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A behavioral health diagnosis doesn't mean you're damaged or disabled or even that you're a special snowflake that needs special accommodations. A behavioral h

A behavioral health diagnosis doesn't mean you're damaged or disabled or even that you're a special snowflake that needs special accommodations. A behavioral health diagnosis, just like any health diagnosis, just recognizes that you have some thing that is negatively impacting you. Just as the diagnosis of an ingrown toenail doesn't mean you need special treatment, neither does a mental health diagnosis.

lutusp 11y ago
> Just as the diagnosis of an ingrown toenail doesn't mean you need special treatment, neither does a mental health diagnosis. Nonsense. Try getting a top security clearance if you have a mental illness diagnosis. Try getting certain kinds of insurance, or preferential treatment in many professions, or any number of other examples in modern society -- a mental illness diagnosis is a burden for a lifetime. The fact that the "illness" may have resulted from a fantasy like recovered memory therapy or be based on a make-believe ailment like Asperger's or homosexuality, doesn't matter -- same burden, same stigma.
- DanBC 11y ago
  GCHQ have made a point of recruiting people with autism spectrum diagnoses. There's plenty of people with severe mental illness who have security clearances.
  - lutusp 11y ago
    > There's plenty of people with severe mental illness who have security clearances. Yes, but only if they lie or waffle in their applications, because mental illness is specifically discussed as a reason to deny clearance. http://www.military.com/veteran-jobs/security-clearance-jobs/psychologial-conditions-and-security-clearances.html http://www.military.com/veteran-jobs/security-clearance-jobs...
- JohnBooty 11y ago
  Yeah, there's definitely a stigma. Often an unfair one. You are correct. That does not conflict with anything I said. A mental health diagnosis does not generally mean that a person is dangerous, unemployable, or disabled. A negative reaction of others to a diagnosis, based on fear and ignorance, is a big problem that we need to address. But those erroneous reactions don't change the intrinsic meaning of a diagnosis.

lutusp 11y ago

> Just as the diagnosis of an ingrown toenail doesn't mean you need special treatment, neither does a mental health diagnosis. Nonsense. Try getting a top security clearance if you have a mental illness diagnosis. Try getting certain kinds of insurance, or preferential treatment in many professions, or any number of other examples in modern society -- a mental illness diagnosis is a burden for a lifetime. The fact that the "illness" may have resulted from a fantasy like recovered memory therapy or be based on a make-believe ailment like Asperger's or homosexuality, doesn't matter -- same burden, same stigma.

DanBC 11y ago
GCHQ have made a point of recruiting people with autism spectrum diagnoses. There's plenty of people with severe mental illness who have security clearances.
- lutusp 11y ago
  > There's plenty of people with severe mental illness who have security clearances. Yes, but only if they lie or waffle in their applications, because mental illness is specifically discussed as a reason to deny clearance. http://www.military.com/veteran-jobs/security-clearance-jobs/psychologial-conditions-and-security-clearances.html http://www.military.com/veteran-jobs/security-clearance-jobs...
JohnBooty 11y ago
Yeah, there's definitely a stigma. Often an unfair one. You are correct. That does not conflict with anything I said. A mental health diagnosis does not generally mean that a person is dangerous, unemployable, or disabled. A negative reaction of others to a diagnosis, based on fear and ignorance, is a big problem that we need to address. But those erroneous reactions don't change the intrinsic meaning of a diagnosis.