Posted by Larry Hoover on December 26, 2015, at 18:27:03
In reply to Re: labels » Lamdage22, posted by SLS on December 26, 2015, at 14:55:13
In reading this thread, I have found myself identifying with every poster. Labels hurt, when they seem to be used to take something away from another.
But we have to use some sort of descriptive language, a short-hand of sorts, or we find ourselves having to define concepts with sentences or paragraphs, rather than by individual words or short phrases.
While reading what others have said, I have pondered whether "lack of wellness" is synonymous with "illness". Myself, I'm not 100% of that opinion, but during those periods of my life when I could not work, did not attend even to the affairs of daily living (bathing, cooking good food, opening mail, etc.), I was not well. I was not functioning well, in any case.
But what do you call it?
I don't think there will ever be a descriptor for poor mental health that suits all of us, all of the time.
I'm going to raise another issue, an implication of the language descriptive of the lack of mental health (I struggle to find the words to even raise the issue itself). For many years, I struggled with what was labeled as major depression. It took me a long time to learn that my mood depression was merely a symptom of a different "disorder/illness", namely PTSD. I was burned out by it. No "medical treatment" for my "illness", i.e. medication, was ever successful. I was "treatment resistant", probably because ineffective treatments were selected for my care based on a restrictive view of my "symptoms".
It was this place (Psycho-Babble) that opened new ways of seeing, that helped me to move forward from being a treatment-resistant "outlier".
It took my writing this to see my own message. Please try and look beyond the semantics of others, and feel the empathy and understanding. We are all here by choice, and for a reason. If our treatment modalities had worked without a hitch, there would be no reason to look deeper, or to have joined this group.
Regards,
Lar
poster:Larry Hoover
thread:1084915
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20151225/msgs/1084995.html