Contributor: “Dr. J”Dr. J offers his irreverent, slightly irrelevant, but possibly useful opinions on health and fitness. A Florida surgeon and fitness freak with a black belt in karate, he runs 50 miles a week and flies a Cherokee Arrow 200.
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) is published by the American Psychiatric Association to provide a common language and standard criteria for the classification of mental disorders. The latest update of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, DSM-5, is planned to be released in 2013.
At this time, they are asking for input to the revision. As someone who had been diagnosed with Rambo psychiatrist tendencies in medical school, I figure I could offer some heavy-fisted input, perhaps even an addendum to their manual called The Dr. J Degree of Sanity Manual (DSM-J), based on the definition of insanity as “doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”
Some attribute that saying to Albert Einstein, and although I’d like that to be the case, it probably is not, nor Benjamin Franklin or Mark Twain, the other two most commonly mentioned. It is in the novel “Sudden Death” by mystery writer Rita Mae Brown, but even that is disputed. It appears that attempts to discover the origin of the quote, as its message states, keep giving us the same results!
Regardless of the saying’s origin — and even though the DSM-J addendum may not contain DSM 5 worthy mental illnesses, as the term “insanity” is more legal than psychiatric — some behaviors or life choices are making a person suffer just as much as an included DSM illness might.
So in the spirit that self-recognition can only help us improve our selves — and in the immortal words of Gloria Steinem, “The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off” — here are some behaviors straight from the DSM-J.
Random Diagnoses on Insane Relationships With Health, Fitness and Life
- The Complainer: Continually complaining about something and never doing anything about it. Perhaps that is a way some people process a problem or feel they are actually doing something about it. This behavior is a shame, however, because it is often very remediable by actual actions if the person can just do them.
- The Health Expert: Always talking about how to be healthy, but never being healthy themselves. These individuals are a better source of health information than WebMD. Too bad they don’t apply it to themselves. Some doctors are in this category.
- The I Knower: Always saying “I know” when told about important lifestyle changes they need to make as their health continues to deteriorate, but always behaving like they don’t know. These people have no interest in helping themselves be healthy. They are polite, however.
- The Trier: Always using the word “trying,” but never getting to the “doing” stage. In the DSM-J, for example, trying is defined as: “If you say you are trying to climb a mountain and you get halfway to the top, you are trying to climb the mountain. If you are standing at the foot of the mountain and looking at the summit, you are not trying.”
- The Wanter: Always saying how they want to be different than they are, but never being any different. They could be told that what they really want is to not be any different, but then they would find a new DSM-J category to fit into.
- The Magical Denier: Not facing the real problem with actions but rather substituting magical non-actions such as continual visualizations of potential changes or always thinking that it’s just a matter of changing their thinking rather than actually changing their behaviors. Characterized by the Jamaican concept of “soon-come, mon.”
- The Amnesic: Forgetting about all the things they once knew were important, such as some personal relationships, life goals, or their mental and physical health. Rather than doing anything to recover, they just “forgetaboutit” as their mental and physical health deteriorates.
- The Arguing Rationalizer: Always rationalizing failure with some nebulous reason or excuse, then arguing how right the excuse is as if arguing will make it real, all the while paying the social, mental and physical price in their lives.
- The Just Sayin’: Often using motivational sayings, yet in their life rarely following these sayings or demonstrating behaviors that are consistent with them. I’m just sayin’.
- The Megalomaniac Doctor: This category is currently undergoing therapy!
The DSM-J is open to input from readers for inclusion in the final addition. Additions to The Megalomaniac Doctor will not be accepted!
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The Dr. J Degree of Sanity Manual (DSM-J): Random Diagnoses on Insane Relationships With Health, Fitness and Life is a post from: CalorieLab - Health News & Information Blog
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