Posted by med_empowered on November 4, 2005, at 12:05:17
In reply to Re: **PLEASE** don't have ECT, posted by linkadge on November 4, 2005, at 11:04:03
hi! I don't mean to pry but...what is your "personality disorder" diagnosis? Just so you know...the entire "personality disorder" concept is one of the more controversial, MUCH less scientific areas of psychiatry (and, given how soft and decidedly un-objective/scientific/helpful so much stuff is that comes out of modern psychiatry, that's saying *A LOT*). What problems are you dealing with? Have you considered seeing a therapist, hopefully one who operates less from a DSM-IV standpoint and more of a "help the WHOLE person" standpoint? In my experience, if they **REALLY** think you need medication (and they usually don't push meds as hard as shrinks), they'll just call your GP and make it happen. I had one shrink try to DX me with "Narcissistic Personality Disorder"...I think the idea was that since I was in a mental hospital but refused some meds, told the patient advocate my shrink was mean-spiritied and un-professional, and chose to view myself as a worth while human being instead of a walking, talking "disease," I must have come off as "narcissistic" (interestingly, the fellow patients and I got along GREAT; I just butted heads with the higher-ups). I rejected the label, and told my shrink so; I actually have pretty low self-esteem (this whole "I actually might like myself" thing is a pretty recent development), and I do way too much volunteer work to be a "narcissist". ANYWAY, the point is..."personality disorders" are often more MORAL JUDGEMENTS (or indictments, really) than they are SCIENTIFICALLY BASED DIAGNOSES. So maybe it would help if you tried to form your OWN opinion of yourself, and also improve upon your self-esteem. There's really no point in allowing yourself to believe a shrink when he/she tells you that you have a "personality disorder"; keep in mind that you get ONE life, and its probably better to live it accepting yourself instead of hating yourself b/c of some ridiculous, self-serving DX slapped on you by a "professional" who might talk to you 30mins monthly, if you're lucky (also, keep in mind that psychiatrists are trained to diagnoses, and break people down looking for flaws; I have yet to hear a psychiatrist diagnose anyone as "kind" or "a good person". They operate from a soul-killing, dehumanizing, labelling-heavy perspective). Good luck!
poster:med_empowered
thread:574720
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20051031/msgs/575348.html