My experience has been sorta the opposite Crazylife. I don't see pros often but on those rare occassions it seems if I bring up a symptom outside the 'definition' of one dx it just means I get to go home with another dx. I almost think I am part of a game they play. Maybe at the end of the day they all get together and compare how many dx labels they showered in their wake that day. I am tainted.

I think the issue of 'labeling' is a tricky one. When things got really bad for me I think I embraced the first label with all of my heart and soul. An explanation! Finally there is some sense in this madness! It has a name. It is called....... "oh wait a minute.... now it sounds like this too.... and this.... and that....." In no time at all I had accumulated quite an impressive list of 'explanations'. I was stamped and labeled by the professionals. Now what? Good question. Lets see what we can try here......

I find it better for me to relate to the words that describe what is happening.... anxiety, depression, rage, mania, obsessive, compulsive etc etc. Those I can stand up and face because they are intimately relateable. I know exactly what I am facing. Nothing vague. The big picture labels (BP etc) don't mean much when I am in the middle of a panic attack.

I have been up down, in out, anyway the wind blows, anyway the wind blows.... (anyone remember Doris Day)...... focusing on the dx labels as though they were going to spit out the magic answers. I am having better success focusing on the symptom labels because I feel like they are something real and tangible. Something specific enough to make sense and lead me to a sensible response.