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christian counseling today
Vol. 20 no. 2
I
sometimes joke about why I
became a psychologist, typically
saying, “Well, I knew I would be
spending much of my adult life in
a psychotherapist’s office, so I thought
I’d put myself in the position of getting
to pick the best chair.”
The statement is about two parts
self-effacing southern humor, but at
least one part truth.
It is probably fair to say that almost
every condition in the
Diagnostic and
Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders
(DSM)
exists on a continuum. For exam-
ple, every normal person has experienced
symptoms of depression at some point.
If your best friend, spouse, or child dies
and you do not experience significant
depressive symptoms, something is very
wrong. These “symptoms” would be part
of normal bereavement, yet very similar
to those of major depression, at least for
a period of time.
Too much anxiety can be debili-
tating. A little anxiety can help you
perform routine tasks more quickly.
Thinking a little outside the box can
get you promoted. Thinking way, way
outside the box can get you in a phar-
macological straightjacket.
I still love the simple definition of
what constitutes a mental disorder that I
learned over three decades ago. A condi-
tion is considered a “disorder” if patterns
of thought or behavior exist to such an
extent or intensity as to get in the way
of normal social, emotional or occu-
pational functioning. The disorder is
not in the symptoms, but in what they
eventually prevent.
The issue theme for this edition of
CCT
has me musing about my own
childhood experiences and which, if any,
could have been seen as a disorder by
a school psychologist—assuming there
had been such things in my rural Geor-
gia elementary school that featured eight
grades, eight teachers, and 88 children.
I do know I bailed from youth
camp on two separate occasions, and
it was not just because I was afraid of
the salvation specialists who had been
brought in to talk about the possibil-
ity of me becoming a rotisserie item in
the afterlife. No, it was because I was
prone to some pretty intense feelings of
homesickness.
«
Gary W. Moon, Ph.D.
reflections
Re-ordering Our Disorder
