Reasons That It Is So Difficult To Diagnose Emotional or Behavioral Disorders

Reasons That It Is So Difficult To Diagnose Emotional or Behavioral Disorders

Diagnosing individuals with emotional/behavioral disorders (EBD) may prove difficult because the individuals may have other existing problems/disabilities. From the complexity of the definition of emotional disorder, it is still difficult to distinguish between normal and abnormal emotions/behaviors. This paper discusses three reasons why diagnosing individuals with emotional/behavioral disorders is difficult.

The first reason it is difficult to diagnose EBDs is that many of them occur concurrently with other disabilities and problems. Landrum (2011) writes that most characteristics and types of behavioral disorders co-occur with other dimensions of disabilities. For instance, a student with a behavioral disorder may be diagnosed with anxiety or depression when they have a learning disability. Yell et al. (2013) add that the same student with previous behavior problems categorized as internalizing may be found to have outbursts categorized as externalizing. Besides, a student diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder may also exhibit some of the characteristics of emotional/behavioral disorders.

Another reason why diagnosing EBD is difficult is based on its mere definition. According to Landrum (2011), defining behavioral or emotional disorders is difficult; therefore, diagnosing them follows suit. The main challenge in defining behavioral disorders lies in what is considered normal and what is not. The first terminology used to refer to students with emotional disorders was serious emotional disturbances, but the word ‘serious’ was dropped in the amendment of that definition (Yell et al., 2013). Federal law later defined emotional disturbance as a condition where there is an inability to learn, overall pervasive unhappy moods, depression, and an inability to maintain or build interpersonal relationships with teachers and peers over a long time (Yell et al., 2013). Some scholars have found some of these definitions ambiguous, stigmatizing, misinterpreted, and without common understanding. This may make professionals in the field hesitant to diagnose individuals exhibiting these characteristics.

Lastly, with the rate of medicalization, it isn’t easy to distinguish between what is normal human experience and what is not. The boundary between abnormal and normal is blurry regarding diagnosis (Chadda & Gupta, 2012). For instance, sadness has been viewed as a normal human emotion, especially when something undesirable happens. Conversely, individuals with EBD may exhibit feelings of sadness due to various reasons, such as loss or pain. Besides, some pains can be prolonged, like the pain experienced after a horrible accident. This is why professionals must rely on two classification systems to distinguish behavior patterns. These include psychiatric classification and dimensional classification.

In summary, professionals find it difficult to diagnose emotional/behavioral disorders because they may exist concurrently with other disabilities or problems and because the definition of the disorders is difficult. Besides, there are still contentions on what is considered normal or abnormal emotion.

References

Chadda, R. K., Gupta, S. K., Gulati, K., Thakur, T., Rai, N., & Sharma, K. K. (2012). Medicalization of Nervous and Emotional Problems 19. Ann Natl Acad Med Sci (India), 48(1&2).

Landrum, T. J. (2011). Emotional and Behavioral Disorders. In Handbook of special education (pp. 217-228). New York: Routledge.

Yell, M. L., Meadows, N. B., Drasgow, E., & Shriner, J. G. (2013). Evidence-Based Practices for Educating Students with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders. Boston, MA: Pearson.

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Diagnosing Emotional or Behavioral Disorders

List and explain three reasons that it is so difficult to diagnose emotional/behavioral disorders.