Doctoral Timeline Checklist: Fill & Download for Free

Yes. They should ask how long you've had symptoms of depression during a workup for this illness. There's a specific checklist of symptoms required to make the clinical diagnosis. Onset and timeline of symptoms is included on that list.

Quora’s algorithms have decided that I am apparently a good person to speak about Narcissistic personality disorder. It seems that I should play Quora's game and so here is some information which may be useful for people who want to know more about it.A simple introduction to psychiatryTo understand narcissistic disorder, one should know a few things about psychology and psychiatry. First, psychiatry and psychology are ultimately separated by the fact that the former now focuses on providing medication, and the latter more on personal contact with people.Psychiatry made a huge step forward in the last 65 years, where the first "antipsychotic" medicine was discovered. Until then it was more theoretical and not so practical and was not taken as seriously. Timeline of psychiatryThe fact that it is producing drugs is why it appears to be popular today, yet it is still rather short lived, and a basic remaining problem is that it is still not known how the brain or the mind works fully. The drugs are also still under development, the models are new, the findings are still developed, and most of all there is a big problem with its understanding and practice, including the methods of diagnosis, treatment and resolution.A development of psychiatry which propelled itself forward was to define illnesses as clearly as it could. Some notable and recent steps were- the definitions of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung on neurosis and psychosis- the development of the first Diagnostic Manual of Disorders- revisited versions of the latterPersonality disorders is a term which covers more wide profiles of behaviour that some people exhibit. These profiles overlapped from inception. Later it appeared that people exhibited both personality disorders at the same time, which is known as comorbidity. Drilling further into the issue, psychiatry has discovered that perhaps even this is not enough, as sometimes people exhibited mixed behaviours from different profiles, so it is currently trying to define more specific characteristics. Overall, psychiatry is still a very evolving -now- science.Narcissistic personality disorderNarcissistic disorder has been very widely misunderstood. One of the reasons is that the model for it was from an ancient Greek myth of a young man called Narcissus, who was looking at his reflection on the lake until he died there, and paintings inspired from popular artists such as Caravaggio and Salvador Dali and others. It is said that narcissists love themselves too much. But this is a misconception.The reality is that narcissists do not love anyone. They have a problem with the perception of their inner self, and cannot feel genuine love. So they neither really have a self, nor do they love. They treat themselves and others as objects, not full people who communicate efficiently with others.Since narcissists cannot self-reflect, they perceive the world by looking at the reactions of other people, and acting according to those. They only see the impressions of things as per how other people react to them, and believe that this is what it is like to have a personality.The difference with non-narcissists is that while fancy or shocking things can catch anyone's attention, they are not the only means by which people communicate, but rather the outside facet to present another message and initiate other actions and further connection. The narcissists do not realize that.An example of narcissism in social lifeAn example of how I would describe narcissism comes from a story I know from personal experience. In Europe in the 60s after the 2nd World war, poor people wanted to avoid showing to others that they were so. They would put water to boil so that the steam would come of the chimney, and so when others would pass by, they would think that the people inside were cooking and thus were rich. This is what a narcissist is like: they seem rich from the outside, but nothing is cooking on the inside.A few cases of narcissistsCovert and the overt in terms of how their behaviour is expressed, also called negative and positive. The former are the ones who were perhaps abused and deprived of basic means at a very young age, and the latter the ones who were over spoiled with goods while ignored at the same time.People who move up in hierarchies such as in business, politics, the military or the police, and eventually have to stop making emotional judgments start demonstrating a narcissistic behaviour, and some have been from the start.People who suddenly become very rich and popular seem to often also demonstrate narcissistic behaviour due to the new environments which they enter.Narcissists may have developed so via brain damage, damage to the nerves, or a permanent form of adaptation to the environment, and the reason isn't always clear.Also there are more characteristics which usually come with it. For example, typically narcissists may not be able to tell between worst, bad, less bad, ok, slightly good, better, even better, best etc. There is only worst and perfect, and they only choose the former. Everything is perfect for them.Some characteristics of narcissists- constantly blaming others- showing no sense of responsibility for their actions and the effect on others- never admitting they are wrong- believing they are superior to others in every aspect and should only be associated with other superiors- lack of planning and organization- lack genuine personal taste- lack of perception of humor, various types of moods, and sharing of personal mattersamong othersNarcissistic personality disorder isn't known to be treatable today. Narcissists also do not think they do anything wrong, and do not go to the doctor. They wreck havoc in families because they go undetected. They damage their own children who need to connect emotionally to someone during the development stage. Moreover, they think their children are extensions of them as they cannot see them as separate people since they lack that inner self which perceives others. They are possessively controlling, or otherwise disinterested and revengful.Psychopathy and Narcissistic personality disorderPsychopathy and NPD are related. Before the latest studies, psychopathy had been considered an extreme form of narcissism. However, is now studied as a wider disorder, where its main characteristic is the lack of a conscience for one's actions.Psychopathy was last redefined by Dr Robert Hare, whose work, the PCL-R checklist is considered the Golden standard for diagnosing psychopathy. This list is available herePsychopathy ChecklistRobert Hare's Page for the Study of Psychopaths, "Sociopaths", Violent Offenders, Serial Killers...Tha characteristics of Narcissistic personality disorder are still one of its 4 main Factors. Therefore, narcissists can sometimes also be psychopaths.My viewsI do not agree with psychiatry's views. While research offers insights, a lot of the findings are still incomplete. They have focused a lot on treating the victims of personalities such as narcissists and psychopaths who themselves do not go to the doctor. Applied psychiatry is a circus of mistakes, based on lack of understanding, knowledge, misdiagnosis, problematic methods of assessment, overprescription of medication, and overcomplicating situations.At the present stage, psychiatrists are still trying to label everyone ill with some disorder whereas no one appears to be healthy or good, and anyone involved with it as a non-doctor is, in short, seen as problematic. It spends too much time labelling people as ill than doing anything useful.Psychiatry also appears to not have yet discovered the dynamics of communication between people and study the issue in this context rather then in isolation. It tries to fix symptoms and in an isolated manner more than dully resolve issues, many of which are plain obvious. It often turns the whole lives of people into permanent chaos and when it is not their fault, and typically misses the real problem and the root causes. There is also no model of a "healthy" person.The lack of the ability to perceive others, to perceive the meaning of happenings, the sole focus on impressions, and the antagonistic nature of narcissists makes someone for me a very one-dimensional, aggressive person, or, more specifically a misanthrope.Material and links- The behaviour of a narcissistic parent is demontrated in the 1981 (yes, it was known from a long time before) film "Mommy dearest" with Faye Dunaway.Mommie Dearest (1981)- A website with a lot of information about narcissistic personality disorder, psychopathy and sociopathy, and heavier forms of them which include unexpected cruelty and violence is Lovefraud.com -- sociopaths, psychopaths, antisocials, con artists, bigamists- A website which is generally recommended for some reading and which has a forum where people speak about their experiences with narcissists and other disorders is Out of the FOG - Personality Disorder Support. Notably, FOG stands for Fear, Obligation and Guilt, which is what the people with emotion who spend time with narcissists develop, and which lead them to further damage to themselves.- A non-scientific book which however explains Narcissistic Personality Disorder well in simple terms and personal interaction with others is "What makes narcissists tick" by Kathleen Krajcohttp://www.escapeabuse.com/npd.pdf- An example of a narcissist, who is in fact a psychopath too, is Sam Vaknin. There are videos of him on YouTube where he speaks about narcissstic disorder, and notably the video "I, psychopath" and his behaviour can be seen in more detail.

