Posted by alexandra_k on April 5, 2005, at 4:14:10
In reply to Re: Where's my diagnosis? » PM80, posted by Shy_Girl on April 4, 2005, at 20:38:06
Knowing your diagnosis can be a mixed blessing...
On the upside it gives you a name to put to your symptoms.
That can be useful to quickly contact other people with the same diagnosis, who may well have the same symptoms.
It can sometimes help people feel less alone and less crazy to think that enough other people get that for there to be a name especially for what is 'wrong' with them.
It can sometimes help people feel that their difficulties are legitimate somehow. That there is a 'disease process' or recognised disorder that they have.
On the downside:
It can be hard not to read about 'typical people' with certain disorders. It can be really very hard to sort out what applies to you and what doesn't.
It can lead to other people (including clinicians) assuming the presence of certain symptoms on the basis of your diagnosis rather than assessing which particular symptoms you exhibit.
It can help you or harm you depending on what the typical prognosis is for people with that diagnosis. If you are diagnosed with something that is 'chronic' or tends to get progressively worse then that can become something of a self-fulfilling prophecy. As a positive, some diagnoses have good prognoses, though.
But the point is that a diagnosis lumps you in with a general group at the expense of seeing you as an individual.
A mixed blessing, indeed.
But sometimes it is better to know...
And othertimes it is better not to...
poster:alexandra_k
thread:479171
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20050330/msgs/480063.html