I wrote a story based on the opinions of someone I know, not all opinions expressed are ones I identify with.
“Borderline isn’t abnormal in itself, it’s the manifestation of the human condition under deleterious circumstances. Everyone has abandonment issues, everyone reacts angrily – not always externally angry and sometimes not even consciously angry – to rejection and it isn’t abnormal in itself. Borderline is the aggregation of multiple mental illnesses all into one, I don’t even understand why – they don’t even have a tangible treatment for it so what’s the point in the diagnoses?
“Borderline is a myriad of symptoms of various real mental illnesses, depression, schizophrenia, dissociative personality disorder, anger issues, all rolled into one to give a person an excuse to justify how they feel and the actions they commit. The emptiness – depression. The desperation – intense desire for security and stability . The emptiness and suicidal thoughts – depression. The mood swings – bipolar. Not everyone who has ‘borderline’ expresses all of these symptoms which just shows that borderline isn’t a concrete illness.”
“The desperation,” I pointed out. “That’s what borderline is essentially, that’s what defines the illness. The incredibly unstable and volatile nature. It’s an abnormality in mentality and ability to regulate their emotions. Those with borderline are quick to act belligerent and not comprehend the significance of their actions before they commit them. They are unable to discern reason at that time and appropriate reactions to circumstances.”
“Desperation is an emotion, should every emotion be categorized into its own illness? Depression is a real disease because it has empirical evidence to support its existence. Depressed people have low serotonin etc. in their brain. Desperation is an emotion,” she replied. “Even if it’s an exacerbated, intense emotion, it’s still an emotion which by itself doesn’t need its own diagnoses.”
“Labeling these all into an incurable disease just gives people an excuse to justify their behavior. Lashing out at others? Borderline. Feeling empty? Borderline. Being abusive? Borderline. I’m not saying these people are completely normal people – obviously if they have abnormal behavior there’s something wrong with them – but I don’t think they’re so special as to give themselves a useless label instead of diagnosing them according to their core symptoms. If a person is being abusive there’s something wrong with them that extends deeper than purely a personality disorder and that needs treatment.”
“Borderline isn’t a justification,” I retorted. “It’s an explanation.”
“Nevermind,” she sighed. “You’ll get it someday. the psychiatric system isn’t made to treat people, it’s made to exploit people, a system founded by avaricious people.” I tightened my mouth. So she was a conspiracy theorist? I saw the logic in what she was saying and understood her position, but I didn’t really have a firm stance on the issue. It was what it was, as simple as that.
1 comment
Hrm, interesting. My thoughts are mostly quibblish/random:
I don’t think it’s meaningful to qualify desperation (or depression) as a mere emotion. To me, it’s a mix, often a culmination of multiple emotions and thoughts. However, on the same token, I think its interesting to look at happiness. Can happiness be considered an ‘illness’? It can certainly short circuit reasoning and lead to negative actions. I’ve known a few people that are happy to a point where I could only consider them ill or delusional.
I like the “It’s an explanation”. Which, I think, seems to be the at the core of the discussion. Are not most words we use to describe an emotion just that? An explanation of ones internal state? It’s considered ‘bad’ when “It’s an abnormality in mentality and ability to regulate their emotions. Those with borderline are quick to act belligerent and not comprehend the significance of their actions before they commit them…”. I posted a musing a bit ago about how maybe depression is some form of prolonged focus. Disrupting ‘regular’ thought processes in its wake. That seems to hold here. I don’t think it is bad or good either way. I do think classification is the first step in deciding if something is treatable or even worth treating.
And I agree that (unfortunately) in general, the psychiatric and the medical industry is exploiting people. People are treated more like cars in an autoshop now days. Oh, the distributor cap is malfunctioning? The literature says to try X, Y and Z in that order. I don’t think providers mean to act this way. They are influenced by big ****** just like the rest of us. Usually so busy trying to keep their head above the water, when a drug rep visits them and says “This new amazing drug has passed multiple clinic trials and has shown to effectively do X” They take them at their word.
There is also something to be said about the fact we are living in a post freudian world. Pre Freud, neurosis were seen as outliers. Now the idea that everyone has something wrong with them, we take as fact. I wonder what effect an idea like that has on society long term…