Betsy Guerra argues that psychiatric diagnoses are tools for professionals, not definitions of who you are. She shares a story about a friend quickly labeled with generalized anxiety disorder, urging people to acknowledge their symptoms without letting the label become their identity.
Chapters
I was at an event the other day, and my friend came to me and asked how I felt about her first experience with a psychologist. She went to this therapist, and she says that after 45 minutes, the therapist diagnosed her with generalized anxiety disorder. My original reaction in defense mode was, that's bs. You don't have that. And to my surprise, she looked at me like, what do you mean? Yes, this is real. I have a lot of anxiety. And I was so confused because she came to me wanting some sort of validation for me to tell her, you're not defective. There's nothing wrong with you. But then when I told her that, she was like, but there is. So I realized that we decide whether we want to own a diagnosis, a label, or not. A lot of people come to me and they tell me, do you deal with depression or do you deal with anxiety, adhd, bipolar disorder? And I always say, no, I'm sorry. I don't deal with depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder. And they stay on the other line, like, why would they recommend me to you? But it's because I work with human beings. I do not deal with a conglomeration of symptoms. I deal with the person. Diagnoses were created for professionals to communicate among themselves. Diagnoses were not created to label us, to define our lives. My mom, growing up, would always correct people when they would say that my sister was retarded or disabled. She would always say, she has severe mental retardation. She has a disability, but she is not her disability. We are not anxious, depressed, or defective. We are human beings. We're children of God, and we were created by perfection. So it's impossible to think that there's something wrong with us. You decide how you want information to affect your life. Use that information to become better, but don't use it to define yourself. We were created to fulfill an amazing purpose, and we are irresponsible. If you're using a label as a crutch, acknowledge what things are harder for you. Acknowledge if you have a hard time with feeling anxious or nervous, acknowledge it, welcome it, feel it, understand what that feels like. But decide not to let that label define your life. You can have symptoms and still live a very fulfilling life by not identifying yourself with that. You are so much more than that.
