On Diagnosis

What does it mean to have a diagnosis? When it comes to mental health diagnoses it can be different for everyone. Some resist the trek towards diagnosis because it can put us in a box. A label can become limiting -- for our own psyche, for the care team that helps us, for our family and friends. It can limit what we and others think we are capable of, and who wants that?

Not me.

However, when I was finally officially diagnosed with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder in my 30s, suddenly so many pieces of my life, my decisions, and my way of moving through the world made so much more sense. Furthermore, it allowed me to get more targeted and supportive therapy to overcome some of the biggest hurdles I'd been facing. 

The label, however, does not define me. I don't believe in its limitations. Everything in this life is on a continuum that we are constantly weaving up and through. A diagnosis can be "both/and" it can be the box we sometimes fit into and it can be the light at the end of a very long tunnel that allows us to move forward and break free from fear. 

The reality is, we are whole beings, capable of expressing ourselves fully in myriad ways. Those ways are changeable, malleable, and that is one of the greatest joys of living. The hope and belief that there are millions of possibilities for how we can move and create, for how we show up, and that we have the ability to choose, in each and every moment, what that is for us. 

So label or not, diagnosis or not, you are good right where you are and there are ways to get to a place you'd rather be. I know this to be true. You are loved, and you are brave, every day.