Saturday, September 17, 2011

I never knew I should be worried

So for school I had to get the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders, which is in its 4th edition with a text revision.  All the cool kids call it DSM-IV-TR.  But I have a close, personal relationship with it so I just call it the DSM.  Basically for all you non-psych majors, this book is how clinicians, psychologists and psychiatrists diagnosis mental disorders (duh-like I really had to tell you that).  It is a list of all the recognized disorders and what criteria one most have in order to receive a diagnosis.  So for the next two years I will be carrying around this baby and learning everything inside.  I will probably end up memorizing some of the diseases and the associated criteria (or symptoms).

Just so you have some reference, this book as big as Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

I have normal-sized girl hands




  It's going to take some work to learn this freakin' thing.  Would you like to hear the best part about it??  Oh, did I hear say yes?  Great!!  Currently, as you read this, they are working on the DSM-5; it will be published sometime in 2013.  Are you kiddin' me???!!!  And from my understanding there are going to be some major changes.  So in two years (TWO YEARS!!) I will kinda, sorta need to re-learn it all.


This is how I feel. 

2 comments:

Holly said...

Good LUCK!!

Michelle said...

Seeing that book again just gave me shivers. Maybe Dr. Shonk has an abbreviated copy. I still love her.