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Let's talk about names! Labels, words, diagnoses - what has been your experience with receiving these things? Whether in the psychiatric world of diagnostic language or in your own experience of telling people what to call you, what has been your experiences with naming yourself or contending with names others give you?
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I've been helped more than hurt by diagnostic labels. Being told at a period in my life that I had major depression helped me drop the unkind labels I was giving myself: lazy, disorganized, weak, etc. I've never been harmed by a diagnosis, but I know many who have been.
But oh those labels we give ourselves every day - The unkind ones I hear from people about themselves outnumber the compassionate ones by a lot. Yesterday, I heard the woman at the grocery checkout say, "When I was younger and prettier..." I only saw how lovely she was, her body was round and curvy and her hair was magenta! 😊 I hope someday she'll learn to see herself as lovelier than ever. Later another woman told me, "My doctor said I'm too old to take care of my son (who has MS) in my home anymore." (She was 86.) And it was true and she knew it and was not ashamed, because right after that she said, "But I'll never be too old to love him." The label of "old" wasn't holding her back.
Words are so powerful. I want to keep claiming my own words for positivity, compassion, empowerment. I want to help others do the same by showing them the beauty I see in them, whenever I get a chance.