A Complicated History
The DSM-5-TR is a diagnostic reference book used by mental health and medical professionals in the United States to standardize the way clinicians diagnose and classify mental health conditions. Although this is a crucial tool for diagnostic language and insurance billing, it faces significant criticisms. First, the DSM is symptom and productivity based. One example is that severity of impact is often measured by the ability to produce in a capitalistic society, ie show up to work, go to school, and take care of tasks - as opposed to centering a human-based impact. As a result of this framework, clients and therapists are required to document functional impairment as a condition to demonstrate medical necessity for sessions to be covered by insurance.
Consequently, this leads to pathologizing relatively typical human experiences. As such, human suffering that anyone would experience under traumatic circumstances is positioned as a disorder or mental illness - when really, we are having very normal responses to various stressors.
There are other concerns such as cultural and sociopolitical biases, particularly Eurocentric bias, that can pathologize coping strategies or behaviors found in cultures. The manual is a reflection of the era in which is was edited, right? In the past, the DSM classified homosexuality as a sociopathic personality disturbance and opposed to a natural variation of human existence.
All of that said, there is some benefit to obtaining diagnostic clarity. For example, maybe you have been diagnosed with bipolar or borderline personality disorder - two of the most commonly misdiagnosed conditions; in this situation, diagnostic clarity can be helpful to determine treatment options (medication or psychotherapy or maybe a combination of both). Another example pertains to delayed diagnosis in the OCD realm: several studies have delineated long durations from symptom onset to diagnosis, sometimes averaging up to 13 years (Ziegler et al., 2021).
As such, Ky is considerate and responsive to needs clients have around comprehensive assessment and diagnosis. Please take a look at some assessment options and reach out with any questions you have. Ky would be happy to hear from you!