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That said, on with the show.
(This rant brought to you by flipping through the ICD-9-CM and rolling my eyes at introversion as a personality disorder. Really, this is 2011. What the fuck, medical establishment?)
Hi, my name is Rubyfruit and I am an introvert. No, that does not mean that I am a misanthrope, nor does it mean that I’m depressed all the time. Furthermore, it does not mean that I’m sick.
There are things that I’d really want fixed. My tendency to have panic attacks is something I’d really, really like fixed. The occasional nightmare about burning alive for all eternity because it’s been beaten into my head ever since I was four that if I didn’t do Christianity right (“right” in this sense meaning “the way I was taught as a Pentecostal) then I was going to go to Hell. I would like that fixed. The tendency to get stressed out over small things, I would like to get fixed a whole bunch. You see, all those things, I consider a problem. Two of those things actually have the potential to interfere with my life. The panic attacks, obviously, but also the stressing out over everything, which is an extension of said panic attacks. It’s not good for me physically or mentally. Maybe the nightmares could interfere with my life if they caused me to stay up for hours in order to not have them.
But do you know what I wouldn’t like to get fixed? I wouldn’t like to get my introversion fixed. It’s not doing anything harmful to my life. It doesn’t create any unwanted interference with social interactions, it just means that I’m pickier about said interactions, and that I don’t get my energy from those interactions, among other things. It does no harm to me or any other person (the one or two people who get offended notwithstanding). I wouldn’t like to get my sexual orientation fixed. Because I consider myself responsible when it comes to sex, my being something other than straight is not doing anything harmful to my life. The majority of the time, it doesn’t cause any unwanted interference with my social interactions, and it does no harm to me or any other person. I would not like to get my kinkiness fixed. It is not harmful to my life, it does not create unwanted interference with my social interactions, and it’s not doing any harm to anyone, be it me, or anyone else.
So why’s introversion a friggin’ mental disorder? Why is it that this thing is treated like something to be fixed. We live in the year 2011. We’ve gotten to the point where (most) people don’t think of kinkiness or sexual orientation as something wrong that needs to be “fixed” (aside from some in the anti-spanking crowd, but I’ll rant about that epic ball of dung later), so why is this thing treated like an illness? Introversion is not something that needs to be fixed. It is not a disorder, it’s something different from what is considered normal. That doesn’t make it bad or wrong or something to be eradicated, or at least, hidden well.
It’s just different.
But do you know what does cause pointless harm to other people? Treating something different like it’s a disease. Treating introverted people like they’re anti-social does cause pointless harm. Forcing social interactions, be it overtly or covertly, does cause pointless harm in both children and adults. Treating introversion as if it’s some sort of disease that needs to be cured (or at least hidden really well) does cause pointless harm.
Like I said before, this is the year 2011. At least in America, people are willing to embrace all kinds of things that were once seen as sinful (in a religious context) or deviant or diseased. It’s time to throw away one more piece of outmoded thinking.
It’s time to treat introversion as another possibility for “things a person can be”, rather than “things that need fixed”.
Peace out!
It’s irregular verbs again: I have a wide range of interests, you are slightly outside the norm, he has a notifiable mental illness.
I haven’t read recent ICDs, but I’m willing to concede that introversion significant enough to mess up someone’s life – i.e. something that that person or those close to hem regard as a problem – could reasonably be considered a mental illness. The problem is that “those close to hem” could (as is generally assumed) be a loving spouse, but could also be an utterly inflexible parent who wants a child Just Like Hem.
And you can’t solely use “that the person experiencing it regards as a problem”, because – well, I’ve known alcoholics who didn’t regard their boozing as a problem even when it meant they were being taken into hospital every month. So unless you’re prepared to say that they should be allowed to go to hell in their own way (with which I’d have some sympathy), and put their families through it with them…
I dunno. It’s not easy.
My thing is…being an introvert isn’t the same as being an alcoholic.
At least, I don’t think it is. The difference between alcoholism and introversion is that the former is proven to do harm to both the person and those around them…and the other may or may not be a guilt trip for parents and anyone else who is less extroverted than a pep squad leader, and probably turn something that is not a problem (the introversion) into something that could be one by way of explicitly or implicitly punishing that child for the lack of extroversion.
In other words, the introversion itself is not a problem, at least in my opinion. How those around the introverted person treat them is a huge problem.
I’m not any sort of expert; I’m trying to avoid drawing a line between “types of behaviour that are basically OK” and “types of behaviour that are basically bad”.
OK, let’s stick with basically mental problems. If I am cripplingly shy and this is making me unhappy, this is a problem. If I am cripplingly shy but I don’t really mind, this is not a problem. The shyness could be the same; it’s my reaction to it that renders it problematic or otherwise. (And, arguably, the reactions to it of people who have my best interests at heart, assuming that can be identified reliably, which of course they can’t.)
But the same applies to a “real” illness like the ASDs – if I and the people I live with are basically happy with the situation, there’s no problem…