Introduction
In many cases diagnosis of mental illnesses does not offer solutions to mentally ill patients. There is a high possibility that people showing similar symptoms may be suffering from different psychological problems. Mental illnesses are unique for every patient and the degree of their effects varies from one victim to the other. In regards to mental cases, diagnosis can be performed but the dilemma consists in the fact that there has never been a treatment plan that fits all patients with mental problems. As such, this paper seeks to invalidate the value of diagnosis and show the harmful effects of it by disapproving its medicinal value in the treatment process.
Mental disorders verses emotional effects
A diagnosis does not help in mental treatment because mental disorders can be influenced by distress and disability. These two conditions affect how a person acts, feels, thinks, or perceives his or her environment (Kiesler, 1996). Being a problem of the mind, it is, therefore, imperative for victims to be given medical attention immediately after displaying symptoms. However, diagnosis of mental disorders is meaningless because these are issues of emotional and psychological pain. Currently, many people are suffering from anxiety, depressive symptoms, transient obsessive symptoms, and suicidal ideation (Zarit & Zarit, 2012), which may be due to looming financial constraints or other social factors such as divorce, or death of loved ones among others. These are emotional problems that can influence and affect the mind but they are not necessarily an indication of mental infirmity (Zarit & Zarit, 2012).
Diagnosis and treatment
In many cases, diagnosis cannot give or influence the best treatment for an individual. It is true that a diagnosis may give the clinician a clue of the patient’s problems (Aldwin, Park& Spiro, 2007). In most cases, therapists rely on diagnostic failure to perform a personal extermination on a patient hence disregarding the fact that symptoms are unique for each individuas. Diagnosis may lead to wrong treatment plan which can be detrimental to the patient. Assumptions that mental conditions are all caused by the same experiences is an unfounded and unrealistic psychological innuendo, and the impacts it poses to patients are critical (Aldwin, Park& Spiro, 2007).
Does diagnosis have any benefits?
Diagnosis,does not improve the treatment or influence the results of the treatment in any way. Unfortunately, it might cause distress leading to low-self esteem as well as discrimination in the society (Aldwin, Park& Spiro, 2007). Some diagnostic results are simply expressions and feelings of an individual, for instance, feeling frightened, anxiety, desperation, and other emotions can easily be confused with mental breakdowns. Diagnosis categorizes these feelings into some medical terms that make the patient feel very sick (Aldwin, Park& Spiro, 2007). Using words like anxiety disorders, depression, schizophrenia, and other medical terminologies make the situation more complicated (Aldwin, Park& Spiro, 2007).
Unreliability
In addition, the diagnosis of mental illnesses is quite unreliable. Professionals have developed mental illness diagnosis so that they can easily categorize a collection of common behaviors to attach a treatment plan to it (Aldwin, Park& Spiro, 2007). However, these can be very misleading because, as it has been mentioned earlier, individuals can show similar signs for varied reasons. Therefore, having a general interpretation of particular signs attributing them to comparable causes may be very misleading. Thus, the advantages of diagnosis are overwhelmingly outweighed by the disadvantages.
References
Aldwin, C.M., Park, C.L., & Spiro, A. (2007). Handbook of Health Psychology and Aging. New York, NY: Guilford Press.
Kiesler, D., J. (1996). Contemporary interpersonal theory and research: Personality, psychopathology, and psychotherapy. Wiley series in clinical psychology and personality. Oxford, England: John Wiley & Sons.
Zarit, S.H., & Zarit, J.M. (2012). Mental Disorders in Older Adults, Second Edition: Fundamentals of Assessment and Treatment. New York, NY: Guilford Press.