Psychiatric Diagnoses Don’t Explain ‘Why’—Only ‘How’

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From Psychology Today/Denise Winn: “I was really pleased to read about a Finnish study calling out health professionals for perpetuating the myth that diagnoses such as depression explain anything; instead, they are merely descriptive.

According to psychiatrist Jani Kajanoja, one of the authors, ‘A diagnosis of depression does not explain the cause of depressed mood any more than a diagnosis of headaches explains the cause of pain in the head.’

The researchers analysed information on depression provided on the websites of the most influential English-language organisations, including the World Health Organization, the American Psychiatric Association, and the National Health Service. They found that ‘most websites used language that inaccurately described depression as a causal explanation to depressive symptoms.

‘We argue that the scientifically inaccurate causal language in depictions of psychiatric diagnoses is potentially harmful because it leads the public to misunderstand the nature of mental health problems.'”

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2 COMMENTS

  1. This is a terrible and superficial illustration of attitudes not only toward the notion of depression but of women, especially divorced ones in their eg 50s. This author is a therapist?! Maybe she’s exploring the wrong problem!

    Her neighbor might have reasons to be fearful: Most homeless people are older women (and children). Why is that? Where is the outrage and (gracious ands official) efforts to appreciate/assist them? Her neighbor might have ample reason to feel depressed and fearful; it’s in fact hard to live alone —especially after feeling cast off, as she might, or no longer “desirable” (as is starkly reflected in our culture, especially online), or compelled to participate in what someone else thinks would be “good for her” — like picking up trash in a local park or socializing. It’s likely she already has plenty of mundane household and personal maintenance responsibilities already, and an offer to pick up others’ trash was the icing in the cake. Nice way to invalidate someone (under the guise of assisting them). Infuriating.

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  2. Thank you for taking the time to comment on the blog I wrote, which Mad in America saw fit to signpost here. I would share some of your concerns if I didn’t in fact know the person I was writing about very well. She lives in her own (outright owned) home. She has a lively social life, as I indicated, and most of the time is very cheerful. Her unhappy marriage break up occurred when she was 25 and she has had relationships since, and remains friendly with those partners. Our litter picks are great fun and both Marion and I have enjoyed them together previously. The point I was trying to make was that depression is like a veil which drops down when something goes wrong and blots out memory of what was and is good in a person’s life. Depressive thinking of this kind is easier to recognise and counter when a person can see, or be helped to see, that it is circumstances they are reacting to (in this case disappointment over the cancellation of a visit), instead of swelling out into a general sense of abandonment and self-pity, leading to anxious thinking, insomnia, withdrawal from social events and so on. Attributing the latter reaction to a ’cause’ called depression is harmful because it breeds a sense of helplessness, whereas most usually depression is a result, and can be dealt with surprisingly quickly using the human givens approach. Far from being superficial, human givens understandings about depression are actually profound and have helped countless thousands of people turn their lives around and rediscover their own deep personal resources and joy in living. But people have to be willing to let go of the old patterns that are not serving them well (such as unhelpful beliefs about depression) in order to benefit.

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