has more to do with mental health issues rather than drug addiction itself.
I think that's partly why drug users have such a bad stigma, despite the fact that most users and even addicts are perfectly functioning members of society, you just don't hear much about them.

Though I do agree with OP's point about classifying everything into a syndrome/pathology. Sometimes it does more harm than good.
 
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That’s what I mean about the new DSM guidelines they’ve been increasing rapidly year-by-year, look it up. Many people think that addiction and alcoholism are problems with drug or alcohol abuse. If that were true, once the substance is no longer consumed, then I would be well in their world correct? A great many in recovery will attest to the fact that their mental problems really peak in the absence of their DOC. Therefore, in my case anyway alcoholism and addiction is as specific as I need to get when describing My condition. No sense in splitting hairs and put another name tag on myself.
 
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