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I found my diagnosis important (bipolar II) because it allowed my pdoc and I to use different medication that were most effective. I'd rather have major depressive disorder, because then it might enter remission and never occur again. I'd rather have no mental illness at all. The DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) was designed to allow researchers and clinicians to communicate about research participants and patients. A diagnosis, ultimately, is just a set of symptoms that commonly occur together.
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It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence, to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words: "And this, too, shall pass away." How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride! How consoling in the depths of affliction!
---"Address before the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society". Abraham Lincoln Online. Milwaukee, Wisconsin. September 30, 1859.
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