[brooke2k]

A "disorder" is just a collection of symptoms that have been empirically shown to benefit from certain treatments. If someone doesn't think they have those symptoms then they can just not seek a diagnosis or treatment. Nobody is forcing a diagnosis on somebody who doesn't want it.

[bjornsing]

If you look into the history of psychiatry I think you’ll find quite a lot of examples when diagnosis and treatment was forced on people who didn’t want it. It’s not hard to find contemporary such examples either.

[brooke2k]

Yes, that did unfortunately happen in the history of psychiatry. I am talking about modern American psychiatric practices (say, the last 10-20 years).

If the proposition here is that mental health disorders are fabricated maliciously in order to sell more medication or enforce some sort of social order, then I don't see how the very rare court-ordered enforcement of short-term stays at psychiatric institutions could be the mechanism for that.

The vast majority of people in the US who receive psychiatric care do so voluntarily, because they experience real symptoms that really affect their life, for which they need real treatment.

[creata]

> The vast majority of people in the US who receive psychiatric care do so voluntarily

That's true, but that's not what the parent comment claimed. They didn't say a majority receive psychiatric care involuntarily, they said it's not hard to find examples who receive it involuntarily, and that's true. Lots of people are forced to take psychiatric medication right now, in developed countries including the US.

[amiga386]

> Lots of people are forced to take psychiatric medication right now, in developed countries including the US.

Just as an example, in the UK the verb "to section" is shorthand for "to commit to involuntary confinement in hospital under the legal authority of one or more sections of the Mental Health Act"

https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/legal-rights/sec...

For example, you can be detained for up to 6 months under Section 3, if all four of these conditions are met:

1. you have a mental disorder

2. you need to be detained for your own health or safety or for the protection of other people

3. doctors agree that appropriate treatment is available for you

4. treatment can't be given unless you are detained in hospital

[s5300]

>> Nobody is forcing a diagnosis on somebody who doesn't want it.

Ahh, you sweet summer child

Tell that to all multiple sclerosis patients that were tortured by psych departments of hospitals before (and after) the MRI machine was created.

Tell that to sleep apnea patients (especially the women, especially especially the younger thinner women in whom they say “it cannot happen to”) that are given a psych diagnoses for seeking treatment for symptoms before sleep disordered breathing issues are ever even brought into question.

The main problem is that DSM diagnoses are indeed forced on people. Usually highly incorrectly, too.