[junkDNA]

as i browse the forums i see a lot of people with their list of diagnoses in their signatures. this strikes me as odd. it just seems like labels. like hey i have bpd, bi polar, ptsd, schizo, anxiety, and depression. its like come on people. some even have their meds on there. i dont understand what this is accomplishing. im not enforcing a stigma. i dont think u should be ashamed by ur mental illnesses. but to broadcast it so publicly is tacky to me. i just wonder why people do it. is it to offer some sort of explanation for their posts? or maybe its to connect with others with the same diagnoses. maybe. i dont know. what do u think? anyone that has this as their signature would like to say why? it just seems nonimportant to me. we are all suffering, everyone, not just people with mental illness, just in different ways. labeling urself with a disorder so publicly is just confusing to me. im not ashamed to have psychosis but i dont wear a sign on my face that says i have it. something about it just irks me. like maybe its a bragging thing. like , look how many diagnoses i have. look how ****ed up i am. im more ****ed up than u. i dont get it. why is the goal to be sicker than everyone else?

does any of this make sense?

am i being rude?

[newtus]

i always thought it was a way to connect with people with like dx. you know? same dx.

but some people (idk who does or doesnt) dont label themselves. they were given those labels. like i said idk who does or doesnt label themselves. by label yourself you mean putting that label on yourself?

but i do see how it cant seem like one is sickker than another person.

[newtus]

i noticed i kinda have mine on there but its really showing my blog

[The_little_didgee]

Originally Posted by junkDNA

we are all suffering, everyone, not just people with mental illness, just in different ways. labeling urself with a disorder so publicly is just confusing to me. im not ashamed to have psychosis but i dont wear a sign on my face that says i have it. something about it just irks me. like maybe its a bragging thing. like , look how many diagnoses i have. look how ****ed up i am. im more ****ed up than u. i dont get it. why is the goal to be sicker than everyone else?

This reminded me of my psychiatric stays. Some patients used to ask other patients what conditions they had and then they would compare who was legitimately ill. It was pathetic. Patients who did not have a diagnosis or had BPD were stigmatized by those who apparently had more serious illnesses. Our need to belong is very strong.

The less people know about my psychiatric history the better. Anyway I am not my illness.

[KUREHA]

I was thinking maybe to connect with people who have the same diagnosis, but I think some people do it to show how sick they are, like a contest, like its better to have a lot of diagnosis's.

Like the sanity score quiz, people like to post high scores, look how ****ed up I am.

[newtus]

yea ive had other patients ask my diagnosis before in the hospital.
i didnt catch on to what they were doing until recently tho.

its kinda sick and kinda sad

[medicalfox]

Originally Posted by junkDNA

as i browse the forums i see a lot of people with their list of diagnoses in their signatures. this strikes me as odd. it just seems like labels. like hey i have bpd, bi polar, ptsd, schizo, anxiety, and depression. its like come on people. some even have their meds on there. i dont understand what this is accomplishing. im not enforcing a stigma. i dont think u should be ashamed by ur mental illnesses. but to broadcast it so publicly is tacky to me. i just wonder why people do it. is it to offer some sort of explanation for their posts? or maybe its to connect with others with the same diagnoses. maybe. i dont know. what do u think? anyone that has this as their signature would like to say why? it just seems nonimportant to me. we are all suffering, everyone, not just people with mental illness, just in different ways. labeling urself with a disorder so publicly is just confusing to me. im not ashamed to have psychosis but i dont wear a sign on my face that says i have it. something about it just irks me. like maybe its a bragging thing. like , look how many diagnoses i have. look how ****ed up i am. im more ****ed up than u. i dont get it. why is the goal to be sicker than everyone else?

does any of this make sense?

am i being rude?

I feel like this was directed at me which is rude because of the way you phrased your questions. I put my diagnoses on my signature because this is the only place I am open about it. I do it so I can connect to people and show I know what they are experiencing to an extent. Also, it's not very public since everyone on here is anonymous. In real life I am not open about my diagnoses except for different types of anxiety and ADHD. Other diagnoses I do show symptoms, but I try to be professional about it. The majority of people I know don't know I have these problems and a lot of people look up to me. I do not view myself mentally ill or pity myself, I put in countless hours of volunteer services through various organizations in my community such as soup kitchens, hospitals, animal rehabilitation centers, etc. I am also as hospice cna and I take care of the dying and sometimes those who can not take care of themselves such as people who have dementia. I do more than the average healthy person in my community and I strive very hard to do what I am currently doing.

[Sometimes psychotic]

I did this when I first joined so that people would know who I was----that I didn't have sz but just psychosis---its easier than people looking at my profile page. I didn't want to have to explain who I was every time.

It gives a bit of information about myself on what sections I'm posting in so someone can think "Oh he's posting here because he has autism or OCD" Also, I do it because everyone else does it and this is a mental health site so I don't see the problem.

