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So this is a tad personal, but I finally got the closest to a professional diagnosis regarding mental health I& #39;ll most likely get after years of running around for one, as it can regularly be incapacitating to an extent. #mentalhealth
The reason I didn& #39;t get one before was mostly evoked as "we don& #39;t want you to pin your entire identity to your diagnosis". While I see where this comes from and how it could hypothetically prevent progress and healing, from my experience this is a complete horse shit reason.
I& #39;m not sure how/when this belief of "mental health as identity being a threat" has reached actual psychologists, but I can& #39;t believe the risk of over-identifying took over the complications of being undiagnosed and acting weird in a society that expects you to be reliable.
I feel much more supported since I got a sense of mine; externally, by a word that doesn& #39;t come from me and therefore cannot be extrapolated as fabricated. But also internally. It& #39;s impossibly easy to doubt your legitimacy at not acting "right", and this aggravates the problem.
Not really sure where I& #39;m going with this thread, if not to give a counterpoint to that fear of "becoming your diagnosis" that have prevented me from getting one for years. I also do not feel strong attachement to it, nor in the thought of it being "part of my identity."
At the end of the day, imho, it& #39;s just a very useful tool in managing the complexities of mental illness in real concrete life, where you are expected to hold a job and have interactions with other humans. Just like meds, or anything else.
