Dear Therapist,
I feel like theres a part of me that just wants a diagnosis but then at the same time I’m scared to have one. Then when I think about having one I’m not sure what that would really even change!? Is it okay to want a diagnosis?
– Cautiously Curious
Dear Cautiously Curious,
The easy answer to this is, yes! Of course it’s okay to want a diagnosis.
The more complicated pieces are 1) what is a diagnosis and 2) what are you going to do with it?
There are so many differing opinions out there in the field of psychology regarding diagnoses. Some clinicians see diagnoses as the cornerstone of good treatment, allowing for treatment planning, effective interventions, and the application of research. While others see them a stigmatizing, damaging, and distracting from the complexity of the person’s injuries.
My personal take on them is that they fall somewhere in the middle of those two ends of the spectrum. They are critical for clinicians and researchers to understand what we’re all seeing in our clients and what symptomology we’re targeting with our approaches and interventions. They give us a shorthand to be able to know what we’re talking about without having to describe every detail of a person’s life. They also have incredible value in directing the course of treatment that therapy with a particular individual might take.
However, I also see the issues that arise of diagnoses as well. We all know that diagnoses can be applied as labels to people, taking a unique and complex life and narrowing it down to a list of 6 criteria.
People also respond really differently to receiving a diagnosis. Some people feel an incredible sense of peace and affirmation, knowing that they are not alone and what they have been experiencing alone on the inside actually has a name. While others experience it as a curse, something that becomes a rigid part of their identity that they feel powerless to change.
So again, the easy answer is yes, it is totally okay to want a diagnosis. The questions that I would encourage you to ask yourself is why do you want one, what would you do with it, and most importantly, how would you expect to treat yourself with it?
– Kevin
Kevin Cram is a licensed psychotherapist focused on helping people overcome developmental trauma and attachment challenges as well as the symptoms that are inevitably linked. He works from a relational psychoanalytic/dynamic perspective. He sees clients in the Southern California area.
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