APA Changes: DSM-5 Transgender Disorder to Dysphoria. It's Official, Kind of

Source AP December 1st 2012: "The board of trustees for the American Psychiatric Association voted Saturday in suburban Washington, D.C., on scores of revisions that have been in the works for several years. Details will come next May when the group's fifth diagnostic manual is published. "

"The trustees made the final decision on what proposals made the cut; recommendations came from experts in several task force groups assigned to evaluate different mental illnesses."

The only thing for sure is that they are -- Eliminating the term "gender identity disorder." Minnesota Public Radio 

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The APA will not officially disclose the actual changes until the DSM-5 is published, but from earlier in the year we have a pretty good idea anyways...

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Source Med Page Today:

Whats changed:

Gender identity disorder. Individuals who believe their biological gender doesn't match their gender identification will no longer be labeled with a disorder. Instead, if they seek psychiatric treatment, they can be labeled with "gender dysphoria."

The workgroup responsible for dealing with the hot-button issue considered a variety of other approaches, addressed later in this article. Ultimately they settled on a formal diagnosis -- potentially qualifying a patient for insurance-paid treatment if they want it -- but with a less pejorative name than "disorder."

What the APA refused to change:

Transgenderism as a V code. In seeking to destigmatize what was called gender identity disorder in DSM-IV, one proposal was to list it -- with or without a new name -- as a so-called V Code. In DSM-IV, this was a chart code used to flag items of clinical interest that were not diagnosable or treatable conditions in their own right -- such as problems at school or noncompliance with treatment.

It was rejected, as were suggestions that the condition be dropped from DSM-5 altogether.

Read more ar 'Med Page Today' published May 10, 2012

APA DSM-5 Gender Dysphoria: A Kinder, Gentler Machine Gun Hand

Most all of us who have come to a point in our lives where we feel our transition has been successful, all have one common problem.

Much of the world doesn't recognize or respect our gender expression.

So we are happy, or like me still thrilled, to look in the mirror, to see the external changes. To sit quietly reflecting on our internal growth and the amazing interpersonal relationships which have since sprouted.

To know in my heart this is who my artistic first wife saw when she drew a picture of who she knew I would be in my mature years. No one including myself believed I could be such a wise intuitive soul, but she did.

Much of the world still doesn't know. It's been a battle extraordinaire fighting for my life at the first full time job since transitioning in 2007. Yes five years.

I am winning. I am being grudgingly granted respect by the last of the management holdouts, not because of any revelation on their part, but because I am a person of extraordinaire worth to the company.

A hybrid of sorts. Physically enabled like a athletic man, yet with accessibility of a woman and with the compassion and understanding of a mother. A hybrid gender.

So in a nutshell, I am happy even ecstatic. Then what was holding me back?

"social role dysphoria"

I can't blame all the hardships I have endured getting to this point on the APA, the people largely responsible for creating a social toxic atmosphere, but I will say if they stopped adding gas to the haters fire, the air would start to clear.

Kelly Winters who authors GID Reform doesn't advocate for a total reform arguing that retention would continue to aid many who's insurance covers transitional needs. In all my life I have yet to shake one of those peoples hands, but hey, I know you are out there. But what about the vast majority of us?

Kelly Winters offers these brilliant observations:

"Transitioned individuals who are highly functional and happy with their lives are forever diagnosable as mentally disordered under flawed criteria that reference characteracterics and assigned roles of natal sex rather than current status. For example, a post-transition adult who is happy in her or his affirmed role, wants to be treated like others of her/his affirmed gender, has typical feelings of those in her/his affirmed gender, and is distressed or unemployed because of external societal prejudice will forever meet criteria A (subcriteria 4, 5 and 6) and B and remain subject to false-positive diagnosis, regardless of how successfully her or his distress of gender dysphoria has been relieved."

Then she goes on to address the rigid gender stereotyping at the crux of the issue:

The criteria for children are slightly improved over the DSM-IV-TR, in that they can no longer be diagnosed on the basis of gender role nonconformity alone. However, the proposed criteria are unreasonably reliant on gender stereotype nonconformity. Five of eight proposed subcriteria for children are strictly based on gender role nonconformity, with no relevance to the definition of mental disorder. Behaviors and emotions considered ordinary or even exemplary for other (cisgender) children are mis-characterized as pathological for gender variant youth. This sends a harmful message that equates gender variance with sickness. As a consequence, children will continue to be punished, shamed and harmed for nonconformity to assigned birth roles.

So essentially the APA has recognized they are killing us and are seeing if they can get away with using a kinder more gentle machine gun hand.

Stop killing us! Please sign the petition demanding the APA remove Trans From The DSM-5, Yours is the voice they can't deny. Yours is the kick in the pants that's bringing the undeniable truth out of the shadows.

The APA has lone profited from our deaths. No More Machine Gun Hand.

DSM UPDATE: APA To Sugarcoat Pathologization of Transgender In DSM-5

Sick is Sick.

The APA has decided to keep transgender in the DSM-5. While acknowledging the controversy they continue to ignore the resulting detrimental affects it has on transgender people. You can use whatever words you like to pathologize transgender and transsexuals, but calling our naturally occurring socially beneficial gender diversity a mental illness is, well, sick.

Pandering to the undecided and those who have insurance and in a attempt to avoid becoming completely irrelevant in regards to gender diversity, they will use "dysphoria" instead of "disorder" but in the end it means the same thing. You are mentally ill or just plain "SICK".

Some highlights of the proposed changes as noted by Med page today:

Whats changed:

Gender identity disorder. Individuals who believe their biological gender doesn't match their gender identification will no longer be labeled with a disorder. Instead, if they seek psychiatric treatment, they can be labeled with "gender dysphoria."

The workgroup responsible for dealing with the hot-button issue considered a variety of other approaches, addressed later in this article. Ultimately they settled on a formal diagnosis -- potentially qualifying a patient for insurance-paid treatment if they want it -- but with a less pejorative name than "disorder."


What the APA refused to change:

Transgenderism as a V code. In seeking to destigmatize what was called gender identity disorder in DSM-IV, one proposal was to list it -- with or without a new name -- as a so-called V code. In DSM-IV, this was a chart code used to flag items of clinical interest that were not diagnosable or treatable conditions in their own right -- such as problems at school or noncompliance with treatment.

It was rejected, as were suggestions that the condition be dropped from DSM-5 altogether.

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Transition is much like childbirth. As we transition our true expressions emerge and this can be a wonderful experience or it can be so traumatic it kills the mother.

Why is the APA contributing to our distress? Many believe as I do the APA's main interest is job security and being a enabler for pharmaceutical profiteering.

DSM5.org proposed changes

5000 member Facebook event "petition the APA Remove Transgender from The DSM"