There is a possibility the 2013 edition of the DSM, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, also known as the "bible of psychiatry", will include grief as a mental illness/disorder. The reasons behind this are manifold, including the public's attraction to pharmaceuticals, the dominant belief in a mechanistic and allopathic model of human health and disease, and issues related to reimbursement and money. There is also a movement afoot to label the bereft with a major depression diagnosis within a very short time after the initial loss. Granted sometimes depression is tripped by a loss or if pre-existing, can be exacerbated by grief. Legitimately, there are some grievers who need psychiatric help. Some of the criteria put forth for use in differentiating grief from depression is a particularly severe presentation that includes some combination of unreasonable guilt, worthlessness, hopelessness, self-loathing, anhedonia, a focus on negative memories of the departed, alienation from others and an inability to be consoled.
I wonder what is the evidence of drug effectiveness on these symptoms? It seems grief is not dramatically different from other serious stresses that abound in life. How do we normalize normal grief in such a medically driven-reimbursement system?
Chuck Colson has written "This worldview has no place for compassion, remembrance, or empathy because, ultimately, it has no room for being human, especially a normal one."
