Transcending "Labels"
In psychological care or mental health, labels abound. They emanate mostly from DSM. It's a doctor's guide on mental health disorders used by MHP (mental health practitioners) around the world.
Yesterday, I was reading a psychological report on Marino, a teenage client. It's issued by a registered drug-based professional mental health agency based in Manila.
In the report I found lots of familiar DSM labels. Depression. Agoraphobia. Social anxiety. Depersonalization Disorder. Schizophrenia.
As usual, aside from the labels, the agency required the client to take brain drugs. When the drugs manifested serious side effects on the teen client, his mother chose to stop it.
When the mother reported about it to the agency, she was simply told to comply. Without drugs, they said, no psychotherapy will be allowed for his son.
Labels and the pharmaceutical industry usually go together in psychiatry. Describing who you are as "depressive" or "BPD" or "schizoid" is an attitude often encouraged by the big pharma.
In my initial session with Marino, I'd noticed how much the "labels" given him have already affected his sense of himself. Mostly in our talks, he spoke of who he is as the "labels," the sickness.
Sadly, in my observation, Marino has come to see himself as inherently dysfunctional. A major part of it was the result of the way he was labeled and boxed in.
Framing one's identity around some drug-based label is dangerous. It harms one's overall health. Worse, it can destroy even the core of one's self identity.
You are more than any diagnostic "label." You are a person, not an object. The label is just a temporary state or external behavior. It does not exclusively define you.
Transcending "labels" means looking at life beyond them. Labels can be useful in a way. But they can also shape your thoughts, emotions, and behavior.
Be careful then. Discern differences. Labels stick, but they can also be unwrapped. You and any label are two different things.
Most importantly, you can be stronger than the "label."