“I wish I had just a touch of anorexia.” Sadly, working in the eating disorders field, we hear this all of the time. Why does a serious, life-threatening illness with one of the highest mortality rates of any psychiatric disorder inspire such cachet? We believe that its pseudo-prestige stems in part from the exclusivity of the diagnostic criteria listed in the Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), which healthcare professionals use to diagnose psychiatric illnesses….

Drug use occurs across a broad spectrum. At one end you’ll find the occasional pot smoker who is employed, has a family, and smokes once in a while just to “chill out”. At the other end is the person with the full-on heroin addiction whose sole mission in life is to avoid going into withdrawal. Many people’s drug use looks more like the occasional marijuana smoker’s. And indeed, apart from issues of legality, this drug use is often not really problematic. These people keep their jobs, don’t…