</font><blockquote><div id="quote"><font class="small">Quote:</font>
MzJelloFluff said:
i'm curious about the ideas of "diagnosis" and "treatment." i dunno, i mean they are appropriate terms, but it doesn't feel right. i feel i have issues to work on.. but i don't feel like it's an illness. i have been dx'd BPII but we don't go near and bipolar issues, we work on things like my confidence problems. i see myself as having no more or no less issues than anyone else on the bus you know? We all have issues and histories, i'm just trying to do something about the problematic ones and a lot of people don't. How can someone dx the human condition? It's not abnormal to have problems. Curious-er and curious-er.

</div></font></blockquote><font class="post">JelloFluff, I agree completely with this. The words "diagnosis" and "treatment" are not part of my thought process, and when I see them used, they seem alien to me! Neither T nor I ever use these words with each other. The only need I had for a diagnosis was when I first started to see T, I tried to get reimbursed for my visits, and T had to give a diagnosis to the insurance company. We went over it together and he put down the least "serious" one he could that he said would get reimbursed. We went over this together and he made sure I understood he was just putting down this diagnosis for insurance purposes, not because it had any meaning for our therapy. It was just a bureaucratic hoop to jump through and he made sure to get my "OK" on it before writing it down (it was depression). (Turns out he only had to do this once, since my insurance would not reimburse for his services.)

My T does therapy from a perspective of health rather than pathology, and I really like that. I don't want to have labels applied to me. I mean, how would they help me? Let's just work on my problems, not engage in the exercise of trying to fit my quirks into a box in the DSM.

My daughter's therapist has also never offered a diagnosis, and we haven't asked for one. She just works on the issues. Lately, I have been wondering if my daughter has Asperger's Syndrome. And I have wondered too why I am having these thoughts and want to label her? Would the label be helpful to her? To her therapy? Or do I want the label for me? To make me feel "better" ("it's not my fault she's this way--she has Aspergers")? Would it help me know how to approach and interact with her better? Maybe. I am conflicted on this! Plus, I would feel really bad approaching her therapist and saying, "do you think she has Aspergers?" Like I was trying to label her and box her in. My own T said to me in our last session, regarding my daughter, "I think she's one of us."