Personally, I'm sick of everyone putting the word normal with quotation marks and saying "define normal??" or how people say "meds aren't the cure to everything:P" or "labels don't matter" or "labels do matter" or "stop labeling yourself". To those people, shut up.. please. (which is basically everyone). I'm sick of this nonsense. It's rude, it has nothing to do with the topic of conversation and most importantly, people aren't stupid as the already know it and it's repetitive as well. People with a med phobia are especially annoying as hell lol (And yes blah blah blah they went through bad life with meds i know what ever but still)

Newtus and AtypicalDisaster made good posts on the labels thing I just can't find it.

hahahahaha

[IndieVisible]

I only find it ironic when people who do list the dx and meds rant about how bad labels are. Otherwise I see nothing wrong with it and find it interesting.

Because people like to observe me..

[junkDNA]

Originally Posted by medicalfox

I feel like this was directed at me which is rude because of the way you phrased your questions. I put my diagnoses on my signature because this is the only place I am open about it. I do it so I can connect to people and show I know what they are experiencing to an extent. Also, it's not very public since everyone on here is anonymous. In real life I am not open about my diagnoses except for different types of anxiety and ADHD. Other diagnoses I do show symptoms, but I try to be professional about it. The majority of people I know don't know I have these problems and a lot of people look up to me. I do not view myself mentally ill or pity myself, I put in countless hours of volunteer services through various organizations in my community such as soup kitchens, hospitals, animal rehabilitation centers, etc. I am also as hospice cna and I take care of the dying and sometimes those who can not take care of themselves such as people who have dementia. I do more than the average healthy person in my community and I strive very hard to do what I am currently doing.

im not trying to be rude. im sorry. it was not directed at u specifically. sorry.

[xterrancex]

I could see this going 1 of 2 ways. On the one hand there is in a lot of places the feeling of competition where you have a higher rank if you are more X... which is horrible given what we're comparing here.

on the other hand sometimes it's helpful to know so that someone doesn't have to start a post with "I suffer from X, and I am on X medication" they can give their opinion on something and run from there, so the diagnosis and medication is a frame of reference for their opinion on something so for example if I was giving advice on bpd you could know whether or not I have any experience with it or not so if my answer is valid without me having to write anything about it in the post itself. So I think it's helpful in certain ways And then if you see someone who is on your medication you could talk to them and say hey have you had x problem with this med? What advice do you have?

So It can be helpful I would imagine.

[DePressMe]

Right now, in the psychiatry news there is a lot of controversy about labeling people with mental disorders. Some psychiatrists and therapists don't want to label because they think the approved diagnosis categories (DSM) don't adequately describe people's issues. Disorders overlap and what some consider to be normal behavior might be described as sick so a person is labeled with disorders that they really don't have or with the wrong disorder. They assert that labeling a person limits how they think about themselves--like a patient may over-identify with a disorder and see themselves just as a disorder. Also, putting a diagnosis in a chart creates a record of it so the label follows the person where ever they go--this can lead to influencing how other doctors and therapists treat the patient.

I, personally, think having a correct diagnosis helps me understand some of my behavior and thoughts and it gives me ideas about how I can best manage my illness. My past psychiatrists have been reluctant to discuss my diagnosis because they believe it perpetuates self-stigma and such. But, like many other people with mental illness, I want answers--I want to know the truth even if its difficult to accept.

When I asked my last psychiatrist about my diagnosis he glossed over it and changed the subject. Him not wanting to talk about it made me feel like it's a taboo topic--something I should not talk about. So, I have spent a lot of time and energy researching my own diagnosis and not telling my psychiatrist. I have just recently realized this created a sense of stigma for me--hiding my diagnosis made me feel ashamed of it.

I think its positive for people to disclose their diagnosis because it leads to acceptance and decreases stigma. I have a public website where I talk about my mental illness and I use my true identity. It has taken a long time to get to the point where I feel comfortable letting the world know I have mental illness.

This is a safe place for people to identify with their illness and through disclosure, combat stigma so they can better accept it. I don't have my diagnosis in my signature because I have the link to my website where I'm public about it. A signature can only be so long....

[IndieVisible]

What DePressMe said about all the overlapping is so very true and pdocs just try to get as close as possible and sometimes they can not even agree. So we get a diagnosis change every once and awhile. We on the other hand want very much to understand what we are and why so we can identify. As always it seems it's a double edge sword. It's good for us and bad for us too because of the stigma, but I believe that stigma would be there no matter what because it's simply on all MI regardless of diagnosis.

[newtus]

DePressMe is right

doctors dont want to talk about it. i think that makes things worse. i can maybe believe they dont want people to take things out of proportion with their diagnosis. but then again. like depressme - i want answers. I NEED ANSWERS. in ORDER to help myself. because thats what they ultimately WANT you do to. or at least thats how they come off/say. and ive never told a therapist or pdoc since i was first diagnosed that i RESEARCHED. so i always have to talk around the diagnosis. like it doesnt exist. but still hard to talk about it like it doesnt exist when i have to talk about my symptoms.

