Quote:
Originally Posted by Supanova
And I am starting to believe that Bipolar DSM criteria is being evolved to fit people with symptoms of personality disorders cos it is so much easier to slap the label of BP for insurance and medication reasons and shoo you out the door without so much as a referral to therapy that may cure symptoms.
Probably shouldnt post that as Im heavily medicated and might not be thinking straight haha but we all have times like that on here.
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Well, I getcha. But I'm not sure about this. I think the spectrum just happens to be widening. And I have a few theories.
1. Bipolar can be very hard to diagnose, frequently until extreme behavior suddenly presents itself. "They" (the writers of the DSM) may want to take steps to reduce the casualties of misdiagnosis or no diagnosis.
I'm not sure that it's necessarily being evolved to fit those with personality disorders, but that more emphasis is being placed on some of the symptoms shared with personality disorders would make sense, since there can be so many overlapping symptoms with a few different personality disorders, not just BPD (Paranoid Personality Disorder, for example).
2. Insurance purposes/medication reasons: Maybe it's just where I'm from? I've never had a doctor slap a label on me and shoo me out the door. You go to a psychiatrist, talk to them about your symptoms, and if your insurance requires it, it's up to you to ask for a referral. You're already there asking for drugs. Easy enough, you've done step one. Why can't you ask for a referral for a therapist? Once I started going to a psychiatrist for antidepressants, I started therapy soon after. I didn't expect a referral from my psychiatrist. I went because that's what's always suggested when you start taking psychiatric meds.
Overall I don't believe the writers of the DSM would be so irresponsible to <insert personality disorder here> under BP. I think doctors can be irresponsible in their use of the DSM (or non-use of it), definitely. And I think there are a lot of ****** doctors out there who just want to do as little work as possible. Personality disorders require a lot of work, and they hold doctors equally accountable, because people with them can work through them and recover from them, eliminating them, with the right therapy and resources.
It's much easier for a ****** doctor to to just say, "Oh, this person is BP and not taking their meds/not responding well to treatment because they're BP," when in reality the patient has, say, BPD, and the doctor just doesn't feel like dealing with it.
So I totally blame the ****** doctors who misuse the DSM.
