Elizabeth Carrio reads from her book about how psychiatric diagnosis can miss what's actually happening. Girl, Interrupted, sensitive children, grieving women, traumatized veterans: cases where pain was called illness instead of the soul trying to speak. Not every crisis is spiritual, but many are, and the episode ends with questions to journal about what your own mislabeled pain might be trying to say.
Chapters
Welcome to Awakening the Spiritual Mind. My name is Elizabeth Carrio and I am your host. In this series, I share extracts from my book, reflections and practices to help you awaken to what truly matters. This is episode 5, based on chapter 3 of my book, What If You Are Not Broken? In this episode, we will look at how misunderstanding often becomes misdiagnosis, and what seems like illness may sometimes be a signal of transformation. We'll explore why meaning is as vital as oxygen for the human soul. So now, listen to a passage from my book.
Chapter 3: What if you are not broken? When misunderstanding becomes misdiagnosis. In the film Girl, Interrupted, based on real events, a gifted young woman is institutionalized and eventually lobotomized. Her crime? Nonconformity. Her emotional depth and intellectual sensitivity were reclassified as symptoms. This is not just cinematic drama. It is part of psychiatry's real and painful history. Throughout the 20th century, children with strong imaginations or high sensitivity were diagnosed with behavioural disorders. Women experiencing grief were labelled hysterical. Veterans with trauma were dismissed as weak. And to this day, diagnostic categories like those in the DSM continue to evolve, not only with science but with social norms. The cost of these misdiagnoses is not just academic, it is personal. One wrong label can shape an identity, dictate treatment, and define a life. In an effort to contain chaos, the system sometimes contains people. cutting them off from the very truth trying to emerge within them. But what if the symptom is not the problem? What if it is a signal, a clue, a sacred knock from the soul asking to be heard? Psychiatry seeks to reduce symptoms. When the medical model fails to recognize the spiritual dimension of human experience, People in crisis are at risk. They may be misdiagnosed, their transformation mistaken for illness. They may be medicated when they need to be mentored, and too often they are left vulnerable, searching for meaning in places that promise healing but deliver control. It is important to be honest here. Not every spiritual crisis is a spiritual emergency. Some are rooted in trauma, biochemical imbalance, or past psychological wounding. Some require medication, stabilization, and clinical support. This does not mean we should abandon psychiatry or reject clinical care. It means we need a larger lens, one that can hold mystery as well as method, symbol as well as science, a system that sees beyond pathology and makes room for the sacred. The soul speaks a language that conventional psychiatry does not yet understand, but you can learn to translate it. Part of you, your essence, is not waiting to be fixed. It is waiting to be trusted.
What we just heard is not only a story, it's also a mirror of what still happens today. Many people with deep sensitivity, vivid imagination, or powerful questions have been mislabeled. Their intensity is treated as a symptom, their grief as weakness, their search for truth as instability. A wrong diagnosis can shape an identity, dictate treatment, and even define a life. But what if the symptom is not the problem, but the beginning of a passage? Viktor Frankl, who survived the camps during the last World War, reminded us that the will to meaning is the deepest human drive. Gabo Maté, Todd Cashdan reminds us that well-being is not about comfort, but about moving toward what matters. Together, these voices tell us we are not When we are broken, we are searching. And when psychiatry or psychology forgets the soul, we risk silencing the very signal that is trying to guide us forward. So the question shifts. Not, how do we suppress the ache? But, what is my pain trying to say? This reframing gives dignity to the struggle. It makes room for transformation, even in the middle of confusion. Now I propose you to pause together for a moment. Close your eyes if you can. Recall a time when you felt misunderstood, when someone labeled you or dismissed your experience. Breathe slowly. Place one hand on your chest and the other hand on your belly. Now ask yourself gently, what part of me was speaking then that others could not hear? Stay with the question without rushing to answer. Then, after this, open your awakening journal or your notebook. Takes a few minutes to explore these three questions. First question: What pain in my life has been mislabeled or misunderstood? Second question: If my pain was If this dream was a messenger, what might it be trying to tell me? Third question, what gives me the strength to hold on, even in moments of dissolution? So pause this episode if you like to have more time to write. Let your reflections flow freely. Thank you for listening to Awakening the Spiritual Mind. If this episode inspired you, share it with someone who, who may need it, and don't forget to subscribe.
