Depends on the ailment, whether you care about having it treated, or if you really enjoy/hate putting labels on things. If you’re the kind of person who thinks archaeopteryx was a bird and not a reptile, or a reptile and not at all a bird, then maybe you’d like getting diagnosed as having an ailment.
I have none and it shames me to have that correlated with myself (a diagnosis, that is) but if it can get me money and out of the hell I live in then I will let them diagnose me with anything. It’s all a fraudulent scam anyway.
I had resisted a formal diagnosis until I decided to get one as a reason to stay out of a jury. The diagnosis felt bad to hear. The symptoms were one thing but the diagnosis sounded so final, so serious, so grim. But after a short time I adjusted to that new realization and got on with my therapies and life as best as could. The diagnosis was actually just a truth I did not want to hear.
Great question btw. I assumed you meant mental. If you meant physical ailment then a diagnosis is not something I want. I prefer to do my own research and effect my own care. This has worked well, very very well, for decades. I focus mostly on prevention as that is far easier than healing something. The day will come, if I even let it, that an ailment will exceed my ability to care for it. So be it.
I’m very much against labeling mental disorders. For one thing, mental diagnoses are qualitative, imprecise and too subjective (from a normie’s point of view). How many times throughout history have people been labeled insane just because their opinions and perspectives differ from the established norm? In 100 years they will be horrified at the diagnoses of today, just as we are horrified of the diagnoses of 100 years ago, and 100 years before that.
Secondly, I’ve noticed that labeling mental disorders often gives people an excuse to keep behaving that way. For example, suppose you are sad because a loved one dies. You get labeled as “depressed”. Even after your grief subsides, you keep thinking you’re “depressed” because that’s what you were told, so you tend to act that way. Here on this site I often shake my head when someone starts touting their disorder because it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Physical diagnoses are different. If I have a broken leg, I want to be told I have a broken leg. Likewise with heart disease, cancer and other *qualitative* ailments. But mental health diagnoses? It’s really just a doctor’s opinion. Don’t get me started on the pills they pump us with. The failure of pills to cure mental disorder should be proof positive that doctors are shooting in the dark. Might as well cut a hole in my skull to release the pressure, or zap me with electricity. We think chemicals are any different?
There’s also the idea that mental disorders are a catch-all designed to filter out and marginalize discontented people who might otherwise threaten the political/economic status quo. If the way things are is what makes people fall into these categories, the only solution is to change the way things are. But if it’s a fault – through genetics or family environment – of the individual, then the only thing which must change is the individual.
That’s a great point. I believe depression is on the rise because the world has become a much more depressing place (I’ve been alive almost 50 years and can honestly say the last 2-3 years are the worst I’ve seen). But most doctors fail to take that possibility into consideration. So they keep treating depression as if it’s an individual’s disorder, when really it’s a natural response to a changing planet. Wouldn’t it be great, for once, if a doctor tells you: “Don’t worry, you’re not clinically depressed. The world just fucking sucks!”
Depression, anxiety disorders probably all have the same kind of source. Delusional and schizotypal disorders might come from the pure banality of standing in line at the DMV too much, imo.
Are the mirrors damaged or just the vacuums. No, I don’t recall them, but they surely must be recalled: all those broken shards of vanity left on the floor. . . .
ABCD – Actively Battling Cognitive Disorder
EFG – Epic Fail: God
HIJK – He Is Just Kidding
LMNO – Left Me No Option
PQRS – Pretty Quiet, Really Sick
TUV – Truly Under Valued
WXY&Z – Watching Chromosomes, Zzzzzz
Has anyone who has replied here that’s calling mental health diagnosis a crock of shit and a way to excuse shitty behaviours have a mental health diagnosis? Or just biased opinions?
“If I had a broken leg I would want to know about it” okay, awesome.. But just because an advil eases the pain for your broken leg is it safe to say it will work for another? Should it be assumed that every broken leg is the same as yours, or that other person has the very same pain tolerance you do?
Most women find birthing a child to be extremely painful. I have allergies to most pain medications, So I went natural. I didn’t find it very painful. My pain tolerance ia higher than most, though.
