MARIN COUNTY'S NEWS
MONTHLY - FREE PRESS
(415)868-1600 -
(415)868-0502(fax) - P.O. Box 31, Bolinas, CA, 94924
April, 2005
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Are You A Shopaholic
By Louis Steiner
From
the people who brought you Mathematics Disorder and Disorder of Written
Expression and even Caffeine Disorder, now bring you Compulsive Shopping
Disorder. In other words, a shopaholic. According to the experts, if you have a
strong urge to go shopping, for anything from clothes to cars, at any time of
the year, that means you might have a mental illness.
According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual 4th Edition (DSM IV) put
out by the American Psychiatric Association, there are 374 so called mental
disorders.
Psychiatrists literally vote on what constitutes a mental illness or disorder
by raising their hands at a conference. There is no medical evidence presented,
no brain scans, blood tests or any other medical criteria needed to establish a
disorder in the DSM; it is 100% subjective.
So now there is Compulsive Shopping Disorder. A study was done on 23 women
and one man. All of whom were allegedly suffering from this disorder. This is
of course 24 people trying to represent the entire country. It stated that most
of the compulsive shoppers had improved in their urge to shop with an
anti-depressant, Citalopram. Of course, the urge to shop might also be reduced
by taking a number of other drugs, like heroin, cocaine, or maybe even sleeping
pills. But it doesn't mean it will help the situation. Drugs very often only
serve to cover up a situation without really handling anything.
Putting a label on a certain type of behavior has really never helped anybody.
According to Dr. Fred Baughman, Neurologist and Child Neurologist, "Any
physician saying any psychiatric condition is an actual disease, is guilty of
fraud."
"This applies to Compulsive Shopping Disorder and to all 'diseases'
they may add to future editions of their DSM for the simple reason that
diseases are objective physical abnormalities discovered in patients by
observant, scientific physicians, not subjective symptom complexes, voted into
existence, and, by prior agreement called 'diseases or chemical imbalances' of
the brain. And telling someone that there is a chemical imbalance in the brain
can actually make things worse, as a person will then believe that there is
something wrong with him that can't be helped.
Dr. Baughman also stated that, "Any abnormalities that have been found
in the brain are due to the invariably brain-damaging drugs all of their
patients get put on and kept on. None are due, as they fraudulently claim, to
their 'disease' or 'diseases' for the simple reason that their was never an
actual disease or objective abnormality to begin with."
The book, Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, by author and
humanitarian L. Ron Hubbard, shows that there are two parts of the mind. One is
the analytical mind, which we use to solve the problems and puzzles of everyday
life. And then there is a darker, more sinister part of the mind, called the
reactive mind. This is composed of all the times of upsets and moments of pain
and unconsciousness, known as engrams (a moment of 'unconsciousness' containing
physical pain or painful emotion and all perceptions, and is not available to
the analytical mind as experience) that a person has experienced. These are
recorded in the reactive mind and can come into action to affect the person at
a later time. In the book the author states, "The reactive mind is the
entire source of aberration. It can be proved and has been repeatedly proven
that there is no other, for when the engram bank (the reactive mind) is
discharged, all undesirable symptoms vanish and a man begins to operate on his
optimum pattern."
Instead of trying a new drug to cover up a situation or being told that
there is a situation when there isn't, or simply putting a label on some kind
of behavior, it's best to find the true source of the problem and handle it.
For more information on Dianetics, go to www.dianetics.org.