Stigma

[napoleon_in_rags]

6. The thing I see is sometimes labels get put on and not taken off.

Nobody really understands the brain... But there is no class of people who are mentally ill period. People have states where they are extremely ill, states where they aren't. Diagnosis can change as people go through different states, but I think its really healthy for the individual to look at them as just that: states. I think its empowering to say "I am in a schizophrenic state" or "I am in a depressed state" rather than to say "I am a schizophrenic" or "I am a depressive".

I've seen you post here for years, like me. At the end of the day, you are just you, like everybody else. You go through these different states, these different places in your life journey, just like everybody on DU or anywhere.

I will say that the most effective therapy I've had was from a counselor who practiced a Buddhist for of therapy. Its powerful because it doesn't put it all on you, it allows you to acknowledge that life sucks. Your life for instance is probably bad not just because of mental states, but because of literal things happening in it. That therapy was empowering because it let me throw the idea out the window that life was supposed to be perfect, and just try to cultivate some inner peace.