Psychological Disorders and Misdiagnosis

Psychological Disorders and Misdiagnosis Do you suffer from any of the following symptoms: inattention, hyperactivity, impulsiveness, mood swings, irritability, or feelings of sadness or grandeur? How about aggressive behavior, sleep pattern difficulties, weight changes, negativity. Is it possible that you have poor judgment, loss of interest, or have a shortened sense of the future? Well if you think you have any of these symptoms, then odds are that you are suffering from one or more of the following psychological disorders Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Bipolar Disorder, Depression (major or clinical), or Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Don’t worry though, because help is available to you through many different routes of treatment that will not help you at all, cause new problems, or actually do some good for you. Nowadays you see that kind of thing everywhere you go. You see it all over television commercials. Some announcer reads a bunch of common symptoms of many different illnesses or disorders and relates them back to one of them. Then thousands of Americans think they have it, go to the doctor to get diagnosed, and are told they do have this thing. The reality is that between eighty five and ninety percent of those people are perfectly healthy, when it comes to psychological disorders anyway. According to the National Institute for Mental Health, 1 in 3 Americans is diagnosed with some kind of psychological illness or disorder. This number is equivalent to 32.4% of Americans, or over 75 million people. Does this number seem too high? That’s because it is. The most common diagnoses in psychology today are ADHD, PTSD, Depression, and Bipolar Disorder. Each one of these disorders has their own varying degrees of severity and prevalence in the US. Each one of these is also diagnosed more than it should be by psychiatrists and clinical psychologists each day. ADHD is one of the most common disorders diagnosed in

Cited: Boone, Katherine N. "The Paradox of PTSD." The Wilson Quarterly (2011): 18-22. Print. Miller, Gary E., and Richard L. Noel. "Controversies in Bipolar Disorder: Trust Evidence or Experience?" Current Psychiartry 8.2 (2009): 27+