Top 5 hardest disorders to live with

BrokenGirl wrote:What, in your opinion, are the 5 toughest disorders to live with? I'm basing it on how much it affects the sufferer in day to day life and how much distress it causes. Mine (in ascending order) would be:
5: Major Depressive Disorder
4: Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
3: Dissociative Identity Disorder
2: Borderline Personality Disorder
1: Paranoid Schizophrenia

I'd remove OCD and replace it with Bipolar Disorder

I think mood disorders and personality disorders differ. Mood disorders have a researched,
prescribed medicine. Personality disorders don't have any tried and true medicine.


I have Bipolar 1 and it is bearable. I can not speak for other's.

The fact that there are degrees of severity for any given disorder makes ranking meaningless. Obviously the most severe form of any given disorder is going to be much worse than a mild or typical case of another. I'd say severe major depression or psychotic depression is probably the worst to experience in terms of shear misery, mainly because depression is misery by it's very definition. Severely depressed people may be less likely to harm or kill themselves, but only because they lack the energy to act, not because they aren't experiencing incredible mental torment. However, most of the other disorders, if they are severe enough, will induce depression anyways. Hell, disease and physical illness will often induce severe depression. The frequent occurrence of co-morbid depression on the severe end of the scale for any disorder makes ranking even more complicated.

frostfern wrote:The fact that there are degrees of severity for any given disorder makes ranking meaningless. Obviously the most severe form of any given disorder is going to be much worse than a mild or typical case of another. I'd say severe major depression or psychotic depression is probably the worst to experience in terms of shear misery, mainly because depression is misery by it's very definition. Severely depressed people may be less likely to harm or kill themselves, but only because they lack the energy to act, not because they aren't experiencing incredible mental torment. However, most of the other disorders, if they are severe enough, will induce depression anyways. Hell, disease and physical illness will often induce severe depression. The frequent occurrence of co-morbid depression on the severe end of the scale for any disorder makes ranking even more complicated.

While this is true, I'd say that people who experience severe emotional shifts, or those who suffer from paranoia (specifically, paranoid schizophrenia) have it just as bad. The life of a paranoid schizophrenic is one of fear. Is misery worse than fear?

cobra cat wrote:

frostfern wrote:The fact that there are degrees of severity for any given disorder makes ranking meaningless. Obviously the most severe form of any given disorder is going to be much worse than a mild or typical case of another. I'd say severe major depression or psychotic depression is probably the worst to experience in terms of shear misery, mainly because depression is misery by it's very definition. Severely depressed people may be less likely to harm or kill themselves, but only because they lack the energy to act, not because they aren't experiencing incredible mental torment. However, most of the other disorders, if they are severe enough, will induce depression anyways. Hell, disease and physical illness will often induce severe depression. The frequent occurrence of co-morbid depression on the severe end of the scale for any disorder makes ranking even more complicated.

While this is true, I'd say that people who experience severe emotional shifts, or those who suffer from paranoia (specifically, paranoid schizophrenia) have it just as bad. The life of a paranoid schizophrenic is one of fear. Is misery worse than fear?

I think if depression gets intense enough all the negative emotions (fear, emptiness, sadness, anger) just merge into a single muddled mass of deep dark nastiness where you would surely hurl yourself off the nearest 6th story balcony if only you had the mental energy to do so. Dysphoria is the technical term for it. But, yea, I'd say constant intense fear would be pretty bad, and in most cases would lead to anhedonia and depression on the side. Fear is it's own form of misery.

Mixed states of bipolar are also hard. When depressed and suicidal, you don't have the energy to kill yourself. When manic and suicidal, you do.

BrokenGirl wrote:What, in your opinion, are the 5 toughest disorders to live with? I'm basing it on how much it affects the sufferer in day to day life and how much distress it causes. Mine (in ascending order) would be:
5: Major Depressive Disorder
4: Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
3: Dissociative Identity Disorder
2: Borderline Personality Disorder
1: Paranoid Schizophrenia

While I do have one of the ones on your list (Borderline PD), among others, the one I think is hardest to live with is this:

1. The one that you have.

As a Borderline, I can't say that I have the foggiest clue what someone with Paranoid Schizophrenia goes through on a daily basis. I can read about it, but unless I'm living it, I can't fairly say. On the other hand, a Paranoid Schizophrenic would probably be shocked to find out how often I pray for death. Unfortunately, each of our little titles comes with its own set of macabre conditions, and we don't get the option of returning them for a refund.

Any attempt to look at which disorders are most difficult to live with is pure conjecture. Every person's list will be entirely different.

I will say that the hardest to live with would be the untreated disorder. I feel like there is enough empirical research to support such a generalized and biased claim. Of course this is still a subjective, over-generalized claim and won't be true in every circumstance.

Is it bad that I have all of these except for DID -_-

Honestly... in terms of how limiting it is on one's life, this would probably be the order

5. Bipolar I/Schizoaffective
4. Eating Disorders (These cause a lot of deaths)
3. Schizophrenia
2. Lower Functioning Pervasive Developmental Disorders, e.g. Childhood Disintegrative Disorder
1. Dementia/Cognitive Disorders