Anyone who receives the wrong diagnosis will feel that from one moment to the next everything has changed, that yesterday’s yours is no longer yours today, with the power of the word someone put a point and changed their life, now and for a while, their name will bear a surname that will most of the time be painful.
Those diagnosed often feel that a stone backpack has been placed on your back, not only do you have to deal with your personal problems, but you also have to adapt to your new last name, this weight and rehabilitation requires a lot of effort on the part of the person.
- Sometimes they feel that the diagnosis surpasses them.
- That it has become an entity in its own right and that.
- Like a monster that devours everything.
- It has devoured them too.
- You may even feel strange about yourself.
- Your body.
- Your personality and your whole being.
Taking on this new reality and all the changes that entails is not an easy task, at first the word overlaps with the person creating a reality that, although it was already there one way or another before being named, has now become its own entity that enters life without being invited.
When you come face-to-face with the monster, only you are able to decide to kiss him and learn to live with him or live in front of him in a battle that will leave permanent wounds. The ultimate responsibility for what to do with this new situation is Up to you.
Living with the word and being fully aware of its meaning is difficult and time-related, inevitably (or not), at that time the label is there, it accompanies you in this part of your life and you have to learn to live with it.
Just as the seasons are for vegetation, the diagnosis is for the person, it is like a forest that undergoes the changes of season as the months pass, although the flowers and trees always change color, they sit in the same land.
Sometimes you can feel that the earth and trees are the same, however, over time, the leaves of the trees change color, fall and others are born, even if it is the same tree that stays there or cuts, disappearing forever. But while all these changes occur on the surface, there is still something left, and it is the fact that there is always a surface where vegetation can settle.
The same thing happens to a person that happens to the forest, the word changes the person, and neither does it. There is a part, an extension of life that is different from the others, although there is a deeper layer that barely changes and will always be there.
Sometimes the diagnosis can overshadow the person, leading both the person and his or her environment to be defined exclusively by that label. For example, is it common to hear phrases like “Is it bipolar?”Is it depressing? Or ‘it’s schizophrenic’. These types of sentences are not only used incorrectly, but also promote and perpetuate one of the main problems of mental illness, stigma.
On many occasions, diagnoses are used as adjectives, as if they were an immutable characteristic of the person, a diagnosis is NOT an adjective, a person is not bipolar, depressive or anorexic, people are not just diagnoses, labels or words.
A person is what he is, with his own unique characteristics. It may be that at some point the person has a disorder, but that doesn’t mean the person becomes the disorder or stops being himself.
Diagnosis will always be associated with a face. Don’t forget that a diagnosis is just a set of symptoms that refer to a disease and not a person, it gives us general information about what can happen to those who have it, but it doesn’t tell us anything else. about the person.
Although similar, each being is unique. Each one has a name, personality, family, tastes, habits and particular characteristics that differentiate us from others, never a diagnosis will inform us about these peculiarities that we must gradually discover.
A well-applied diagnosis is important, it says something about the person presenting it and transmits very useful information at the professional level, but it does not give us all the necessary information, we must never forget that behind a label is hidden a unique label and not – repetitive face, a person who feels and who is more than a word.