If You Label Me, You Negate Me – A Dialogue On The Labels That Are Used About Mental Illnesses

Introduction

I consider myself to be very fortunate. I get to have dialogues with people on a wide range of topics. one of the topics that I am most passionate about his recovery from mental illness. To that effect, I participate in many discussion groups on the Internet. LinkedIn is one such resource for me. From time to time, I post my responses to others on my blog as articles.

The post that I responded to, unedited

"I haven't seen that particular documentary, Bill, but will check it out. Treatment models in other countries were noted throughout this thread. Some good DVDs to check out are "Healing Homes: An Alternative Swedish Model for Healing Psychosis", "Open Dialogue: An Alternative Finnish Approach to Healing Psychosis", "Crazy for Life" and "Take These Broken Wings". Working to Recovery offers 2 excellent DVDs, "How to Start and Run a Hearing Voices Group" and "Talking with Voices: An Introduction to Voice Dialogue". We hope to bring Ron Coleman and his wife, Wales, UK, who are now researchers in the field, to Wisconsin this coming spring to help teach voice dialoguing to people with lived experience and their clinicians about this effective model of healing for people with psychotic disorders.

Bi-Polar Bear (Photo credit: oxygeon)

I have found that the language we use also lends itself to supporting or dispelling the social stigma around mental illness/substance use disorders. If I may gently point out, you state "I am Bi-Polar". May I suggest that you are NOT your illness. You have Bi-Polar. As a NAMI Connections state trainer, we teach our facilitators that people are not their disorders and we no longer go around and identify each other by our disorders when opening Connection support group meetings. We are so much more than our disorders. I am joyous that you have found a recovery path that works for you. Each individual can do so and we need to foster and support that hope."

My response verbatim - Name Redacted

As always you are a great resource. I find it very interesting to hear the perspectives from other countries. I'll have to check these out.

I don't doubt the labels can and do reinforce social beliefs, including stigma. To reinforce this point, the Dutch theologian Kierkegaard says, "if you label me you negate me". I look at diagnoses is terms that are useful to describe a general predicament. Each pilgrim has there own path up the mountain. Everyone with the mental illness has to find their path to recovery. In my case, I'm grateful for my predicament. I have never encountered anything more instructive. It has led me to a greater understanding of compassion and hope. It has been beneficial in helping to support others. It's that lived experience that we talk about in peer support.

Words themselves have great limitations. For instance, the word moon, is not actually the moon. It is more like a finger pointing at the moon. As far as not being my illness, I suppose that means that I'm not a "graduate" of a masters program (2 of them actually), am not a father, or any other term that we might classify ourselves with. Again, these are merely labels.

The real substance of these labels does not encapsulate me or anyone else. It's interesting though when we

Veronica538 at work as truckdriver (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

ask people in our society what they do for a living they tend to make statements about their jobs as who they are. For instance, A person could drive a truck. How many hours a day are you a truck driver? Are you always a truck driver? At night when you lay in bed are you a sleeper as compared to a truck driver?

I am not disputing what you have to say in any way. As a matter fact I am a great believer that people should understand these terms as a general description of a circumstance. We still call people with cancer, cancer patients. But it is far from inclusive of their whole being.

I would encourage you to look at the body of my work on my blog. I try to be pretty clear in my writing and work with others that they are more than a diagnosis. These issues are more like facets on a diamond, part of the whole. I hope to continue to be able to grow in my ability to not use labels as time goes on.

When I sit next to the bed of someone who has tried to kill themselves I don't look at them as a diagnosis but instead as a human being. I don't try to tell them that I know better about their lives than they do. Most of the people that they've encountered in the mental health system have already tried that. Instead, I feel the most humane thing that can be done in these circumstances is to merely hold their hand and cry with them. In this context, I am a "friend".

So frankly, I am truly grateful for my predicament and could care less if you call me bipolar, Bill or any other label. I do realize though that for some people these terms are a great burden. So again, I would encourage you to read my work. It would be wonderful to get your feedback in areas that I can grow in. I think however that I support what you say entirely. It's just a shame that we do not have more elegant expressions.

I spend most of my life working with various professionals, doctors, lawyers, judges, and my peers (all labels by the way) to teach them to see beyond these terms. To everyone of them I suggest that a person is more than one aspect of their being. I encouraged them all to see people as people no matter the diagnosis.

I was a founding member of the Painting Pathways Clubhouse. I love the term that we use, "colleagues". But again it still a label. It just happens to be a more palatable label than mentally ill. At the clubhouse I have seen many miracles. For a group of people who were supposedly dysfunctional, I have seen us come together as a community and do things that supposedly other "normal people" can't do. Thank you for your continued work. I appreciate you.