Posted by Quintal on March 1, 2007, at 20:30:09
In reply to Re: Diagnoses, interesting and otherwise, posted by laima on March 1, 2007, at 18:20:55
>Um, well speaking as a straight person (as if that even matters)- I fail to even remotely comprehend how being gay could possibly be considered an illness or disorder?
Well as a gay person I think it's easy to see how homosexuality could be considered an illness by a system that (for example), categorises the inability to concentrate for long periods accompanied by impulsive and hyperactive behaviour with poor organization an illness needing treatment with stimulants. How could they not consider something seemingly so plainly aberrant as homosexuality an illness, or completely unworthy of categorization? As Declan says, how do you decide what is illness and what is healthy? Curious.
Homosexuality leads to a lot of anxiety and depression for most gay people. You could even go as far as to say it might be the root cause of a lot of the anxiety and depression of most of the male babblers here, so treating it might be the most direct and effective way of achieving a full recovery. It is postulated in my mother's 1950's psychology textbook that homosexuality may be caused by a hormone imbalance (I believe there is some evidence for this - exposure to excess testosterone in the womb for example) analogous to the neurotransmitter imbalances popular today accounting for mood and anxiety disorders. So how can they allow this to escape the DSM altogether? Surely there's a place for it, if only as a type of personality disorder or neurological problem?
On what grounds exactly did they remove homosexuality from the DSM? Are there such things as heterosexigens and homolytics?
Q
poster:Quintal
thread:737261
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070224/msgs/737462.html