Don’t bother.It is highly improbable that you feel depressed because you think life is bad. In fact, it may even be that you think life is bad because you feel depressed. Whatever the case, thinking “life is great!” will not usually lift a significant depression. Something more specific and more sweeping is probably called for.Check with doctors to make sure nothing is physically wrong, insofar as they can evaluate and test for such things. Lots of health conditions or sub-ideal states of health can result in depression or other neuropsychiatric symptoms (such as anxiety, mania, psychosis, etc). These issues can often be cured, or at least treated successfully, especially with an accurate diagnosis and savvy professional consultant (whether they’re a doctor or some other form of health expert).Make an inventory of your psychoemotional functioning—what do you think is working alright and what do you think might need adjustment to work better? What elements do you feel might be contributing to your current depression, and how have they come to do such a thing? Talking with a friend, mentor, or professional therapist may be a useful exercise. When in doubt, try it out. Everything from checklists and timelines to making art, watching movies, or vigorously exercising can be an avenue to understanding your situation more productively or completely.Consider ways of improving your lifestyle, personal philosophies, and self-perspective. Healthier living, a more supportive attitude, and constructive, empowering self-affirmation can all make a significant difference, regardless of the ultimate cause of your depression. These are good steps regardless of your present psychoemotional state, and sometimes we can experience unforeseeable benefits when deciding to treat ourselves better as a general goal rather than an emergency measure.Accept that maybe life is total shit. Even if life was merely the festering buttcrust plaguing an uncaring goddesses’ unwashed asshole, that does not dictate that you must react or feel a certain way. Surely, we have culturally preprogrammed responses to ideas like that, but how you feel and what you value and where you direct your personal talents, interests, and capacities are not determined by external forces or concepts. You can decide what to do with (and how to see) the experiences you have, and what sort of experiences and perspectives to seek in the future.So, by all means, do seek a worldview that makes you feel to thrive, but don’t confuse how you feel about life with how you feel about yourself.