That's what she checked on my paperwork. Unspecified. A quick look at my DSM and I think she may be on to something. Though, the Unspecified subtype is debatable ... I could probably make a case for "With Mixed Disturbance of Emotions and Conduct" ...
At least she didn't use a specifier for course. That could have been disheartening.
Still, it's one thing to put a name on a feeling, it's another thing entirely to understand and overcome the cause of that feeling. The more I learn, the more I think things like the DSM exist just to put names on normal (not abnormal) human response to life.
After all, I recently got married and started school and changed job function (to some extent), why wouldn't I expect to have a period of adjustment? Of course, predisposed to depression and anxiety as a type A, oldest child with a thread of perfectionism (and low serotonin) coursing through my veins, my means of adjusting to big events in life (good and bad) may look different than yours. Your normal is different than mine.
Maybe that's what the Bible was getting at when it tells us not to be so judgmental. Maybe that's what the Bible was getting at when it tells us to be more encouraging and loving. Maybe tolerance looks a little less like putting up with something and a whole lot more like expanding your definition of "normal" — for yourself and others. I don't know, it's just a thought.
I mean, what is pathological anyway? Casey Anthony? Certainly. But something (generations ago or in her childhood or even in her biology) happened to take her down that "abnormal" path of lies and narcissism. But haven't we all been walking down that path since the Fall — away from the standard of beauty and perfection we were created within and wired for? This side of heaven, abnormal IS normal. When it's not blatantly evil or destructive, it's what Gerard Hopkins called "pied beauty" — perfect imperfections, idiosyncrasies ... the creative quality of God's unique designs. And the Holy Spirit working within us this side of Heaven is our internal call to or craving for what WAS and what WILL BE again — a wholeness and peace and indisputable wellness that, by the grace of God, we catch glimpses of now and then... and it shows up, not at all ironically, in (and/or as a result of) our moments of weakness, our imperfections, our fears, our flaws ... because within those, from those, we acknowledge the gap ... the need for salvation ... the hope before us.
Light is brighter, more glorious, when you're exiting a dark place, you know?