Does a diagnosis really help?

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It is true that a problem with some of the fluffy aspects of counsellors is that they often try to be nice people and often forget that not everybody is. Also the role of duty of care and various social contracts are such that people have a huge range of legitimate responses that can be less than caring. Thats ok if they are not harmful. Most adults (even those with MI but not in psychosis) understand that. To pretend that the universe is kinder than it is can be delusional.

Yet I do like the idea of an "Amorous Universe" ... its just that the universe is all sorts of other things too. Mother Nature can be fiercely destructive as well as nourishing. Eg Typhoon Haiyan or Yolande.

Targetting of vulnerablility is prevalent in society. It is often sanctioned in our various medias. Which is why the moderation of this site ... which encourages revealing one's vulnerabilities needs to be moderated and needs anonymity.

When I did my counselling course ... the lecture directed a learning to me ... using large arm gesticulations ... that any showing of vulnerability has enormous attraction potential ... my interpretation is that only some things attracted will be beneficial.

So my short answer to thread topic ... it depends on the individual, including person with lived experience or any health practitioner. I completely respect decisions to either engage with services or do it alone.

Diagnosis is ok as long as it serves the individual and doesn't take on a life of its own.

Personally,i dont put much weight in,nor like,Psychiatric diagnosises and believe diagnosises are only useful to guide which treatment/s could be effective.

The reason I dont like diagnosises as there is a tendency for them to become labels.

Many medical practitioners take that diagnosis/label to be the patients identity,and make opinions and presumptions regarding them based on the label they have.It becomes a form of stigma and discrimination.

In addition,there is tendency for some patients too to see their label as their identity.

Ie:when some people make statements such as "I am bipolar"...

In actuality,Psych diagnosis,as we know it (DSM labels), while some may find useful,are actually based on a fallacy/flawed model, arn't evidence based and are outdated.

Evidence based research studies have shown that not only are there not genetically clear cut distinctions between Austism,Schizophrenia and Bipolar for example,but also that there is not even only one "Schizophrenia' illness as we now know it but likely at least 8 'Schizophrenia" disorders.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/276081.php

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/832018

BTW @DefiantPanda regardless whether diagnosis or not,your not bad or bad person either way

Content/trigger warning

Hi @Former-Member, and everyone in this discussion.

*trigger warning - mention CSA*

This is so timely, I was reminded last week when I was at my GP (wonderful person over a decade I have been seeing her) as we filled in the TPD medical attendants statement for my insurance claim, that - she had actually been suggesting for near on ten years that I would benefit from a psychiatric assessment and diagnosis. I kept sidestepping that and pushing back with a very firm no.

I have been VERY self protective and fearful of getting a 'label' slapped on me by someone else, and as roller-coastery as it was to finally go and be assessed (by a diagnostic psychiatrist, not a treating psychiatrist) it has actually helped in the long run, because it explains SO much to me. Yet, on a different day I may well have been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder. (I get the spectrum thing someone else mentions - the similarities of Autism, BiPolar, Schizoid) I certainly protected some of the 'worst' of my MI symptoms when I presented to the Psyche and I wonder now if I should have. I did not tell her about the SH for instance.

I too am an adult survivor of childhood sexual and emotional abuse in my adopted family. I spent many years in my 20's and 30's trying to sort that out through counselling. Counselling on this part of my lived experience ALWAYS chucked me into hypomania - I would become this super-woman of a survivor, playing it up to the counsellor (not deliberately) and becoming the most sensationally 'recovered' client. So that, I suspect in hindsight I could STOP the sessions (see how much better I am now!) and go on my weary way. It was exhausting.

So on one hand I am glad to have had a diagnoses, and this has provided an underpinning for some excellent medication (anti-psychotic) which i wish I had been on for ever because it has made SUCH a difference in my day to day life. I do not tolerate mood stabilisers they chuck me into deep depression, obsessive thought and SI. The diagnoses has also provided an underpinning for a disability claim on insurance (when coupled with my chronic sensitised pain syndrome and back injury), BUT even until a few weeks ago - I felt trapped, that somehow I AM this (conglomeration of various) MI & physical disability rather than just having it, or living with it.

