Case In Point

Some more medicalizing of human behavior, be it considered normal or abnormal by some, in an attempt to justify shoving more drugs down people's throats, imprisoning them against their will through use of involuntary commitment laws, and possibly even giving them ECT therapy (I highly recommend this site, as it explains the origins, nature, and effects of electroshock therapy, IMO putting modern psychiatry on par with Nazi Germany):

Video Game Addiction: A New Diagnosis?

"The telltale signs are ominous: teens holing up in their rooms, ignoring friends, family, even food and a shower, while grades plummet and belligerence soars. The culprit isn't alcohol or drugs. It's video games, which for certain kids can be as powerfully addictive as heroin, some doctors contend. A leading council of the nation's largest doctors' group wants to have this behavior officially classified as a psychiatric disorder, to raise awareness and enable sufferers to get insurance coverage for treatment."

This just goes to prove my point that every human behavior, feeling, emotion, and action is a target for being classified as a "mental illness." Read between the lines: "Enable sufferers to get insurance coverage for treatment." Let us talk about money and psychiatry, folks, when we have more time.

It is amazing to see the evolution of the "Bible" of psychiatric disorders, the DSM-IV, and some things that are considered to be mental illnesses, including:

• Alcohol and substance use, dependence, and withdrawal (to multiple drugs including amphetamines, forms of which are prescribed routinely by psychiatrists)
• Hallucinogen persisting perception disorder (flashbacks)
• Body dysmorphic disorder
• Pedophilia
• Transvestic fetishism
• Gender identity disorder
• Sexual dysfunction, hypoactive sexual desire disorder, female sexual arousal disorder, male erectile disorder, female orgasmic disorder, male orgasmic disorder, premature ejaculation, sexual aversion disorder, fetishism
• Alcohol intoxication
• Nicotine dependence
• Stuttering
• Rumination disorder
• Impulse-control disorder including pathologic gambling, kleptomania, pyromania, and intermittent explosive disorder
• Conduct disorder
• Selective mutism
• Reading disorder
• Mathematics disorder
• Disorder of written expression
• Neglect, physical abuse, or sexual abuse of a child or adult
• Partner relational problems
• Noncompliance with treatment
• Parent-child relational problem
• Sibling relational problem
• Bereavement
• Phase of life problem
• Academic problem
• Religious or spiritual problem
• Malingering
• Disruptive behavior disorder

At one time, homosexuality was also listed as a mental illness in the DSM before finally being removed. Every choice you make in life, every emotion you feel, every thought you create, can be pigeon-holed into a particular complex, syndrome, or set of symptoms signifying you have a mental illness. In seeing some of the above, how could anyone think anything other than every single person on the planet is mentally ill?

I am not a Scientologist, but I think these people are on to something here. They have a very interesting site regarding fraud in health care by the psychiatric "industry," (quite a bit of this information can be verified with outside sources). Quite an eye-opener: Up to $40 Billion per Year in Psychiatric Fraud