How to Stop Your Diagnosis From Defining You |
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the strange relationship we have with mental health diagnoses. We reach for them when we’re trying to make sense of ourselves, and often find relief from giving a name to our experience. But too easily, these labels and definitions can become identities.
A clear diagnosis can be life-changing. An accurate diagnosis can be life-saving. But I think acceptance of these labels and their positive aspects should live alongside healthy skepticism of the diagnostic system itself. Considering diagnoses within the sociocultural context in which they’re derived can help us avoid turning these tools into weapons against ourselves.
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM)—that thick clinical text that gives us our official mental health labels—is as politically influenced as it is clinical. Consider that