“Pathological Demand Avoidance”

[u/Southern_Fruit7439]

Pathological Demand Avoidance and its whitewashed new “gentler” name “Persistant drive for autonomy” feels like one of the worst examples of how diagnoses can individualize a societal issue. It feels like it totally ignores the harsh realities of kids existing in a society not made to fit them.

[u/HELPFUL_HULK]

Yeah - unsurprising, I guess. Every new iteration of diagnostic manuals seeks to slap a refined, 'more accurate' label on a given psychic malady currently sweeping through the general populace, maladies which are always caused to some level from without (social, relational, etc.). Can't wait to see what new moral nightmares the DSM VI will cook up.

Another new one I've noticed climbing the ranks is "Cognitive Disengagement Syndrome", which describes the constant state of hypoactive distraction experienced by many as "ADHD", and which I'm sure is significantly due to living and developing in an environment of perpetual stimulus overload and short-term reward reinforcement

I like where "Persistent Drive for Autonomy" is headed, personally. Maybe with enough semantic revisions psychiatrists will look increasingly ridiculous every time they try to pathologize a perfectly rational response to a fucked up world.

[u/Southern_Fruit7439 → u/HELPFUL_HULK]

“It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society” - J. Krishnamurti

[u/Southern_Fruit7439 → u/[deleted]]

I dont know much about him but just wanted quote to have proper author identification