Diagnoses are billing codes. They are not labels, identities, or personality traits. This reductionism is rampant, even amongst highly credentialed professional

Diagnoses are billing codes. They are not labels, identities, or personality traits. This reductionism is rampant, even amongst highly credentialed professionals. It is therefore my opinion that one is better served to investigate why they're using maladaptive coping strategies, learn new strategies, and demand that they be supported by the very community who allowed them to decay so far. (We can argue causation until the cows bones have fully composted, but that's a dead end.) Mind you support is like a crutch for someone with a broken leg. If you give someone with a broken leg a wheelchair and don't let them walk for two years their uninjured leg will atrophy causing another problem. Likewise, if left untreated a person's broken leg will not set correctly causing a cascade of problems until the damage is appropriately treated. Mental illnesses, barring: brain damage, disease, etc, are often times the result of a cohort of untreated wounds in a persons past that are difficult and increasingly expensive to heal with time, but it is our obligation to engage in whatever ways necessary so that when it us on the bench we can be supported. Any more specific examples I can give are likely to be far more controversial than what I've already said and I would prefer to stay on topic regarding the treatment of serious mental illnesses like MDD.