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Comment by saaaaaam | Hacker News Reader

You can yes - in fact, I was listening to “D for Diagnosis” on BBC Radio 4 last night. The show title was “Ever Changing Labels” and a psychiatrist made the point (3’20” into the programme) that what we call “depression” in DSM-V has 9 symptoms and if you have 5 out of those 9 symptoms you are diagnosed as having “depression”. But in reality 5 out of 9 gives a huge number - 15,000+ - variations. So there is no one form of “depression” and yet people are diagnosed with depression all the time.

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> But I’m reality 5 out of 9 gives a huge number - 15,000+ - variations. So there is no one form of “depression”

And? Do you know how many different kinds of cancer there are? We're talking about psychogical disorders that affect people's minds and personalities, of course their presentations are going to be very different. That doesn't make them not real or mean it's not useful to group them together. Diagnosis guides treatment, and most depression responds to the same treatments. You're fallaciously assuming that because there's not a single biological marker for named psychiatric conditions that they don't exist. That's not how any psychiatrist sees it.

I always think that when people start a comment so aggressively it’s not really worth responding. However, that aside: I’m not “fallaciously” anything!

I responded to a question that was posed “could you explain away depression with a similar argument” with a relevant piece of information.

You seem to think I’m arguing depression doesn’t exist. I am not. Forgive me if that was how it appeared, but please, for everyone’s sake, try to keep things civil.

> Now could you explain away major depression using the same logic?

> You can yes

> You seem to think I’m arguing depression doesn’t exist. I am not.

That is precisely what you were trying to do. And the response to your comment was in fact civil. Claiming that your argument is fallacious attacks your argument, not you, and is perfectly appropriate for civil discourse.

> That is precisely what you were trying to do

What a load of crap. You’re projecting something here I’m afraid.

I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be aggressive. As someone with ADHD and a history of depression (misdiagnosed as having bipolar disorder at one point), this is an emotive topic for me.

That's OK - and I very much appreciate the apology. I also have ADHD and one of the most important people in my life suffers from a combination of complex mental health disorders which are sometimes absolutely crippling (and was also misdiagnosed for years), so my intent was absolutely not to say that these things don't exist.

He wrote an example argument to how one could argue depression away in the same way. He does not seem to encourage that kind of arguing, just showing how stupid the "5 out of x symptoms does not equal an illness" argument is.

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