More from the article:
“The DSM is now larger than ever, and it includes disorders such as “Obedience Defiance Disorder” (ODD), defined as refusing to lick boots and follow false authority. [snip]
You can also get diagnosed with “Hoarding Disorder” if you happen to stockpile food, water and ammunition, among other things. Yep, being prepared for possible natural disasters now makes you a mental patient in the eyes of modern psychiatry (and the government, too).”
Occasionally I suffer from PLE or Ping List Envy.
I'm sure that is true in some cases, and is certainly true with respect to more than a few in FEMA and the rest of government, but most clinicians would not agree. In fact, I just had a conversation with a Psych ARNP about the very subject of prepping and she thought it sounded like a good thing to do.
It’s not hoarding disorder until it interferes with your life. Having so much food, water and ammo stockpiled that you can no longer walk through your house isn’t being prepared, it’s a problem.
I love macadamia nuts, just love them. But I'm one of the few folks who, when I eat them, break out in cold sweats, get horrible heartburn, and if I eat enough of them, feel pretty sick. So you know what I did? I stopped eating macadamia nuts.
If I hadn't, would there be a whole bunch of "resources" for me and my loved ones to "fight" Macadamiaism?
As it happens, I'm also one of the few folks who break out in handcuffs and fits of aggression when I get drunk. I've spent more than one night as a "guest" at the ol' Crowbar Hotel because of it. So you know what I did? I stopped drinking. It sure as hell wasn't easy -- but it was very, very simple. And you know what happened? When I quit drinking, all the symptoms of the "disease" alcoholism disappeared!!!! Imagine that!!!!
On a par with the "mental disorder" angle -- if alcoholism is a "disease," it's self-inflicted and self-cured. A person with a real disease, like polio or muscular dystrophy or type 1 diabetes, would LOVE IT if all he or she had to do was cease indulging a specific behavior in order to get rid of all the symptoms of their disease. But they don't have that option because their disease is for real, whereas the addict's disease is purely behavioral.
All of this is a way to remove personal responsibility for one's actions, and to invest it in some outside influence best monitored by a supposedly benevolent overseer. Blaming booze for an alcoholic's problems is like blaming the gun for a shooting. And blaming a "mental disorder" for a person who chooses to defy convention, hearkens to days when left-handed children were forced to write with their right hands.