Real Caring Integrative Therapy
.
  • Welcome
  • Philosophy
  • Providers
  • Services
    • Counseling
    • EMDR
    • Expressive Arts Therapy
    • Massage and Bodywork
    • Online Counseling
    • Personality
  • Resources
    • Crisis Services
    • Encouraging Facebook Posts!
    • Organizations
    • Book Recommendations
    • Apps

Client Perspective:  The Gravity of Diagnosis

4/30/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture

My sister’s best friend Jean is standing in our kitchen, her face strained, her movements quick and agitated. “It just gets so frustrating,” she blurts.   “I just want someone to acknowledge...”   Unable to finish her thought, she brings her hand sharply down on her knee, a nervous tic that I’ve witnessed from her countless times.

Jean’s plight is one familiar to me: she is suffering from any number of mental imbalances, anxieties, mania, and depression, and what she wants is a diagnosis.   Unfortunately for her, her father­­'s primary care physician­­ is not supportive of this desire for clarity.   His reason is fear based; he doesn’t want his daughter put in a box or labeled.


In the wake of such recent incidents as the frenzied over­diagnosis of ADHD (also referred to as “The ADHD Explosion”), I can understand some caution.   Diagnosis of mental disorder is a delicate and tricky business, and one symptom could apply to a myriad categories.   Diagnosis can come to define a person in a way that quashes outward perception of personality and self­ conduct.
In the world of what diagnosis can mean from the perception of one’s family, I know that I am very lucky. 
In 2011, I received the diagnosis of Bipolar 1.   While I have experienced some stigma and misunderstanding, results of this diagnostic label have been largely positive.   As Jean stated, at the most basic of levels, my hope was for acknowledgment.   Having been misdiagnosed with Major Depression, I knew that there was something more layered and nuanced to my own set of issues.   I was suffering hallucinations, blackouts, mania, and extreme aggression that was contrary to my typically docile and sweet disposition.   I arrived at a breaking point, and I desperately needed help.   With the encouragement of my sister, I sought out my father’s aid in finding a psychiatrist who would work with me on getting a diagnosis that made sense to me.   Through some steps of trial and error, I found such a person, and through his label, lucidity.

Immediately, my family sprang to affirmative action, my father mapping out a path for me and printing out literature on Bipolar Disorder for my siblings to read, my siblings in turn asking intelligent and sympathetic questions.   In the world of what diagnosis can mean from the perception of one’s family, I know that I am very lucky.  They were on board, in it for the long haul.

Another gift of this diagnosis was in treatment, which became easier to pinpoint and more focused.   At last, I had the validation I so desperately required.   The road of mental illness is a long and craggy one, but it is my personal experience that diagnosis can at least shine some light on it.

- ECH

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016


    Categories

    All
    Ally Sanchez
    Amanda Butler
    App Review
    Art Therapy
    Bipolar Disorder
    Borderline Personality Disorder
    Chronic Illness
    Client Perspective
    Community Engagement
    Cultural Traditions
    Diagnosis
    Dialectical Behavior Therapy
    Dissociation
    Embodiment
    EMDR
    Expressive Writing
    Geek Therapy
    Grief
    Group Therapy
    Health
    Highly Sensitive Person
    Holly Smith
    Jennafer Martin
    Jennifer Smith
    Jim Miller
    Krista Clement
    LGBT
    Massage Therapy
    Medication
    Meditation
    Meghan Bomberger
    Movies
    Nancy Foster
    Personality Types
    Personal Story
    Pet Therapy
    Politics
    Relationships
    Shannon McQuade
    Shannon Simonelli
    Social Connection
    Social Issues
    Spirituality
    Suicidal Ideation
    Trauma
    Workshops


    Featured Writers

    Picture
    Amanda Butler
    Picture
    Jennifer Smith
    Picture
    Meghan Bomberger
    Picture
    Jim Miller, MD
    Picture
    Shannon McQuade
    Picture
    Jennafer Martin
    Picture
    Ally Sanchez, LMT
    Picture
    Holly Smith
    Picture
    Krista Clement
    Krista Clement is the Executive Editor for the Real Caring blog.  For questions contact krista@realcaring.org

    RSS Feed

Picture
Picture
Real Caring Inc. 2010 - 2019
Picture
Picture

CRISIS NUMBERS

University of Utah 801-587-3000
Salt Lake Behavioral 801-264-6000
St. Mark's Hospital 801-268-7111