I seriously think they should consider a DSM-IV category for midlife crisis (or whatever the h*ll this stuff is) because it's such a syndrome, so many predictable pathologies. With a diagnosis code, maybe it might be viewed as the devastating process that it is--and not the subject of jokes. And maybe even some treatment, if a medical model is used. Personally, I'd vote for electroconvulsive therapy.
Publication of the DSM V has been pushed back till 2013. That still gives you time to get a big pharma company in your back pocket and a few well-paid academics to make it happen. If you can't tell already, I'm seriously cynical of the writing process and even the value of the document itself.
Is mid-life crisis a "disorder", a "syndrome", or is it part of life? Sure we can identify common elements ("symptoms"?) but is it "wrong"? On the same thread, should teen-age angst be added too? How about bereavement? Homosexuality was listed as a "disorder" until 1973 when it was changed to "Sexual Disorders NOS" then 1986 it was removed entirely. Who decided it was "wrong"?
As a frequent psych customer (I wish I got frequent flyer miles) I ask myself the same question all the time - what's a normal part of life and what's over the edge? I've found the best psys are the ones who hold off on the labels.
I was only about 50% serious about that. I hear ya--it's not about the labels and all that. I think it stops being a "normal" part of life when it becomes destructive to innocent bystanders, and when the delusions are so huge they border on psychosis and being out of touch with reality. Yeah, I'd say that's "wrong." It's all a moot point, really. I'm jus' sayin'.
M60 H52 D20 M14 yrs OW-old gf from 1986 bomb-5/18/08 H filed for D-9/10/08 D final 4/24/09 xH remarried (not OW) 2012
