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October 31, 2008, 9:51 pm PDT
a few points...
Quote From: baluesunkistThis condition is considered to be psychiatric in nature and is listed as a disorder (gender identity disorder). I'm sure these facts are obvious to most people on the board, but for some reason they have been largely disregarded. If something is considered a "disorder", it is implied that there is something wrong that needs to be treated/corrected. I can't think of any other psychiatric disorder (or any other disorder, period) in which professionals encourage the afflicted person to just cave in to the disorder and refuse treatment because it's "it's okay to be different". Nowadays, homosexuality is no longer considered a disorder (by a large portion of the medical community anyway), but a reflection of a difference. However, the fact that G.I.D. is still considered a disorder rather than a difference should say something. Not to mention, the fact that gender identity disorder is specifically listed as a PSYCHIATRIC disorder rather than a combination neuro-psychiatric condition further supports this point. If G.I.D. is truly the result of a biological condition, why is it not
listed as a neuropsychiatric disorder, which would imply a biological
base (while also acknowledging the obvious presence of psychological symptoms)? Even so, it's important to know that few psychiatric disorders (relatively speaking) are considered to be completely biologically based; therefore, the argument that people are born with a mental conception of gender that differs from their actual sex is extremely flawed. It's not that I lack empathy for what people with G.I.D. Obviously, it's rough for anyone to have a psychiatric disorder - especially a disorder that carries such a strong social stigma. However, I don't believe that G.I.D. is something that is completely incurable. I also believe that a lot of the time, there are other events that have taken place which directly caused the disorder (or exacerbated it) that parents might not want to discuss because every parent wants to accept their child. If a child has been abused, no parent wants to think, "Gosh, my child now has a screwed up sense of identity because of the abuse." Parents would rather believe that their child has a biological condition that nothing can be done about....and in a way, I can't blame them for wanting to believe that because I imagine it would alleviate a whole lot of guilt. Nowadays especially, parents have a tendency to give children far more decision making power than is appropriate (in other words, kids are way too spoiled). I'm sorry, but an 8-year-old cannot make major life decisions. Just because a child really feels strongly about something does NOT mean that that child is right about it, or that what the child wants is in his or her best interest. It's up to the PARENTS to decide that. It's painful for any parent to see their child unhappy, but caving in to a child's requests just because you don't want to see your child unhappy in the short-term is a reflection of lazy, irresponsible parenting. As you admit, homosexuality was once listed in the DSM as a psychiatric "disorder"...a position that is thoroughly discredited.
The entry for GID is being revised as we speak, and the DSM V is scheduled to go to print in a few years.
As for why it is not listed as a neuropsychiatric disorder, just because the etiology of a condition isn't fully understood does not make it a figment of the imagination...again, you only have to look to intersex people with gender dysphoria to see the logical fallacy of your position- before the discovery of chromosomes and other genetic testing, those people who were chromosomally intersexed and had gender dysphoria were seen to be mentally ill as well, as there was no known physiological marker to indicate that there was anything physically different about them.
Same goes for epilepsy, it was historically attributed to all kinds of things like demonic posession, religious visitations and insanity, and still is in some parts of the world despite the fact that its physical causes are fairly well understood.
Even left handedness was once treated as being evidence of being in league with dark forces...bottom line is that the understanding of biology and neurology as it relates to brain function is developing all the time and in the big scheme of things, the fact that something is called an illness or disorder at any one point in time is hardly the final word on the matter.
As for professionals suggesting that people "cave in to a psychiatric disorder"...the fact of the matter is that in cases where people experience severe gender dysphoria, there are NO known treatments that make it go away, not drugs, not couseling, not shock therapy, not torture, not aversion therapy- NOTHING.
This is well known to anyone who studies the issue and has any experience at all with profoundly gender dysphoric people, and you cannot present any evidence to the contrary that isn't steeped in religious fundamentalism.
You seem to have more than a passing familiarity with the clinical descriptions and terminology and so obviously have studied it, but your assessment is so biased and ignores so much of the clinical data and research into the causes and treatment of transsexuality that one has to wonder where you are getting your information from...the claim that transsexuality can be "directly caused" by sexual abuse for instance is not anything that is accepted by any mainstream gender experts, so perhaps you can post a link to where you heard that so we can better judge the authority by which the claim was made.
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Dr. Phil tackles the sensitive topic of children who identify more with the opposite sex. What do you do if your son wants to wear dresses and play with dolls? Or if your daughter tells you she wants to be a boy? Should parents chock it up to being a phase that their children will grow out of, or should they intervene right away? Meet Melissa and Tim, whose 8-year-old son declared himself to be a girl when he was just 3 years old. Now, they allow their child to live as a girl and wonder if and when they should begin hormone therapy. Then, when Mary’s son was 8, he told her he felt like a girl, and Mary allowed him to experiment with dressing as a female. Now a teenager, her son is more comfortable living as a male -- but Mary wonders if she caused his confusion. Joining the discussion are experts with differing points of view: Dr. Dan Siegel, professor and clinical psychiatrist at UCLA School of Medicine, and Glenn Stanton, author and research fellow with the organization Focus on the Family. Is gender identity something we’re born with, or is it influenced by parents and environment? Don’t miss this heated discussion, then talk about the show here..
