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Top 10 Controversial Illnesses in DSM

Sunday, November 2, 2014 16:06

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(Before It's News)

Here are ten of the most contested, controversial illnesses in DSM. Some of these disorders you may probably have heard of from school and teachers, while others you’ll be probably shocked to know that they exist.

10. Gender Dysphoria

Gender dysphoria is a condition in which the sufferer experiences discomfort because there is a mismatch between their sexual and gender identity. While biological sex and gender identity may be the same for some, this is not the case for all humans. For example, some people may have the anatomy of a man, but identify themselves as a female, while others may not feel they are either a man or a woman. The main issue here is that most mental health experts admit they are currently unable to predict the effects of this disorder’s treatments. Essentially, while many psychiatrists are concerned about certain gaps that permit “treating” a child, others criticize practices that encourage children to identify themselves with their current physical gender.

9. Homosexuality

Despite the fact that homosexuality was drawn out of the DSM, the debate on whether it is apsychiatric disorder persists to this day. One of the explanations is the introduction of the ego-dystonic homosexuality, a disorder that was removed rather soon because many psychiatrist felt it did not make any sense. However, although most experts agree that homosexuals can be free of any mental conditions, certain obscure voices still insist that the decision of removing the disorder from DSM is the result of sexual scandals in which the politicians were involved during the 1970s decade.

8. Wendigo

Of all the mental illnesses on this top ten list, Wendigo is the only one where the sufferer wants human flesh. The story emerges from Algonquian native cultures that speaks about a cannibal monster named Wendigo. With so much notoriety, several film and literary works detailing possession have made mention to the disorder. Wendigo faces some opposition in its classification as an illness. Rather, some claim it is a culture-bound illness, meaning you can only be affected when growing up within a certain culture. Either way, it is a relief knowing that most people run a minuscule chance of desiring human flesh like vampires.

7. Adult ADHD

ADHD is a neurological disorder that has been contested ever since it was added to DSM. To put it mildly, this type of attention deficit in children was perceived as a conspiracy between the pharmaceutical market and psychiatrists, especially since research revealed the plethora of side effects associated with the ADHD medication. This hypothesis has gained a lot of supporters when psychiatrists have started to diagnose the condition in adults.

6. Dissociative Personality Disorder/Multiple Personality Disorder

Multiple Personality Disorder, or Dissociative Personality Disorder, is one of the most spoken about illnesses and is the center of much debate and criticism because of the number of criminals who claimed to suffer from it since 1990. It has been attributed to disruptions in memory caused by trauma and other forms of stress, but research on this hypothesis has been characterized by poor methodology. What is currently known about MPD has become common place over the past 20 years. The past two decades have shown an increase in the number of cases of MPD but there are many professionals that are skeptical about it’s existence. It was found that the longer a clinician has been out of school, the more critical of MPD or DPP they become.