“I don’t believe in Bipolar-II or cyclothymic disorder.”
Apparently he thinks we keep making up things to classify “normal” behavior. What tripe.
Just venting here. I came away from the appointment with the result I wanted, which was a change in meds but c’mon, just because we can identify patterns in human behavior and biology doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing. I’m just tired of this attitude. Yes, more people are being diagnosed with “named” disorders but let’s look at the benefit that it has had to suicide rates and life well-being. We have advanced science so why wouldn’t it make sense that we know more and identify more?
(which I’ve heard anecdotally). Yeah, so the can both be difficult to diagnose accurately and tricky to treat effectively, but that’s why you’re the professional doctor with all this expertise, right?
Of course, on the other hand, it’s tricky when somebody with unknown depth of expertise comes along to you and says, “I think I have Bipolar-II disorder, so I need to switch to this particular medication.” As a developer, I’ve received many bug reports from well meaning people saying, “I get an error when I try to create a Foo without and associated Bar. You need to drop the DB’s NOT NULL constraint so I can do this.” Sometimes I treat them with some disdain and a throwaway comment. I usually realise in retrospect that’s not entirely constructive, but either way, I do work to figure out the root cause and an appropriate solution.
On the third hand (and perhaps it was just a poor choice of words), a doctor who relies on ‘belief’ rather than medical evidence would make me run for the door…
I usually realise in retrospect that’s not entirely constructive, but either way, I do work to figure out the root cause and an appropriate solution.