[newtus]

let me say
i actually feel very ashamed about my diagnosis.
i feel like i am made to feel this way anyway

Putting a label for me kind of makes me really make sense of it all. I don't go around saying 'hey I have such and such and such' I just use them as tools to understand further. I'm not diagnosed as anything. No one wants to diagnose me. The doctor throws some pills at me and just ignores what I feel. By trying to put a label it makes others listen to me and take me seriously.

I don't have diagnosed labels. And if I did I wouldn't really want to share them they're mine.

But if others want to say 'hey I'm a bipolar anorexic Tourette's schizophrenic with DID, trichotillomania and crapgras' all the power to them.

I think the more open people are about mental illness, the less stigma there is. I wouldn't tell anyone I know about my mental issues only if necessary. But here, I feel safe. It is a community.

The more knowledge the better, even if it is a bad thing in most cases.

[atomicc]

I have my diagnosis so people have a better idea as to what I'm getting on about when I'm posting, rather than having to ask. I also have it in order to connect with others on this site with similar issues and when others have the same issues listed, I often reach out to them because I know how important it is to have like-minded conversations. I think what you're insinuating about why people put them there is rather rude and far-fetched. This is the ONE place where most of us can actually be open about their mental illness. No one in my actual life besides my mother and partner know any of the things listed in my signature. I see this as a place to be safe, not to prove how sick I am.

[likewater]

Originally Posted by junkDNA

as i browse the forums i see a lot of people with their list of diagnoses in their signatures. this strikes me as odd. it just seems like labels. like hey i have bpd, bi polar, ptsd, schizo, anxiety, and depression. its like come on people. some even have their meds on there. i dont understand what this is accomplishing. im not enforcing a stigma. i dont think u should be ashamed by ur mental illnesses. but to broadcast it so publicly is tacky to me. i just wonder why people do it. is it to offer some sort of explanation for their posts? or maybe its to connect with others with the same diagnoses. maybe. i dont know. what do u think? anyone that has this as their signature would like to say why? it just seems nonimportant to me. we are all suffering, everyone, not just people with mental illness, just in different ways. labeling urself with a disorder so publicly is just confusing to me. im not ashamed to have psychosis but i dont wear a sign on my face that says i have it. something about it just irks me. like maybe its a bragging thing. like , look how many diagnoses i have. look how ****ed up i am. im more ****ed up than u. i dont get it. why is the goal to be sicker than everyone else?

does any of this make sense?

am i being rude?

Umm-this is a support site where we disclose and talk about those things. It's a way to communicate and let others know they are not alone. In the real world nobody usually shares that information, it's always hidden. You aren't being rude; I think you just want to understand why some people do what we do. If someone lists those things on their signature, I think, wow I'm not as big as a weirdo as I thought for being on so many meds. My ex in-laws were very critical of me and my medications and I've been so alone and ashamed. Those people's signatures really helped me, and I thank people for their willingness to share in this safe place online.

[Atypical_Disaster]

If people really want to know my diagnosis, they can look on my profile page.

I only have issues with diagnostic labels when the doctors treating me don't get it right, become myopic, and then prescribe me medications that are completely useless because they are not treating the right condition.

I never understood why people put their diagnoses and medications in their signatures either. I figure if it helps some people then go for it. Just don't expect me to understand why, because I don't.

[junkDNA]

thanks for all the replies guys....seriously not making judgements or being rude or mean...just wondering about it....thanks

Originally Posted by Atypical_Disaster

If people really want to know my diagnosis, they can look on my profile page.

We have a winner.

[Hagrid]

Originally Posted by junkDNA

as i browse the forums i see a lot of people with their list of diagnoses in their signatures. this strikes me as odd. it just seems like labels. like hey i have bpd, bi polar, ptsd, schizo, anxiety, and depression. its like come on people. some even have their meds on there. i dont understand what this is accomplishing. im not enforcing a stigma. i dont think u should be ashamed by ur mental illnesses. but to broadcast it so publicly is tacky to me. i just wonder why people do it. is it to offer some sort of explanation for their posts? or maybe its to connect with others with the same diagnoses. maybe. i dont know. what do u think? anyone that has this as their signature would like to say why? it just seems nonimportant to me. we are all suffering, everyone, not just people with mental illness, just in different ways. labeling urself with a disorder so publicly is just confusing to me. im not ashamed to have psychosis but i dont wear a sign on my face that says i have it. something about it just irks me. like maybe its a bragging thing. like , look how many diagnoses i have. look how ****ed up i am. im more ****ed up than u. i dont get it. why is the goal to be sicker than everyone else?

does any of this make sense?

am i being rude?

I have also noticed that some people with mental disorders like to proclaim their various diagnoses and meds, especially to other people with mental disorders. I'm not sure why they do this. I don't think you are being rude.