Physical pain is easy to overcome. Its temporary. Emotional and mental pain/ailments arent. You have to keep re-opening the wound, digging deeper to find the root of the sickness.. Just when you think it’s under control, signs and symptoms come back, a ball of pus hits the surface, and the digging starts again.
Every brain (like every broken bone) is different. No two brains respond to the same medication in The same way.
Just some food for thought.
SleeplessMind, you’re not making any sense. Do you understand the difference between “qualitative” and “quantitative”?
Mental health diagnoses are qualitative.
Physiological diagnoses are quantitative.
Think of it like this:
A quantitative comment about sound is “that signal is 110 dB and may cause damage to the stereocilia resulting in hearing loss.”
A qualitative comment about sound is your grandmother saying “rock music is too loud and will make you go deaf!”
Facts vs. Opinion. Please take note of the difference. Mental health is a QUALITATIVE science, meaning all diagnoses are based on anecdotal evidence, not physics or biology. End of discussion.
Back story: I had a conversation with a family member about their son, his struggles, and what sounded as some sort of mental/learning difficulty although I didn’t ask specifically.
Yes, I did mean mentally and not physically btw.
Anyway, I do see it in such a way, diagnosis, especially young can be treated as a crutch or an underlying root cause for acceptance of behaviors. So In that sense a negative. however I think it is, or could be nice to find a word for it. Be able to read about it and for information to click with how if felt.
A remember a TV show I once watched , I don’t remember which one , but a female was teasing men – you know how men never express their emotions or how they feel, well, I think they really don’t know how they feel – I laughed a bit but I think there’s some truth to that. And there’s certain feelings I never actually knew what it meant until something happened and the word fit like a glove.
So I can’t help but wonder if there are books or documented materials that could help me understand me. Even though I’m not looking for any formal treatment
17 comments
Depends on the ailment, whether you care about having it treated, or if you really enjoy/hate putting labels on things. If you’re the kind of person who thinks archaeopteryx was a bird and not a reptile, or a reptile and not at all a bird, then maybe you’d like getting diagnosed as having an ailment.
I have none and it shames me to have that correlated with myself (a diagnosis, that is) but if it can get me money and out of the hell I live in then I will let them diagnose me with anything. It’s all a fraudulent scam anyway.
I had resisted a formal diagnosis until I decided to get one as a reason to stay out of a jury. The diagnosis felt bad to hear. The symptoms were one thing but the diagnosis sounded so final, so serious, so grim. But after a short time I adjusted to that new realization and got on with my therapies and life as best as could. The diagnosis was actually just a truth I did not want to hear.
Great question btw. I assumed you meant mental. If you meant physical ailment then a diagnosis is not something I want. I prefer to do my own research and effect my own care. This has worked well, very very well, for decades. I focus mostly on prevention as that is far easier than healing something. The day will come, if I even let it, that an ailment will exceed my ability to care for it. So be it.
I’m very much against labeling mental disorders. For one thing, mental diagnoses are qualitative, imprecise and too subjective (from a normie’s point of view). How many times throughout history have people been labeled insane just because their opinions and perspectives differ from the established norm? In 100 years they will be horrified at the diagnoses of today, just as we are horrified of the diagnoses of 100 years ago, and 100 years before that.
Secondly, I’ve noticed that labeling mental disorders often gives people an excuse to keep behaving that way. For example, suppose you are sad because a loved one dies. You get labeled as “depressed”. Even after your grief subsides, you keep thinking you’re “depressed” because that’s what you were told, so you tend to act that way. Here on this site I often shake my head when someone starts touting their disorder because it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Physical diagnoses are different. If I have a broken leg, I want to be told I have a broken leg. Likewise with heart disease, cancer and other *qualitative* ailments. But mental health diagnoses? It’s really just a doctor’s opinion. Don’t get me started on the pills they pump us with. The failure of pills to cure mental disorder should be proof positive that doctors are shooting in the dark. Might as well cut a hole in my skull to release the pressure, or zap me with electricity. We think chemicals are any different?
