Pissed Off by the Outrage

Sorry, readers, but I must release the steam that has been building up inside me.

Maybe I shouldn't give a damn, but all these people on the internet who claim that psychological and neurological disorders do not exist are pissing me off.

When people have conditions that effect their ability to function, then they have very real problems.

For example, I have astigmatism, a condition that effects my perceptions. Yes, doctors can look closely at my eye, and I suppose they can see physical evidence of this condition, but when I get fitted for lenses, the first thing my doctor does is ask me to read a bunch of letters on a chart. Later he tests a number of corrective lenses on me to see what prescription works best for me. In other words, he talks to me about what I perceive and whether or not my perceptions are distorted. Then he attempts to alter my perception artificially such that I can better navigate through the world.

Everyone seems to be cool with ophthalmology and optometry. I don't read any editorials railing against the evils of so called astigmatism, urging me to flush my contacts down the toilet and just be my natural squinty self, or to will distant road signs to come into focus. I don't even think the Church of Scientology has a website condemning the use of eye glasses and contact lenses. So why are people so hopping mad about psychology and psychiatric therapies? Why do they argue so vehemently against the existence of mental illnesses?

Is it the bad psychologist and psychiatrists making poor diagnoses? Surely there are bad optometrists, too, fitting patients with the wrong lenses. Poor medical practice doesn't negate the existence of vision problems or psychological problems.

Is it because psychiatrists decide what symptoms constitute a disorder or a disease by voting at meetings? I don't want to get all linguistic on everyone, but isn't this pretty much how everything gets named or defined? Maybe Pluto isn't a planet, maybe it is, but the labeling controversy has nothing to do with Pluto's existence.

Is it a critique of big, bad manipulative pharmaceutical companies? Often, the loudest critics of prescription drugs like ritalin and prozac are also selling something.

I don't know if I should bother trying to figure out what's behind all the anti-psychology outrage. The main thing is, it's not helping people deal with their very real problems. All this noise is interfering with my ability to figure out what I need to do. I have to tune it out.