Diagnoses: to pursue or not to pursue?

Some personal thoughts and a turnaround.......

I have historically been defended against diagnosis for deeply personal reasons. I saw someone very close to me struggle massively with receiving a bipolar diagnosis. It brought her so much pain and shame and a sense that this must mean that she was ‘crazy’, ‘broken’ or ‘out of control’. For her, it felt like a personal and devastating failure to receive this label and it shifted her view of herself to someone who was ‘unwell’, whatever that means. The diagnosis was dished out without adequate psychoeducation or much explanation or discussion. What it did come with was a lot of medication, shifts in medication and very little guidance or handholding around the medication.