Which of the following individuals may qualify for a mental disorder?
A. Partner whose spouse dies and takes a several week leave-of-absence from work due to grief
B. An individual who loses their job as a result of increasing mistakes related to executive functioning and becomes homeless
C. An adolescent who is emotionally volatile following the break up of a significant other in their first relationship
Did you get the answer right?
Having a solid understanding of a mental disorder helps keep us from over-diagnosing and staying on track with what the true criteria are for a mental disorder.
Understanding the DSM-5 Criteria
DSM-5 definition of a mental disorder:
“A mental disorder is a syndrome characterized by clinically significant disturbance in an individual’s cognition, emotional regulation, or behavior that reflects a dysfunction in the psychological, biological, or developmental processes underlying mental functioning. Mental disorders are usually associated with significant distress or disability in social, occupational, or other important activities. An expectable or culturally approved response to a common stressor or loss, such as the death of a loved one, is not a mental disorder. Socially deviant behavior (e.g., political, religious, or sexual) and conflicts that are primarily between the individual and society are not mental disorders unless deviance or conflict results from a dysfunction in the individual, as described above” (American Psychiatric Association).
Answer Analysis
A partner whose spouse dies and takes a several week leave-of-absence from work due to grief is not suffering from mental disorder; grief is an expected response to loss and its expression can vary from culture to culture. Taking time off work due to grief does not fit the DSM’s definition of a mental disorder so answer A is incorrect.
An adolescent who is emotionally volatile following the break up of a significant other in their first relationship is also not suffering from a mental disorder. This is an expected or developmentally-appropriate response to a break up and can range in intensity based on surrounding circumstances. So C isn’t right either.
That leaves answer B for the win! An individual who loses their job as a result of increasing mistakes related to executive functioning and becomes homeless is potentially a mental disorder related to disturbance in the individual’s cognition and disability in occupational functioning. Further assessment is definitely required to rule out a cognitive or psychotic disorder.
Why correct diagnosis matters
In today’s day and age, it can be easy to quickly jump to DSM diagnoses when in reality, a part of the normal human experience are events that lead to feelings of grief or loss or emotional volatility.
I like to share this quiz question as a gentle reminder of this. When we hold “hammers” as prescribers, sometimes everything can look like nails – it can be helpful to remember not to pathologize everything.
If you answered this psych sage question correctly (or not!),learning more about medication regimens through testing your knowledge gets you closer to more effectively treating your patients, and hopefully doing it more stress-free too.
Want to delve deeper?
If you want to get even closer to confident treatment, a little bit faster, check out my free training on stress free diagnosing & treating mental disorders.
You got this, and with an understanding of why you’re doing what you’re doing, you’ll be in great shape.
Looking forward to seeing you on the inside!