There’s also the idea that mental disorders are a catch-all designed to filter out and marginalize discontented people who might otherwise threaten the political/economic status quo. If the way things are is what makes people fall into these categories, the only solution is to change the way things are. But if it’s a fault – through genetics or family environment – of the individual, then the only thing which must change is the individual.
That’s a great point. I believe depression is on the rise because the world has become a much more depressing place (I’ve been alive almost 50 years and can honestly say the last 2-3 years are the worst I’ve seen). But most doctors fail to take that possibility into consideration. So they keep treating depression as if it’s an individual’s disorder, when really it’s a natural response to a changing planet. Wouldn’t it be great, for once, if a doctor tells you: “Don’t worry, you’re not clinically depressed. The world just fucking sucks!”
Depression, anxiety disorders probably all have the same kind of source. Delusional and schizotypal disorders might come from the pure banality of standing in line at the DMV too much, imo.
All these letters. Why “LMNO” instead of “PQRS”?
DMV is “Delusional Mental View” ? “Despicable Materialistic Vultures?”
Damaged Mirror Vacuums, if I recall. You know those vacuums can’t operate without their mirrors.
Are the mirrors damaged or just the vacuums. No, I don’t recall them, but they surely must be recalled: all those broken shards of vanity left on the floor. . . .
ABCD – Actively Battling Cognitive Disorder
EFG – Epic Fail: God
HIJK – He Is Just Kidding
LMNO – Left Me No Option
PQRS – Pretty Quiet, Really Sick
TUV – Truly Under Valued
WXY&Z – Watching Chromosomes, Zzzzzz
I
Can’t
Easily
Be
Entertained
Reading
Garbage.
Sorry Iceberg, that was just too fun to pass up.
Ha ha. It was expected, tbh. Death from suicide or death from ennui: you choose. Or one might say,
My
Only
Real
Respite
Is
Sex.
Has anyone who has replied here that’s calling mental health diagnosis a crock of shit and a way to excuse shitty behaviours have a mental health diagnosis? Or just biased opinions?
“If I had a broken leg I would want to know about it” okay, awesome.. But just because an advil eases the pain for your broken leg is it safe to say it will work for another? Should it be assumed that every broken leg is the same as yours, or that other person has the very same pain tolerance you do?
Most women find birthing a child to be extremely painful. I have allergies to most pain medications, So I went natural. I didn’t find it very painful. My pain tolerance ia higher than most, though.
Physical pain is easy to overcome. Its temporary. Emotional and mental pain/ailments arent. You have to keep re-opening the wound, digging deeper to find the root of the sickness.. Just when you think it’s under control, signs and symptoms come back, a ball of pus hits the surface, and the digging starts again.
Every brain (like every broken bone) is different. No two brains respond to the same medication in The same way.
Just some food for thought.
SleeplessMind, you’re not making any sense. Do you understand the difference between “qualitative” and “quantitative”?
Mental health diagnoses are qualitative.
Physiological diagnoses are quantitative.
Think of it like this:
A quantitative comment about sound is “that signal is 110 dB and may cause damage to the stereocilia resulting in hearing loss.”
A qualitative comment about sound is your grandmother saying “rock music is too loud and will make you go deaf!”
Facts vs. Opinion. Please take note of the difference. Mental health is a QUALITATIVE science, meaning all diagnoses are based on anecdotal evidence, not physics or biology. End of discussion.
Back story: I had a conversation with a family member about their son, his struggles, and what sounded as some sort of mental/learning difficulty although I didn’t ask specifically.
Yes, I did mean mentally and not physically btw.
Anyway, I do see it in such a way, diagnosis, especially young can be treated as a crutch or an underlying root cause for acceptance of behaviors. So In that sense a negative. however I think it is, or could be nice to find a word for it. Be able to read about it and for information to click with how if felt.
A remember a TV show I once watched , I don’t remember which one , but a female was teasing men – you know how men never express their emotions or how they feel, well, I think they really don’t know how they feel – I laughed a bit but I think there’s some truth to that. And there’s certain feelings I never actually knew what it meant until something happened and the word fit like a glove.
So I can’t help but wonder if there are books or documented materials that could help me understand me. Even though I’m not looking for any formal treatment