Diagnostic Labels.

I'm wondering how you all feel about this issue. When you tell someone about your diagnosis, do you say something like, "I am bipolar/schizophrenic/etc" or do you say, "I have bipolar/schizophrenia/etc"?

This seems to be a hot topic in the mental health community, I'm wondering what you all think about it. Do you see your diagnosis as a part of you? Do you define it as a part of yourself? Why or why not?

i say i have it. not i am.

in a way it is me.
i say this because i feel I have been labeled with it. that my beliefs and who i am has been labeled with it. not so much i have it. i say i am me. but ME is this thing these doctors gave me. you know? i feel society doesnt like me so they think this is me. in a way it is. but even if i wasnt diagnosed its still me. this diagnoses is the sum of how me (how I REACTED) to me experiences and life.

i see them as grouping together "us". a group of peopel who share my beliefs. just as if they group democrats or republicans or chrisitans and so on and so forth. except society truly hates us.

I say have because it is part of me and I am not part of it. I am not an illness, I'm a person.

They also had this topic around diabetes. It used to be "I'm diabetic." But now it's "I have diabetes" or "I'm living with diabetes." Because people are people and not illnesses. We never use the term "diabetic" at my office.

I say it both ways because I really don't think about it. I once got yelled at by someone because I used "I am" instead of "I have". It was not fun times.

I use "I am" by virtue of simplicity. It may affect other people differently, butone teensy little word doesn't change anything. You're not magically more empowered based on your choice of words. Nor are you a victim. Let action & ideology speak for itself, for ****'s sake!

not really but youd be suprised how a little change can possibly go a long way. choice of words could be a lifestyle change if you think about it.

Hahahahaha exactly. I posted this because I said "I am schizoaffective" sometime in the past week and the person in question got all bent out of shape about it and told me how I'm not my diagnosis blah blah blah. Needless to say, I found myself irritated within seconds because it seems stupid to me to get so upset over a semantics issue. I see this stuff all over several mental health boards and in "real life" as well, and for the most part I stay out of it but when someone intentionally drags me into it? That's another story!

your not kidding about people getting bent out of shape over that online. thats why i only post here.

Yeah. What I don't understand is why it's such a huge issue. People can choose whatever language they want in describing themselves and their respective illnesses.

I don't feel any more or less "empowered" or "victimized" based on whether I say "I have" or "I am". I just use whatever pops into my head at the time!

I have noticed that my wife always says " I am diagnosed with..." but I tend to say "I am, " but only with symptoms. Such as, "I am seeing rats all over the place."
But basically I don't care. If others do, that's fine and I would try to phrase things to their preference when speaking about them, but for myself I really think its a silly splitting of hairs.

...not that I wouldn't pretend to be offended to someone for my own personal amusement.

Hahahahahaha!

You'd be surprised what offends people. Once a lady snapped off at me because I'd said I lost my mom to breast cancer, and said you should never tell anyone if you lost someone to cancer because it takes away hope. Another time a lady made a complaint about me because I asked for her birthdate to varify I was looking at the right patient, which is standard proceedure. She had a very common name.... but it's rude to ask a lady her age.

usually when something offends people theyve have bad personal experience with it is what i notice. i mean if its something that shocks you that they get mad at.

Atypical said it better than I could

*Willow*