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In referring to the “sensitive or overwhelmed teen“, ShalomSimcha’s comment decries the fact that though our community cares deeply about emotional well-being, “… yet sometimes we rush to interpret a young person’s unhappiness as a psychiatric crisis rather than a call for understanding.”
Perhaps this could be restated, since sensitive people often notice things that are both true and important, which the rest of us fail to notice on our own.
Thus, perhaps this revision would be in order: “… yet sometimes we rush to interpret a young person’s unhappiness as a psychiatric crisis rather than an opportunity for us to learn from them about something true and important, which we failed to notice ourselves.”
There are various sources in Chazal that point to the belief that although personality traits are stable, the ADAPTATIONS of these traits can be changed. In other words, we have the ability to use our innate G-d given traits for either good or evil, but not satisfactorily repress these traits.
Wouldn’t the struggling teen – or adult – be much happier knowing that he isn’t doomed to carry around a “faulty” psych for the rest of his life, but instead believe that Hashem gifted him with the ability to eventually accomplish highly praiseworthy things more competently than many other people could easily do, since he would simply be fulfilling his innate nature?
The DSM IV relegated this concept to a minor role, and DSM 5 totally ignores it. DSM IV lists various ways how different people cope with stressors. Among the Defense Mechanisms resulting in optimal adaptation in the handling of stressors they include one called “Sublimation”. They explain sublimation as follows: “Sublimation allows instincts to be channeled, rather than blocked or diverted. Feelings are acknowledged, modified, and directed toward a significant object or goal” … (DSM 5 got rid of this section).
As believers in Hashem’s kindness, wouldn’t it make sense for us to seek out the “silver lining” hidden within emotional struggles?
I wanted to humbly add my voice to those others thanking Mrs. ShalomSimcha for opening up this important thread.
Perhaps (among many other things) it might be helpful to add the following:
The problem of over-diagnosis of mental illness and over-medication of the “worried well” has been recognized by experts at the very pinnacle of the field, including Dr. Allen Frances, who served as chair of the APA’s task force overseeing the development and revision of the fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV), which is widely used in the diagnosis of Mental illness. A simple google search of his name will turn this up: “He’s a strong critic of expanding diagnostic criteria, arguing it turns normal human responses (like sadness or shyness) into disorders, often driven by financial incentives and pharmaceutical marketing”.
He argues that over-diagnosis of MI has led to “false epidemics” of ADHD, autism and Childhood Bipolar Disorder, among other conditions.
Besides many scholarly articles on the subject, almost 12 years ago, he wrote a book for layman on the subject, aptly titled “Saving Normal: An Insider’s Revolt against Out-of-Control Psychiatric Diagnosis, DSM-5, Big Pharma, and the Medicalization of Ordinary Life”. Just check out Amazon.
One would think that when the fellow in charge of writing “The” manual about diagnosing MI complains about his work, clinicians would take notice. Alas, very few of the clinicians I spoke to ever even heard about him. Mostly, the false belief that seems to prevail is that only fringe elements of society would find fault in the prevailing attitudes to mental illness.
Another name worth mentioning is that of Dr. Tom Insel, who was Director of the National Institutes of Mental Health ( known as the largest research organization in the world specializing in mental illness), for 13 years.
Almost 12 years ago, before Yom Kippur Dr. Insel wrote the following:
“As it turns out, Mental Illness Awareness Week this year began with Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement. Which begs the question: what do we (in the mental health community) need to atone for? There are so many answers. For some, it may be the culture of blame and shame perpetuated for years by clinicians who explained all mental illness as being caused by trauma and evil parents.
For others, it may be the singular reliance on medication and modifying behavior rather than holistic care and the provision of skills.
Others will name the paternalistic structure of mental health care, which can undermine rather than empower individuals and their families. …
My own favorite atonement issue for Mental Illness Awareness Week this year is the lack of humility in our field. Mental disorders are among the most complex problems in medicine, with challenges at every level from neurons to neighborhoods. Yet, we know so little about mechanisms at each level. Too often … much of mental health care is based on faith and intuition, not science and evidence”.As noted earlier, both the book written by Dr. Frances and the blog post written by Dr. Insel are almost 12 years old. Unfortunately, very little progress seems to have been made over the past 12 years in rectifying the situation.
May I humbly submit the following question: Perhaps ShalomSimcha, kingdavid, flamingOTD, and the other excellent commentors on this thread would like to get together (probably through an online forum) to further this discussion? Perhaps the mods of YeshivaWorld would want to facilitate such a discussion?