Posted by Noa on January 11, 2001, at 11:49:50
In reply to Re: BORDERLINES, posted by Ted on January 10, 2001, at 19:22:32
A diagnosis is as useful as it is useful.
If conceptualizing your symptoms as borderline personality disorder, or any other disorder, helps you to feel understood, or helps to point to the direction for treatment options, then it is helpful.
If it feels like an accusation, then it is not.
Diagnoses are constructs---ways to conceptualize what is observed. Ways to try to make sense of what is going on for you.
They are not "real" objects or entities perse. For some dx's there is growing reasearch that validates that the dx matches a "real" phenomenon in the brain (I am thinking of schizophrenia, for instance) but many are still somewhat speculative, and many are still dynamic---the definitions are likely to continue to evolve, to be revised every so often.
Still, they can be useful--to try to understand what is going on for someone, and to try to figure out what might help.
poster:Noa
thread:3831
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20010105/msgs/3851.html