Growing Beyond Labels: We are Not Simply a Disorder

Reliably, about once a month, I come across someone who believes that a person who’s been diagnosed with X, Y, or Z mental disorder has, in effect, a life-crippling disability. Somehow they got a hold of the diagnostic manual of mental disorders or read some symptoms or an article or two online, and suddenly they feel like they know everything about a condition. If a person has a disorder like depression, they believe that they know everything they need to know about that person. When I was seeing patients back in graduate school, I sometimes looked at some of them that way too. But in the intervening 20+ years, I’ve learned a lot. And one of the biggest lessons I learned is this — a person is not defined by their disorder or diagnostic label. Human beings are complicated and wonderfully complex organisms. So complicated, in fact, that our basic understanding of the brain’s functions is still at its earliest stages. We think we might know a person once we hear a label. “Oh, she’s an accountant.” “He went to Harvard.” “Yeah, I know, she has schizophrenia.” As though that label neatly sums up everything there is to know about that individual. But labels are simply our brain’s way of taking a cognitive shortcut. It helps us process important information, back from the days of fight-or-flight imprinting. Our brain needs to understand — is this new person or situation a risk, and if so, do we need to fi...
Source: World of Psychology - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: General Policy and Advocacy Psychiatry Psychology destigmatization identity Label Mental Health Stereotypes Source Type: blogs