oh yes indeedie. i haven't ever been diagnosed with schizophrenia but i've been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. psychiatrists and other clinicians told me that i shouldn't go back to university because i couldn't handle the stress. psychiatrists and other clinicians told me that it was unethical to apply to a PhD program overseas because it was likely that i couldn't handle the stress. they told me that i'd experience some alleviation of my symptoms some time in my early to mid fourties.

if i listened to them i would have severely limited my life.

i kinda went '%#@&#! you lot' and did it anyway. sure i struggle at times (but then who the hell doesn't?) but i'm doing it. i didn't let them limit me.

now that i'm doing it they say 'oopsie you were misdiagnosed you never did have borderline personality'. they put me down as a misdiagnosis instead of a case of 'recovered before the age of thirty'. they predict that borderline personality disorder is chronic and every case of improvement they put down as a misdiagnosis. there is thus no empirical way to falsify the claim that the disorder is chronic. if i'd have believed i was chronic and limited my life accordingly they would be saying 'see, borderline personality disorder, chronic, we told you so'.

their predictions are often made true by self-fulfilling prophecy methinks. that is to say that if people who you respect (clinicains, for example) repeatedly tell you that you can't do something then you come to believe that you can't do it and therefore you can't. their prediction (and the effects of their prediction on you when you internalise it) make it so.

'you will never get better if you don't take your medication'
'i can't help you if you won't help yourself (ie take your medication'

how much do these attitudes harm people?

how much does believing that one can't cope without medication make it so?

it hurts me a great deal. clinicians can have all the good (paternalistic) intentions in the world they can still be misguided and they can still dehumanise you and make you worse even with the best intentions in the world.

i'm glad that you have come to an understanding that helps you, spiritual_emergency. i hope that you can inspire / help others who are not quite sure on the predictions that others have made about their lives... i hope that you can inspire / help others to disregard their unhelpful predictions and go on to live a life that YOU consider worth living.