Do you NOT like disorders?

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My Psychology teacher said it's not labeling it's just a list of things to describe your behavior but IMO it kind of is labeling. Even the smallest behavior is OMG *insert disorder* I understand if you are Ted Bundy *insert killer* or seek psychological help and in turn get a diagnosis and are happy with it but IMO disorders can do more harm than good!! !! For example AS explains alot of my behaviors and why I've done X or Y but does that diagnosis or any other make me feel better about my past mistakes HELL NO!! !! !! THIS ISN'T CANCER OMG lets CURE IT! I just realized OMG X disorder explains my behavior THAT DOESN'T MAKE ME FEEL ANY BETTER!! ! It makes me feel worse!! ! Then OMG "you're depressed! DUH! IMO I WOULDN'T BE DEPRESSED IF IT WASN'T FOR X DISORDER SHEESH!! ! Because IMO now you feel self-conscious about yourself and your behavior and sure little mistakes can be positive oh other people with AS (or X disorder) do that too. but a diagnosis doesn't make the problem go away!! !! What are your thoughts on disorders overall? Sure I'm interested in Psychology but PURELY research!! !!

this is great order within my brain

Disorders are a list of symptoms people have. We need labels so we know what to do and how to fix our problems and understand people better. If there were no names for conditions, then people wouldn't know what to do to help people. They wouldn't understand why someone has this issue or that issue. Life be confusing without labels.


I agree people don't always need a label for their problems because it doesn't always change anything. But you will need it for accommodations, getting social security, and getting you a job through disability services. It can also protect you under the ADA.

I spent my life being miserably bullied and discriminated against, unable to keep a job for more than a year and a half at a time, all the while watching the time when I would be physically too old to work loom closer and closer and yet unable to create any coherent plan for the future or provide for my own welfare. I knew I was a good deal smarter than most of my peers and yet when it came to just being able to function in everyday life I was an incompetent loser who was ultimately going to end up a homeless vagrant or a suicide.

Then someone introduced me to the idea that the problems I had been having all my life that caused me to feel like such an idiot and a helpless overgrown child might actually be a neurological DISORDER. OMG! Not only was I thrilled to know WHY I was so screwed up, I was now eligible for Disability, so I wouldn't end up homeless and terrified wandering around in the streets.

I'm quite happy to be labeled as having a disorder, because I experienced life for so long having the disorder and not having any label for it and it sucks to be treated like you should be keeping up with the rest of the crowd, when you CAN'T.

One of the first things I learned in psych class is that to be labeled a disorder, you have to have "distress, dysfunction, and deviance."

First, either distress, or dysfunction, or both. It has to cause distress either to you or to other people; or it has to cause dysfunction--that is, impairment of some kind. Usually, both.

It also has to be "deviant", which in this case is not "criminal" but "unusual"--that is, it can't be something that happens to practically everybody. For example, you cannot diagnose grief as a disorder, even though it causes both distress and dysfunction, because anyone who has ever lost a loved one has gone through that. (What you can diagnose is complicated grief--when it isn't resolving as it ought to.) Things like grief don't require a diagnosis because they're so common that our society has developed "treatments" for it all on its own, and therapy simply isn't needed. Similarly, most breakups don't require therapy.

Asperger's, of course, is a "disorder" because it causes dysfunction, and because it is unusual enough to be considered for professional assistance rather than simply being left alone for the people around you to help with.

Notice I didn't mention the "distress" criterion. That was deliberate: Distress, in Asperger's, tends not to come from AS itself but from associated mistreatment, prejudice, and ostracism; or from anxiety and depression that we are vulnerable to; or from the poor self-esteem that comes from a lifetime of being thought inferior. These wouldn't be considered Asperger's problems; they're not specific to Asperger's. They're experienced by just about any minority group, especially people with disabilities in general.

My brain keeps everything, just as it needs to be.

I don't know why they cal it a disorder? My brain has an order. Its just not the same as most people. But it is ordered, it's not chaos.

When I first learned about AS, I was extremely angry and very depressed because it meant that I would always struggle with the things that I have struggled with.

Now, I slowly, oh-so-slowly, am moving toward self-acceptance. My entire life I thought I was a bad person because people didn't like me, a stupid person for hurting people's feelings and lacking common sense, and a freak because I was always tripping over my own feet and running into things.

I'm slowly beginning to see I'm not a bad person, but just a different person.

Disorders are one of my interests at the moment so as long as there are disorders there will always be plenty for me to read about .
BUT I do think some disorders are a bit pointless and it seems there is a name and category for everything people do. There is nothing left un-labeled as it were. And a lot of these disorders are so similar there's no need to make all these different sub categories anyway, because disorders like autism, AS, ADHD etc affect the frontal lobes of the brain so have lots of over lapping symptoms. We may aswell just call ourselves neurologically eccentric and leave it there.

Same as MONKEY, except my interests are only in anti-social personality disorder and classic autism.

I don't like disorders at all, but that's because I have more than one & have had them basically since birth. They have made my life hell for years, long before I was diagnosed with anything at all. All finding out I had these disorders did was make me feel valid. Now, instead of being some sort of nameless freak, I belong somewhere. So even though I hate having my disorders, I'm very glad they have a name to them because they make me feel less alone.

However, I do think that the psychiatric community is far too quick to list any set of abnormal behavior a person has as a disorder. Like supposed "sex addicts". I'm sure all of the men who compulsively cheat on their wives love that disorder because now they can continue their bad behavior & it's looked at as a disease. Horrible. It makes worry about what the next "disorder" is going to be.