Big Pharma, Quacks, and Misdiagnosis = “There’s A Pill For That”

I was having a conversation, via Facebook, with one of my sons friends about a recent diagnosis that a Dr gave him.  The Dr said, (after one visit), that he had  Schizotypal  Personality Disorder’.  I read the description of this disorder and it sounds like it’s a play by play of a lot of teenagers out there.  In fact, it sounds a lot like how I felt when I was as a teenager!  OMG!  Maybe we have found the new ‘Mental Disorder’ that we normally call Adolescence, and now we can help the big pharmaceutical companies get richer by putting our teenagers on drugs?   Cause you know, ‘there is a pill for that’.

Here is a description of this disorder (and yes, I’m going to break it down for you as well):

“Schizotypal Personality Disorder is a personality disorder characterized by a need for social isolation, anxiety in social situations, odd behavior and thinking, and often unconventional beliefs (yep, sounds like teen spirit to me). People with this disorder feel extreme discomfort with maintaining close relationships with people, and therefore they often don’t (this  may explain why they go from relationship to relationship as teens). They frequently misinterpret situations as being strange or having unusual meaning for them (this is because most situations as teens are strange and unusual). Paranormal and superstitious beliefs are not uncommon for these people (with all the zombie and vampire flixs out there what do you expect). People with this disorder seek medical attention for things such as anxiety, depression, or other symptoms (if this is true, then I think that the majority of the country may have this disorder) .  They may also have unusual preoccupations and fears, such as fears of being monitored by government agencies (Oh please, that’s a perfectly normal fear!  Especially with our Government).

Some of the common signs of schizotypal personality disorder include the following:

• Discomfort in social situations (screams teenager)
• Inappropriate displays of feelings (teenager who was never taught how to display feelings appropriately)
• No close friends (unfortunately this is sad, but of normal behavior with a lot of teens cause they get all sad and confused.  You remember those years. Ugh!)
• Odd behavior or appearance (Oh, I remember my rocker/punk stage of teen hood!)
• Odd beliefs, fantasies, or preoccupations (we’ve all have them)
• Odd speech (maybe they need a speech therapist?)
• Odd beliefs or magical thinking that influences behavior and is inconsistent with subcultural norms (e.g. superstition, belief in clairvoyance, telepathy, “sixth sense”, or bizarre fantasies or preoccupations) (Oh please!  If this is a symptom, then put me down for therapy with Professor Albus Dumbledore at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!)
• Unusual perceptual experiences, including bodily illusions (uh, yeah, I feel this way once a month)
• Odd thinking and speech (LOL!  Crazy teens!)
• Suspiciousness or paranoid ideation (this would be the Government thing…..)
• Inappropriate or constricted affect (with the world they have to grow up in, what do you expect)
• Behavior or appearance that is odd, eccentric or peculiar (once again, Screams Teenager!)

I think that we live in a world that misdiagnosis people all the time.  Big pharma and these so called Dr.’s who work together to tell you your sick so that you can take a pill for it, are only in it for the money.  Of course not all Dr’s are like this, but if you go to see someone for an hour and they can diagnose you without a doubt after only knowing you for that one hour, don’t you think you might want to further your options by getting a second opinion, or even maybe a third?