4 Comments

I agree. Diagnosis is just to have a language to communicate amongst professionals and be able to bill insurance. In terms of therapeutic value, they have none and they can also harm. I am glad you found a therapist not focused on them. Great writing!

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yea when I finally got my bp1 dx it was very helpful bc I didn't recognize what mania was lol. but I think what made treatment most helpful was that my therapist did not subscribe to the "permanently wrong brain chem" stance and was the first person that talked to me about mental illness as a normal part of life triggered by/related to individual and collective factors. like she would straight up say "work fucking sucks and it's reasonable to be depressed by your job, how can we build a plan to make things bearable." I don't think diagnoses are bad in and of themselves, they aren't what cause these systems of "care" to be messed up. coping skills and guidance from a practitioner that believes in nuance is key.

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Mar 13, 2022·edited Mar 13, 2022

I’m curious why you stated that your diagnosis of BPD was your “most loathed”. It feels insulting cause why? Why didn’t you feel the need (or even moreso responsibility) to expand on that? As someone with BPD I despise having the condition too, but for you to list all your other diagnoses and signal out BPD as loathsome makes me feel idk weird cause again why? Getting my diagnosis was amy first step of healing but I can recognize that it’ll be more paralyzing for some than I. Anyway, looking forward to your response!

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Appreciate your perspective and approach here. Diagnoses become one more thing to balance with reality. What’s me and what’s capitalism.

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