If I engage a mental health service provider I’m likely to receive a “diagnosis of a mental disorder” and be labeled in a certain way. How should I think about that label?
Naturally we human beings want to move from not knowing to knowledge. We want to move from not knowing how to cure a disease to finding a cure for that disease. We want to move from not knowing how to desalinate the oceans to knowing how to produce an inexhaustible supply of drinking water. Of course we want to know these things.
But this natural desire to know things ought not make us believe that we know something when we do not yet know it. This is the case for what, for a given individual, may be his most important personal problem: his emotional health. We do not know much about “what goes on” inside human beings. Nor may we ever. This is perhaps the largest “not knowing” that confronts our species and maybe also the hardest one to swallow.
Daisy Mwikali
First of all, it is totally okay to be labelled. It does not take anything away from you neither does it add anything.
What we need to work on is how people view labels. Seeking mental health help is one of the bravest things anyone can do especially in Kenya, where mental health issues are stigmatised and have very little information.
Secondly, we need to work on our self-efficacy and how we look at ourselves. With that in check, no label will mean anything more and the people who seem to get high by name calling others will stop because it will no longer mean anything to you.
There’s a recent post about stereotypes where I explained this name calling, prejudice and discrimination in detail. Check it out here…
https://www.fatumasvoice.org/question/what-is-your-take-on-baby-shaming-and-marriage-shaming/
Manser Thelua
It is easier said than done. People have committed suicide for what you want us to brush off. It’s not that easy.
Tracy Akoth
Weather you get it or not is okay. There’s nothing that will change who you are, even a ‘mental disorder’ diagnosis.
Robert Mũnũku
What I can share is this; in my experience, the older I get the wiser I get and the more I learn the more I discover that I know very little …
As Socrates once said, “If there’s something I know, is that I know nothing.”
Paradox.
I once posted something on Mental Health, I hope it will help your inquiry (read here – https://www.fatumasvoice.org/question/what-can-be-done-to-improve-mental-healthcare-in-kenya/)
BK Kwesi
Yes you will.
Martha Nyaboke
If there are no biological tests, then what is a clinical or medical “diagnosis” of a mental disorder, really? Since there are no biological tests to establish the presence or absence of any mental disorders, a mental disorder diagnosis is more appropriately understood as a label than as a diagnosis.