Validation does feel good! And while I do not focus on the diagnosis, I first felt relief that it is not just 'me'. Something in me that makes me defective. There are reasons and I can be helped. Powerful!

I think your question is a good one, and one to explore in your therapy. I also think that we are vulnerable to trauma, suseptible to becoming part of it, as a result of how our early childhood development and attachment was experienced.