15.2 Diagnosing and Classifying Psychological Disorders — Normal To Disorder | Psychology 2e

How do mental health professionals decide when a thought, feeling, or behavior crosses the line into a psychological disorder? This lesson explores the tools and systems used to diagnose mental illness — from the DSM-5 to the ICD — and the ongoing debate about whether our definitions of "normal" are shifting too fast. Drawing from Section 15.2 of OpenStax Psychology 2e, the discussion tackles comorbidity, the growth of diagnostic categories, and the compassionate language we should use when talking about mental health. In this video: • What the DSM-5 is, why it exists, and how it gives mental health professionals a shared diagnostic language • Comorbidity explained: 41% of people with OCD also meet criteria for major depressive disorder • Why diagnosing substance use disorders is especially complex — and why clinicians must observe behavior after drug use has ceased • How diagnostic categories have more than doubled from 106 in DSM-I to 237 in DSM-5 • The bereavement exclusion controversy: can grief after losing a loved one be classified as major depressive disorder? • DSM vs. ICD — how the U.S. and the rest of the world use different diagnostic systems • Why disorders represent extremes on a spectrum, and the importance of saying a person has a disorder rather than is one #OpenStax #Psychology #MentalHealth #DSM5 #AbnormalPsychology OpenStax Content adapted from "OpenStax Psychology 2e", by OpenStax licensed under CC BY 4.0. Content based on Web Version: Apr 23, 2026. Read the textbook online https://openstax.org/details/books/psychology-2e Music first girl talking to me. by ikkun (ex. Barradeen) | https://soundcloud.com/ikkunwastaken Royalty Free Music by https://www.free-stock-music.com Creative Commons / Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en_US