Childhood shyness could be relassified as a mental disorder

On 9 February 2012, Jenny Hope told us this in The Mail Online:

"CHILDHOOD SHYNESS COULD BE RECLASSIFIED AS A MENTAL DISORDER under controversial new guidelines, warn experts.

They also fear that depression AFTER BEREAVEMENT AND BEHAVIOUR NOW SEEN AS ECCENTRIC OR UNCONVENTIONAL WILL ALSO BECOME ‘MEDICALISED’. Internet addiction and gambling might also become forms of illness…

Although the changes to the fifth edition of the (US) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders would not directly affect clinical practice here, where doctors tend to use different guidelines, experts say it would eventually influence thinking.

MILLIONS OF PEOPLE, INCLUDING BRITONS, COULD BE GIVEN A PSYCHIATRIC DIAGNOSIS WHICH COULD RUIN THEIR LIVES, warn psychiatrists and psychologists here.

The DSM5 changes are also opposed by many experts in the U.S., some of whom claim THEY REFLECT EFFORTS BY DRUG COMPANIES TO SELL MORE PRODUCTS.

Simon Wessely, of the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College, London, said…

‘BACK IN 1840 THE CENSUS OF THE UNITED STATES INCLUDED JUST ONE CATEGORY FOR MENTAL DISORDER. BY 1917 THE AMERICAN PSYCHIATRIC ASSOCIATION RECOGNISED 59, RISING TO 128 IN 1959, 227 IN 1980, AND 347 IN THE LAST REVISION…

There is a real danger that SHYNESS WILL BECOME SOCIAL PHOBIA, BOOKISH KIDS LABELLED AS ASPERGER’S AND SO ON.’

Peter Kinderman, head of the Institute of Psychology, University of Liverpool, said:

‘It will exacerbate problems that result from trying to fit a medical, diagnostic, system to problems that just don’t fit nicely into those boxes. It WILL PATHOLOGISE A RANGE OF PROBLEMS WHICH SHOULD NEVER BE THOUGHT OF AS MENTAL ILLNESSES. MANY WHO ARE SHY, BEREAVED, ECCENTRIC, OR HAVE UNCONVENTIONAL ROMANTIC LIVES WILL SUDDENLY FIND THEMSELVES LABELLED AS ‘MENTALLY ILL.’

THIS ISN’T VALID, ISN’T TRUE, ISN’T HUMANE’…

Dr Felicity Callard, of King’s College, warned:

‘PEOPLE’S LIVES CAN BE ALTERED PROFOUNDLY, AND SOMETIMES RUINOUSLY, BY BEING GIVEN A PSYCHIATRIC DIAGNOSIS.’

Among the U.S. psychiatrists against the changes is Allen Frances, of Duke University, North Carolina. He warned:

‘DSM5 WILL RADICALLY AND RECKLESSLY EXPAND THE BOUNDARIES OF PSYCHIATRY. MANY MILLIONS WILL RECEIVE INACCURATE DIAGNOSIS AND INAPPROPRIATE TREATMENT.’

David Elkins, of Pepperdine University, Los Angeles, said individuals could be ‘LABELLED WITH A MENTAL DISORDER FOR LIFE AND MANY WILL BE TREATED WITH POWERFUL PSYCHIATRIC DRUGS’.

Defenders of the American Psychiatric Association guidelines say they will make diagnosis more accurate and scientific.”

These ‘defenders of the American Psychiatric Association guidelines’, hands up who thinks they should be boiled? Along with the American Psychiatric Association bigwigs and the CEOs and Chairmen of the ‘drug companies’ happy to ‘sell more products’ at the expense of the mental health of millions.