Psychiatrists Seek to Classify Bitterness as Disorder

Wicked Witch of Oz, Post-Embittered Stress Syndrome?

According to LA Times, psychiatrists are seeking to classify bitterness as a mental illness. Instead of “bitter” people they’re now classified as “good people” who have become “embittered”.

Everyone knows them, the “bitter” people, the people whom life has left them, well, bitter. Psychiatrists claim that the “bitterness” arose from specific incidents, such as divorce, “not getting into the Olympics”, or failing to get a promotion. The good news/bad news is that if psychiatrists are successful in getting bitterness classified as a mental disorder then those who are diagnosed as “embittered” will receive treatment such as behavior therapy, medications, and/or analysis. The bad news: those who receive the diagnosis will fall under the protection of the ODEP, the Federal government’s Office of Disability Employment Policy. “Embittereds” can then file suit against past, present, and future employers claiming discrimination in areas such as “hiring, reasonable accommodations, training, advancement, benefits, or dismissal, or a range of other employment-related issues”.

Section 501 of the Rehabilitation Act would prohibit federal executive branch agencies, including the U.S. Postal Service from “discrimination” of postal workers classified as embittered.

Section 501 of the Rehabilitation Act prohibits federal executive branch agencies, including the U.S. Postal Service and the Postal Rate Commission, from discriminating against qualified individuals with disabilities. It requires executive branch agencies to take affirmative action in the hiring, placing, and advancing of individuals with disabilities.

And then there’s this little reality check: the sheer number of those who could potentially be diagnosed as being embittered. The list of reasons which classify as leading to “embitterment” are incalculable. In the work domain, promotions or raises not given, being laid off, fired or reprimanded. Incredibly, the LA Times listed not getting onto the “Olympic team” which caused this writer to laugh. After all, how many bitter people in our lives are Olympic athletes? The embittered people in my world are bitter over such common denominators as the government and high taxes, the “good life” that failed to materialize or evaporated when the economy collapsed. Or the spouse or boyfriend/girlfriend that was supposed to be their “one true” love–never mind that the other person felt suffocated by the embittered person’s need to control the relationship.

Then there’s the rather amusing psychiatrist’s definition of those who are bitter claiming that they’re “good” people whose lives became embittered because of a specific incident. I’m truly at a loss over this one as the bitter people in my life have been bitter for years, decades, while those who “turned” bitter after an incident, I can’t seem recall ever coming in contact with.

There’s the cold hard fact that even if a bitter person sought help there’s no guarantee that medical treatment will be successful, opening up another can of worms, the embittered person who’s become even more bitter that they weren’t cured.

There’s also the rather horrifying realization that the bitter person in your workplace would be protected by the full force of the government while you were left, well, bitter about the whole deal.

Then there’s unrealistic expectations and the inability to put things into perspective, which I believe some of the “bitterness” stems from. Unrealistic expectations such as trying to garner a promotion through hard work even though the boss is a certifiable a-hole and exhibits favoritism towards sycophants. Or being bitter over a spouse or girlfriend/boyfriend who left or cheated and the failure to recognize that part of the problem stemmed from working overtime trying to please your a-hole boss while aiming towards a promotion.

This is just one such scenario of unrealistic expectations and skewed perspectives that psychiatrists are itching to classify as cause for being “embittered’ and thus a mental disorder. Which makes one wonder what’s “next” on the mental disorder horizon?

By LBG

Image – Wicked Witch of Oz

Tags: bitter, bitterness, disability, Federal government, Mental Disorder, psychiatrists