In the journey though in the past few weeks, I have moved on from feeling trapped to just accepting that in a world that has to classify, judge, label, (the human condition) and pigeon hole everything - that while it has been useful in some ways - it must not 'define' ME. Just help to explain some of me.

THIS ME - who carved out from an awful life a great woman who is resilient, creative, awesome, kind, intelligent, humorous, inquisitive, and on good days amazingly perceptive and a big picture thinker (while holding all the small details necessary to come up with good solutions to problems) ... all the value of mySelf is there and shiny - and I MUST come back to her often. (ah, I have slipped into third person... I seem to do that when I am being nice about myself - somehow - "She" the good one, the nice one has to be mentioned as someOne else than this messy being who struggles. <laughing>/

Some days I cannot see her at all, stuck in the dark cupboard with the skeletons of life's past, with the labels plastered over the doors.

We are all much more than our MI and past experiences. I hope I never have to tell anyone ever again the details of the CSA - I really feel that while my life is affected by it - the switch-on in my genes and the resultant BiPolar, PTSD, the anxiety, the OCD, the low self-esteem, the fear and social difficulties, trust etc etc - I think I have done my hard yards of that part of my life, and I just try now to live with acceptance -not accepting that abuse "happens"per se - I struggled for so long with this acceptance thing, and recently I realised I could accept that the unacceptable happens, and that it happened to me.

I don't have an ongoing with a mainstream MH professional. I seek help from time to time get a few sessions under my belt, learn son new life-skills. The greatest help int he past couple of years was looking at my values and how I am solid in them, no matter what else is happening in my mind, life, I live out a core set of values that IS me. That was a relief because I didn't think there really WAS anything worthwhile in here until then despite evidence to the contrary.

Sorry this is long, this discussion triggered a really useful thought process for me, am I my diagnoses? - No
Has it helped? - Yes (and no)
Does it matter that I now have a whole new dynamo spool of labels? - Not really.

I just try to live the best I can, and when I fail and fall apart for a while, at least now I know it is not because I am a failure, it is because I have a biochemical, physiological illness, that has been really helpful knowledge.

I actually benefitted from reading that last post @MoonGal. Thanks

As someone who has had diagnosis or non-diagnosis figure hugely in my life ... I didnt find it too long a post.

Complex situations need complex discussions.

That is why I think it is important to value our lived experience

.... we are often devalued enough in society ... so sharing with respect helps us pool all the knowledge better ... both sides of the patient-doc interactions.

After all if we get chronic diagnoses or a life long illness we are fairly likely to take it all seriously enough to do a fair bit of research.

Hello @Former-Member, sorry about the late reply, but I keep yo-yoing between 'I'm not really mentall ill, the world is just awful and I am just reacting to it,' and 'oh yes I am, I must be'. The process usually takes a few months before it comes full circle again.

In response to what you wrote, visits to a mainstream MH practitioner tend to cause me a considerable amount of stress also. In fact, my GP sent me to a psychiatrist the other week who prescribed me a medication I stopped taking several years ago due to some very adverse reactions. I went back to him a couple of weeks later to tell him about the symptoms I experienced whilst taking the medication originally, the mouth twitching (which is now permanent, by the way), the overeating and weight gain, etc, and was met with considerable resistance from him... He let his personal bias interfere with the session, basically. He had kept me waiting half an hour over for my appointment the day before and so I had made another appointment for the next day and left. This had made him very angry at me and so during the session when I asked to go on another medication he was irritable towards me.He actually started arguing with me... I was completely overwhelmed by his dominant attitude and felt I couldn't be honest with him at all.

This convinced me once and for all that I do not want to be on that medication anymore and I do not trust this man or any other mental health professional! Maybe he was wrong about the diagnosis - after all, he spoke to me for maybe twenty minutes initially, asking me a series of predetermined questions and coming up with a diagnosis based on that. It just didn't seem right to me.

The point you make about child abuse is very valid. I don't even really believe my issues or mental illness or whatever you want to call it is genetic at all - I believe it is all caused a hundred percent by child abuse.

What I would really like at this point, more than anything else, is to be able to afford psychotherapy and talk all of my issues out with someone. It's a goal, I suppose, that I can continue to work towards in the future.

As for now I am taking omega 3 and lots of exercise and like you don't have many family supports but I do go to a few support groups here and there.