[contingencies]

Honestly I know this probably sounds insensitive which isn't my intent but I feel like a substantial amount of noise around these mental condition labels are people using them to subconsciously raise the victim flag instead of dealing with shit, either personally or by proxy (parents claiming kids are abnormal, when really they are just bad or absentee parents). There must be a technical term for this perspective in the science, could anyone with a psych background fill us in?

[ck425]

I read a really good blog the other day which I can't find any more. Its gist was that society, but particularly schools, are a lot less tolerant of 'quirks' than they used to be.

Nowadays if a child is fidgety and energetic people (teachers, psychiatrists etc) want to get them tested for ADHD and put them on ritalin to fix the 'problem', whereas previously we'd just view it as a quirk and make sure that kid had some time to tire themselves out.

I'm not sure why we're less tolerant now, my guess is an overworked education system and teachers (in the UK anyway). It's harder to just ignore quirks when you've massive class sizes.

[pjc50]

I'm reminded of how some people complain that there are a lot more queer people around and claim that they are somehow "fake" or "going through a phase", when all that's happened is that visible signs are no longer quite so violently suppressed. Or dead of AIDS.

[abledon]

well, rebelling against parents nowadays in a unique fashion, is hard to do, our parents have already rebelled using so many facets available to them, listened to punk music, drugs/mdma/acid, fashion etc... one of the areas to rebel with , left untouched by previous generations, is gender.

[pjc50]

> left untouched by previous generations, is gender

Stonewall was 1969; gender-fluidity, androgyny, "glam" etc were a big part of 70s and early 80s pop. I do agree that there's a big fight between second-wave feminists and trans people going on at the moment.

[Nasrudith]

Not to mention before that with women wearing pants as the rebellion, suffragists and others - that was a rebellion against gender. You might say those were different as "not really a part of gender" but the past would vehemently disagree with you.

Look at photographs of secretly female soldiers - to the modern eye it is obvious enough to serve as documentation but then her comrades didn't know until after injury or death because they expected women in skirts and dresses not uniforms.

[51lver]

Perhaps modern life allows the issues to be explored honestly and openly, and that makes you uncomfortable.

[asdfasgasdgasdg]

Somebody with a psych background would probably inform you that autism spectrum disorder is a real mental disorder, and not people raising the victim flag.

[peteretep]

That it’s a real disorder doesn’t mean that everyone who claims to have the disorder actually does, which is the meat of the comment you’re replying to, making your rebuttal a straw man

[asdfasgasdgasdg]

The comment makes a claim about a proportion of the "noise" around the issue, which implies that a large fraction of the discussion of mental health and mental disorders is from or about people with made up mental health issues. The claim is made with no evidence whatsoever. The whole thing is phrased as dismissive of people's claims about their own internal experiences, which is bullshit.

[depressed]

I think I understand why you feel that way.

For people with mental illness, there is a tremendous amount of pressure to hide their symptoms and appear "normal" in public. It's almost a prerequisite to be able to hold down a job or even go out in public without being ostracized. The original article refers to this as "masking".

What happens is as the underlying condition worsens, the victim simply expends more and more energy into hiding those symptoms. To outsiders, there is no perceptible change to the victim's behavior or condition. When the victim finally reaches the point of exhaustion, the collapse appears to come out of nowhere, or even to be faked.

Basically, the public expects to see a set of symptoms that are steady, or increase gradually over time. What you see in practice looks like normal, healthy behavior for months or years at a time, punctuated by dramatic breakdowns. (Or, in an effort to mask to the very end, the victim may abruptly disappear into hiding with or without notice until their symptoms are manageable again.)

If there's a TLDR for this, it's that, from the outside, mental illness looks very different from what you've been conditioned to expect, and it's not surprising that you interpret it as a form of hypochondria.

[watwut]

I think that it is ok to talk openly about difficulties and challenges one faces. Talking and analyzing helps with dealing with shit. It is uncomfortable to hear about difficulties of other people, but imo, adults should be able to cope what that.

Blaming moms for autistic kids is how it used to be done. It did not helped kids nor moms. Kids and moms being silent and accepting blame did nothing to solve their problems.

Why would someone "raising victim flag" bothered you?

[jaggederest]

Sure, people are playing Munchausen's by proxy with kids to get special treatment, and so are adults.

By percentage, of the people out there claiming ASD? Negligible. It's not a fun diagnosis. Nobody's going to play it up for fun. They'll pick something easier to fake and more rewarding, like cancer or allergies, maybe autoimmune.

Standard line treatment for ASD is "Good luck, I hope your life goes okay, I'm here if you want to talk about it".

[contingencies]

Thanks for that. Wiki page is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factitious_disorder_imposed_on... and US clinical terminology follows:

In DSM-5, the diagnostic manual published by the American Psychiatric Association in 2013, this disorder is listed under 300.19 Factitious disorder. This, in turn, encompasses two types: Factitious disorder imposed on self – (formerly Munchausen syndrome). Factitious disorder imposed on another – (formerly Munchausen syndrome by proxy); diagnosis assigned to the perpetrator; the victim may be assigned an abuse diagnosis (e.g. child abuse).

[Nasrudith]

That sounds like a very common empathy gap in the form of "it isn't a real problem until it affects me".

When your neighbors get laid off it is because they are lazy bums. When you get laid off it is a recession or mismanagement. It is easy to understand why it is so common - it is so much easier emotionally to pretend the world is just except when it would imply you are at fault.