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Lori Kandels

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June 24, 2018 by Lori Kandels

You Are Not a Diagnosis

I have noticed a disturbing trend of people being overly willing to embrace serious diagnoses. Self-diagnosing with disorders like depression and anxiety are all too common. This is problematic for two reasons. It diminishes the experience of those actually struggling with these disorders. It also disempowers people who write off their sadness and fear as symptoms of an illness rather than as genuine reactions to life’s circumstances.

Being lonely in a new city doesn’t mean you have social anxiety. Not wanting to go to work may have more to do with hating your job than a disorder. Fear of a workplace bully isn’t pathological. Grief and sadness are normal responses to loss. We seem to have narrowed our emotional vocabulary to pathologically based descriptions like depression and anxiety.

Try describing your day without using clinical terms. See if it feels different. My guess is that it will feel more honest, more personal and less generic. Why would that be a good thing? Because when you embrace your experience as yours, you have more options. By taking charge of the naming of your experience, you are also taking charge of what you will do next. When you use pathological, clinical terms you are distancing yourself from reality and your ability to act.

So go for it. Be sad. Be afraid. Be angry. You will also expand your capacity for joy and peace and happiness.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Lori Kandels, MFT, MBA

(415) 633-6763
lori@lorikandelsmft.com
3882 24th Street
San Francisco, CA 94114

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lori@lorikandelsmft.com

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