Does My Diagnosis Define Me?

In the current online climate, the conversation around mental health diagnoses is abundant. And much of it is validating and beneficial, helping to spread awareness and reduce stigma for a variety of mental health conditions—from OCD, to trauma-related disorders, to ADHD. 

However, amid this abundance of information, substantial misinformation exists, which threatens to dilute or otherwise misrepresent these diagnoses, making it harder for the people for whom these diagnoses correctly apply to see themselves represented in the public conversation, unintentionally alienating them further. 

Rather than seeking to correct every misrepresented diagnosis, however, the purpose of this post is to helpfully and accurately reframe the role of diagnosis more broadly in mental health treatment. 

Your Diagnosis Isn’t Your Identity

One of the critical errors many are making online is viewing diagnoses as immutable aspects of one’s identity. As one might struggle with a chronic physical disease, mental health diagnoses are portrayed as chronic lifelong conditions rooted in a fundamental biological issue.

However, while many diagnoses do pose chronic impacts with clear biomarkers in the brain, it is a misunderstanding to characterize these disorders as purely physical. 

Diagnoses Are Complicated

Within the fields of psychology and psychiatry, the predominant, gold standard model for understanding diagnoses is the biopsychosocial model, which posits that mental health issues are rooted in a complex interaction of biological, psychological, and social causes. 

A Helpful Example

This model runs contrary to the push by many in the online space to conceptualize mental disorders as purely physical diseases of the brain. And major depressive disorder is an excellent “canary-in-the-coal mine” example of this fundamental misunderstanding. 

Many seem to be operating under the outdated monoamine hypothesis, which positions depression as a result of dysfunction in the brain’s ability to produce neurotransmitters like serotonin. However, this hypothesis does not reflect current understanding. 

While neurotransmitter levels are a core focus of treatment when it comes to the application of antidepressants, this does not mean that depression is caused by low levels of serotonin—merely that hormone levels are an important biological component of depression. 

We know that depression is connected to our life experiences—to our upbringings, to the prevalence of harmful systems, to grief and trauma, to the negative or self-limiting schemas and narratives that we carry inside us that have overstayed their welcome—as well as measurable differences in our brains. 

Diagnoses Describe Us In The Present

While some diagnoses are more directly connected to brain differences—like ADHD or schizophrenia—with much of what we observe in mental health, the biological or heritable components are but a piece of the puzzle. 

And this understanding is crucial for how we treat mental “illness.” To be clear: diagnoses are not entities that exist apart from us, like a virus that has hijacked our system.

They describe our current patterns and behaviors, which emerge from our experiences, our ways of coping, the systems that encapsulate us, and our biology. They do not define us; they are not our identity; they are not excuses; and they do not render us helpless or chronically ill. 

They describe us in the present, and they do not necessarily follow us forever.

Closing Thoughts

Diagnoses originated as a way to describe clusters of behaviors using a shorthand, so we could align those simplified categories with treatments that we could then study to generate evidence-based approaches. They are intended to inform our treatment plan, not to label us with a destiny, and not to give us a get-out-of-jail-free card to avoid accountability or preclude us from a path to healing.

If you’re struggling, a qualified psychotherapist or psychiatrist can support you. There’s nothing abnormal about not feeling “normal,” and help is available.