ive gotten a lot of backlash in the past for criticizing the model of psychiatric diagnosis as a way of understanding human emotions. the accusation is usually that having these criticisms must mean that ive never suffered any real emotional pain in my life.
by objecting to the labeling of emotional reactions to adversity as "mental illness", it must mean that i think everybody just needs to pull themselves up by their bootstraps and that i dont know how hard some people have it.
which is so funny, as someone who has been diagnosed with multiple "mental illnesses", taken multiple classes of psychiatric medications, been institutionalized three times, and struggled with deep emotional pain and difficulty with functioning & socially adjusting my whole life.
but its exactly the experience of stepping away from the psychiatric "mental illness" and medicalization model of understanding my mind and emotions that has led me to develop the beliefs i now hold.
my quality of life, my mindset, and the quality of my relationships improved dramatically when i switched to an emotion based approach to my struggles. no longer pathologizing myself, but instead validating my pain and working with myself instead of trying to fix myself.
research shows that those who believe they have a chemical imbalance have worse outcomes than those who dont. this is because these theories invented by the pharmaceutical industry take away your agency and make you unable to truly connect with yourself and your experiences.
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