An article came across the desk of the our team last week which caused a great deal of conversation, as well as a smidgeon of amazement. It was published by Natural News under the title “Psychiatrists say that being angry is a mental illness” and cited as its source an earlier Daily Mail Article entitled “Psychiatrists want to call being angry a mental illness. How utterly mad!” The synopsis of the story is the proposed inclusion of several new conditions in the Diagnostic And Statistical Manual Of Mental Disorders (DSM), so that now it includes, amongst other new entries ‘Intermittent Explosive Disorder’ – or occasionally becoming very angry suddenly.
The DSM is the psychiatrists’ bible and it is generally accepted that if a condition is in there it is considered to be a mental illness – and that it will be researched in order that a treatment may be found.
Now I can understand that there are psychiatric, psychological and pathological conditions that manifest themselves in being angry – bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder are commonly known examples – and that these conditions need treating. However, anger of the type described as Intermittent Explosive Disorder seems to be the sort of anger that virtually everyone exhibits from time to time. Modern life is complex, pressurised, frustrating and immediate. Everyone experiences highs and low, extremes of happiness and depths of despair. Anger is often an appropriate reaction to situations we all find ourselves in now and again. Sometimes our anger is explosive, but is it really a disorder? Is it really necessary to classify everyone who gets angry from time to time as needing treatment?
My concern is that if anger is classified as a mental illness, then it is neatly packaged and ‘treatments’ can be suitably medical. The Beating Anger team has broad experience of anger, mild and severe, short-term and long-term and we understand that it is a natural, normal feeling which is often expressed badly because of other, perhaps unconscious, factors affecting how a person perceives the world and situations the find themselves in. I am a strong believer that, rather than ‘treat’ a patient with drugs which can suppress the anger, it is better to inform and educate the person, allowing them to understand where their anger comes from and how to express it more appropriately next time.
Anger is often connected to issues of esteem, or low self worth and shame which need to be addressed in order to understand why one become’s angry in the first place. If these issues are not addressed they may lie dormant but they will not go away, unless they receive the appropriate attention, be that a treatment, therapy counselling or another intervention.
Another key part of the original story is the potential inclusion of a new category called “risk syndromes”. These are described as early warning signs that could lead to one of its supposed mental disorders. By catching these “risk syndromes” early, doctors can begin prescribing medication for conditions that people do not even have! I always shrink back when I see the word ‘risk’ as I see exclusions on health and life insurance policies. My concern would be that ultimately we could see a person getting slightly angry, classified as fitting into a risk syndrome and then being refused life and health cover because their risk syndrome presents a future danger – think on that next time you get annoyed at the supermarket or office!
In most cases this is a matter of perspective and understanding. For the compilers of the DSM anger is a chance to neatly classify everyone as somewhat abnormal, following a global trend to categorise everyone either as a criminal, a patient or a dependant.
…and of course, if I have an illness that needs treating, I need drugs, perhaps long term, which may mask my ‘symptoms’ but offer no real cure. All the while, researchers and pharmaceutical companies get richer and richer. Anger may go the way of depression – where being down in the dumps can often see you supplied with prolonged courses of prescription drugs, where some educative treatment will work just as well, in a shorter period, at less of a cost.
My response to this is simply “If you get angry, don’t be a victim and dwell in your anger, seek help and understand yourself better. Avoid those who want to classify you and make the choice to classify yourself as normal and aware. Get angry when you need to, in a controlled healthy way…and avoid dependence on drugs.”
Sources:
Natural News
Daily Mail
