Oh, the joy and deep relief of knowing that what we’ve thought was all in our head…IS all in our head! You know what I mean?! It is real, it’s not imagination, it’s *just* a mental illness. Having a proper name for it means that it can be talked about without worrying someone will think we’re…well, crazy and making it up. For attention. For excuses. For whatever.
And having an actual diagnosis, a real, really identified, issue that now has an official name…means that we can make better choices about how to deal with it all. This is true for both physical and mental illness. As someone who has several “invisible” illnesses, being able to give them the medical name (and usually a billing code to go with it) validates my experience for others without wondering if I’m just an attention whore. So to speak.
I think that just getting a diagnosis, getting that “official” label…is often as big a relief as if we had already been healed. It’s not a nameless, amorphous mass of “stuff”… we now know what it’s called and so we can do our research and discussion from a place of knowledge. We’re no longer wandering in the mists, trying to figure out where we’re going — but not knowing where we actually started, so we have NO idea just which way we are supposed to be moving. That diagnosis is a street sign — and we can then move along to where we want to be.
You, m’dear, amaze me. I’m not much younger than you (as near as I can figure) and I know that change at “our” age is not the easiest thing. Especially something as deeply profound as changing (at least our understanding) of “who we are”. I appreciate the joy you have brought me, as I tag along on your writings, to know that there is someone who is discovering important things, someone who is still seeking to understand this world. Far too many people, even those in good mental health, have no desire to move beyond their comfortable little limits and never experience the truly new and different.
Peace and blessings and Zen hugs as always.
K