Am I Unique or Abnormal?

Everyone has their unique behaviors, these are part of our identity and it’s what makes us ‘ME’.  With all the behavioral differences occurring in our culture today:  smoking, gambling, chatting in the internet, working 10 hours a day, we beg the question: when will our uniqueness become an abnormality?  Should we simply respect the person for who he or she is or do we suggest they seek professional help for it?

We have 3 basic guidelines to tell whether someone you know needs to seek professional help or not.  These criteria may have serious effects on the person and their family that we only need 1 criterion to be satisfied in order to suspect the presence of a clinical disorder.

The behavior is costing one’s physical health.

If the person’s behavior is causing the person to lose sleep and lose weight at alarming levels, then it is time to get over the denial stage and start looking for professional help.  Most forms of deliberate self harm such as purging or cutting are obviously dangerous to the person and should be addressed immediately.

The behavior is costing one’s job or one’s finances.

On the practical side, a good measure whether a behavior is unhealthy or not is on how it affects one’s occupation.  If the person is receiving warnings from their companies (from poorer work performance) or even warnings from the law (i.e. sexual harassment), then it should also be an indicator for the person to seek help.

The behavior is costing one’s relationships one’s family.

Once your behavior drives your friends to avoid you, cause your children to fear you, or make your spouse threaten you with divorce, then it is once again time to have an objective self-evaluation and consider professional help.