Experts Recommend Classifying Bitterness As A Mental Disorder

June 1, 2009 2:43 p.m. EST

Arlington, VA (AHN) - Mental health experts are recommending the reclassification of prolonged bitterness as a mental disorder. They are proposing the inclusion of post traumatic embitterment disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders for the fifth edition due for publication in 2012.

The mental ailment is described is a pathological reaction to one negative life event like conflict at work, being laid off, divorce, ailment or separation in which the victim views the event as unjust and a violation of his basic belief and values.

Dr. Michael Linden, the German psychiatrist who named the behavior, explained to CanWest News Service, "People feel wronged, humiliated and that some injustice has been done to them... The critical part is this lasting and very intensive emotional embitterment, a mixture of depression and helplessness and hopelessness.... It's a very nasty emotion."

Linden observed a surge of affected people during the German reunification. While it affects one to two percent of the population, more incidents are recorded during times of societal changes, including economic turmoil.

Aside from prolonged bitterness, other mental disorders being discussed by working groups made up of over 120 scientific researchers and clinicians who are preparing diagnostic criteria for mood, anxiety and personality disorders and psychoses are Internet addiction disorder and partner relational problem.

The manual keeps on growing as more disorders are added. When it was first printed in 1952 it has 112 disorders which had grown to 374 covering 886 pages.

The American Psychiatric Association and the National Institute of Mental Health are in the process of revising the manual. The final, approved DSM-V is expected to be out in May 2012.