A few months ago I wrote an article on the labeling of anxiety sufferers by a medical profession that was obsessed with diagnosis apparently to the detriment of cure or containment. the situation is a perversion: Anxiety and mood disorders are broadly caused by either genetics, some other biological predisposition, a traumatic event(s), generally unhappy environment during formative years, accident, food allergy or intolerance, other environmental factor, and, most commonly, a combination of two or more of the
I think it is safe to assume that often problems with varying causes will have varying solutions. So why stigmatize two different human beings with the same label just because on paper their symptoms are similar at any given moment.
For example, a diagnosis of GAD is often made when a patient has been suffering persistent worrying to the detriment of their ability to lead a normal life. But the criteria state that those people who are to receive a diagnosis of GAD can not have been suffering from panic attacks, agoraphobia, or simple phobias. This seems palpably ridiculous.
It is annoying to say the least when you talk to a doctor and realise that he or she has no real idea about how best to treat an anxiety disorder, and you wonder how much time they have wasted learning daft labels and silly criteria.
The best thing for any patient that presents to a doctor with a specific anxiety disorder is this:
1) The doctor checks, or organises checks, to make sure there is no physical cause (thyroid problems etc).
2) The doctor refers them on to a specialist who decides on a case by case basis the best path to talk (relaxation, cbt, drugs, group therapy, a holiday!)
All of these endless labels are driving as mad and causing misdiagnoses. Anxiety sufferers are not vegetables that can be divided up by variety, they are individual human beings.
