When’s my problem a problem
Ever wondered what makes a problem a “disorder”. Where is the line of does my anxiety keep me motivated, or does it keep me edgy, irritable, and restless? Anyone who’s taken a psych 101 class probably has heard of the four D’s. These are ways to decide if a problem is a problem. They are as follows:
Deviance
For your problem to be a “problem” it might have to be to the left of center. Let’s say you don’t fit the mold and people call you eccentric for your messy and artistic house, after all you just moved! The deviance piece comes in when your house starts to become so different and outside the box that you’re considered completely outside the tolerance given to eccentric. You’ve got boxes blocking doors, and oil paints on the stove. Now this might be a judgement that you’re someone struggling with hoarding, and not just an eccentric artist.
Distress
Generally another piece of the puzzle is if the behavior, thought, emotion causes stress to the person living with the problem. You can see where not all behaviors and emotions would distress the person having the issue, but generally, it will be distressing to them or someone very close to them. For example, hoarding is not something people are proud of, but they have a really hard time letting go of their collections. This causes a lot of distress in a person.
Dysfunction
Usually there is also an element of dysfunction. This means that someone’s problem is causing a lot of hiccups in their life. Let’s say it’s eating or dieting. Dieting in itself isn’t bad (of course we could discuss the norms around that as well as the health at every size movement, yay progress). But when diet’s become dysfunctional, such as extreme carb cutting, or calorie restriction causes a person to have a dysfunctional life like now they can’t and won’t go out to eat with friends, or they start obsessing over the calories and almost lose their job, this is a clear sign of dysfunction.
Danger
The last one is an exception not a rule. Research suggests that most behavior doesn’t reach danger level. However, a problem can become dangerous when behavior becomes careless, hostile, or confused. Let’s use the eating example above. Would we say the problem of restriction of calories is dangerous when the person becomes emaciated, they can’t stay awake for long periods of time because of the low blood sugar? Yes. This is a sign of danger, of course there are the movie clip danger’s such as hallucinations which could cause someone to act dangerously irrational, but that is generally the exception, not the rule.
At the end of the day, you need to decide when a problems become tough to manage, there isn’t a clear measure that applies to everyone’s life. Society could view abnormal behavior differently than your circle of friends or family. One things clear. The best measure of a problem becoming a clinically significant problem is you and your circle. No-one can reach out for you, and if you feel like there are parts of your life not aligning and that’s causing distress to you, that’s enough reason to take action and seek solutions. Therapy, a conversation with a friend of loved one whatever you do, discuss problems in your life. You don’t have to live in a shadow.