I Was Labeled Bipolar, Depressed, O.C.D. Here’s Why.

Ms. Szalavitz is a contributing Opinion writer who covers addiction, mental health and public policy.

Many people who have experienced significant mental illness collect diagnoses over time, like stamps on a passport. I have had at least six. As a toddler, I was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or A.D.H.D., because even though I was reading at 3, I was overwhelmed by noises, lights and preschool. In my 20s, the diagnosis was cocaine and heroin use disorder, which landed me in rehab. There, in a five-minute psychiatrist visit, I was labeled bipolar. Later, I picked up labels of depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

After reading a 2004........

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