Designer labels
I really have no medical proof of this, just my opinion, but it seems to me that illnesses just don't come one at a time. It seems that once the body and mind become ill it opens the door for many more. My husband has rheumatoid arthritis and is treated for depression. A friend of mine is bipolar and has anxiety issues.
About 2 years into the adventure throughout the mental illness wonderland I was sitting down with my third or fourth shrink. Getting in to see a psychiatrist is hard, and you do not get to see them very often unless you are high on the spectrum of crazy. He did not know me very well, and I am sure that he did not even read my file when I went in because he kept asking me questions that he asked me every time I went in.
By this point I had been labeled a Post-partum, Bi-polar, Obsessive-Compulsive, with rage issues. The doctor asked me some questions and decided that I also had Seasonal Effective Disorder. This made me a winter-hating, germ-fearing, step-counting, moody, wall-punching mother. Apparently he was going to prescribe a giant lamp which I was suppose to shove my face in and that would make my life a lot better.
It was at this point I realized that I could be caught up in the labels for the rest of my life. You can see that in the people around you that get stuck in the name of the sickness and the whole idea of being sick rather than looking for the path of being well. You see them get wrapped up in being a victim instead of being a person.
We all have that aunt who in 1987, her husband had an affair, and because of all the awful men in the world her life has been crap, and she is going to have to stay on welfare and have a bad perm, and if only 1987 didn't happen she would be 30 pounds lighter and have that job at the bank but the boss is a man, and probably in 1987 he had an affair on his wife and she would have to spend all day covering up her boobs because he is just a big perv anyways.
It was then I decided to stop living in the labels and start living for the path to get well.
Now this took a while. I felt sorry for myself and lived in the drama for quite a while, but the decision was still in my mind. I kept coming back to the main objective and I am getting closer all the time.
There are some things I know that I am. I am diagnosed Bi-polar. I know this because when I am off the meds for Bi-polar I am mega-crazy. I know I am diagnosed Obsessive-Compulsive and this is for a whole bunch of reasons which I will talk about later. Diagnosed is the key word, meaning it is something that can affect my day and my health but does not define me.
I am also a mother, and a wife. I am a leader, and a supervisor. I am a friend and caregiver. There are many labels that I can give myself, but I need to define myself by the better ones, the more productive and healthier ones. If I don't I can get sucked up in what the label is rather than what I can be.
So what are you? Have you been sexual abused? Has your ex-boyfriend hit you? Did your dad drink too much and spend his paycheck booze? Did your mom yell too much and hug too little?
It is exhausting to live as a victim. It is exhausting to live as title instead of yourself. It takes time to heal and it takes time to get better but we cannot let what happen to us complete us.
We are worth more than that.
About 2 years into the adventure throughout the mental illness wonderland I was sitting down with my third or fourth shrink. Getting in to see a psychiatrist is hard, and you do not get to see them very often unless you are high on the spectrum of crazy. He did not know me very well, and I am sure that he did not even read my file when I went in because he kept asking me questions that he asked me every time I went in.
By this point I had been labeled a Post-partum, Bi-polar, Obsessive-Compulsive, with rage issues. The doctor asked me some questions and decided that I also had Seasonal Effective Disorder. This made me a winter-hating, germ-fearing, step-counting, moody, wall-punching mother. Apparently he was going to prescribe a giant lamp which I was suppose to shove my face in and that would make my life a lot better.
It was at this point I realized that I could be caught up in the labels for the rest of my life. You can see that in the people around you that get stuck in the name of the sickness and the whole idea of being sick rather than looking for the path of being well. You see them get wrapped up in being a victim instead of being a person.
We all have that aunt who in 1987, her husband had an affair, and because of all the awful men in the world her life has been crap, and she is going to have to stay on welfare and have a bad perm, and if only 1987 didn't happen she would be 30 pounds lighter and have that job at the bank but the boss is a man, and probably in 1987 he had an affair on his wife and she would have to spend all day covering up her boobs because he is just a big perv anyways.
It was then I decided to stop living in the labels and start living for the path to get well.
Now this took a while. I felt sorry for myself and lived in the drama for quite a while, but the decision was still in my mind. I kept coming back to the main objective and I am getting closer all the time.
There are some things I know that I am. I am diagnosed Bi-polar. I know this because when I am off the meds for Bi-polar I am mega-crazy. I know I am diagnosed Obsessive-Compulsive and this is for a whole bunch of reasons which I will talk about later. Diagnosed is the key word, meaning it is something that can affect my day and my health but does not define me.
I am also a mother, and a wife. I am a leader, and a supervisor. I am a friend and caregiver. There are many labels that I can give myself, but I need to define myself by the better ones, the more productive and healthier ones. If I don't I can get sucked up in what the label is rather than what I can be.
So what are you? Have you been sexual abused? Has your ex-boyfriend hit you? Did your dad drink too much and spend his paycheck booze? Did your mom yell too much and hug too little?
It is exhausting to live as a victim. It is exhausting to live as title instead of yourself. It takes time to heal and it takes time to get better but we cannot let what happen to us complete us.
We are worth more than that.
posted by TIffany at 8:14 AM
1 Comments:
"There are many labels that I can give myself, but I need to define myself by the better ones, the more productive and healthier ones. If I don't I can get sucked up in what the label is rather than what I can be."
EXACTLY! My thoughts on this topic are similar: "FUCK labels!"
excuse my language........
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