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> there's no reason you actually need this specific label. Would you feel the same way about appendicitis? Like, there's zero reason for a diagnosis or a "labe

> there's no reason you actually need this specific label. Would you feel the same way about appendicitis? Like, there's zero reason for a diagnosis or a "label" and if your side hurts you should just be able to get whatever you want cut out of you until you feel better? Labels are important for a lot of reasons. It's human nature to classify things and it's a whole lot easier when we do. By taking a list of symptoms and assigning one or more labels to it we can differentiate between the various causes of a person's symptoms. Someone might improve their symptoms by popping stimulants all day long, but it's possible that by identifying the cause of their symptoms and finding the right label a doctor could make taking all those pills and dealing with their side effects unnecessary. A diagnosis helps doctors select the most effective treatments without nearly as much trail and error. The diagnosis is also extremely helpful for the patient! It helps them to explain (to themselves and others) why it is that they are different, it sets expectations for what problems their condition might bring them, and helps them identify others who struggle similarly so that they can commiserate and gain insights and strategies for dealing with those problems. It's terrible if you were misdiagnosed once and that the experience has soured you to the entire idea of diagnostic medicine but as imperfect as that science is, it's still the best we've managed to come up with, it solves a lot more problems than it causes, and those solutions help with a lot more than just sorting out the billing. ADHD is absolutely a mental illness. I can't say if you actually have it or not. It is possible that your problems were entirely from your recent abuse and ADHD was total misdiagnosis, or maybe your recent abuse exacerbated your ADHD symptoms to the point that they became unmanageable. Either way the label you were given matters very little compared to how well your executive functioning is working today. If you're functioning to your satisfaction then the label doesn't matter much. If you're still struggling, your doctor can use your label or assign new ones to help guide you towards the best treatments to get you where you want to be. People shouldn't fear a label any more than they should let one become their identity or blind them to other possible causes for their problems.

faeriechangling 4y ago
It's wasn't that I thought I was misdiagnosed, I agreed with the diagnosis, it's that I felt mistreated. I remember coming into that office that day and thinking "I'll make sure I won't get diagnosed with something else" because a fair amount of my past abuse was a result of institutional discrimination caused by school policies that mandated certain treatment of certain children with labels to the point of stupidity regardless of the child's consent or protests. The issue was, I had the same label as what had previously typically been a more severe disability, and thus was treated as mentally incompetent by policy. I didn't want to be diagnosed, I didn't want the treatment (And it never did end up helping), and none of this actually got to the root of my problems. I ran an experiment soon after diagnosis. I gummed my medication one week, and told the teacher I took it, and asked them how I thought I was doing. They thought I was doing great! I then took it, and said I stopped taking it due to side effects. They said I was really struggling. I stopped taking the drug after that, and got an angry response in return, as now that I was diagnosed, I had a moral obligation to treat myself. Do recall I was a recent victim of severe abuse when I say all this. I got another label later, I took one psychiatric medication, I reacted to it badly right away and called the doctor to report this in 2 days, something I virtually never do. He just told me to tough it out for a month to see if it worked. It was a month of hell I felt I was morally obliged to go through to "Get better" because as my doctor says, the evidence says I have to give it time. My issue isn't being misdiagnosed, it's being correctly diagnosed and the prescribed approaches not working. I've grown to see these labels as just packages of prejudices and I've had quite a bit of distaste for. I wish I could just be misdiagnosed, but it was only two years ago a coworker approached me and confided in how they had ADHD and thought I did too, so I don't have any ability to truly convince people I don't have these labels anyways. So long as this system is useful for other peoples purposes, my opinion and my experiences don't matter. You know what my username is a reference too? It's a reference to folklore about stolen children. At first children would appear normal, but when the faeries "stole" the child in early childhood, they would start exhibiting bizarre traits like obsessively counting seeds, jumping and dancing about, and unusual intelligence for their age. The people of the time figured these children must not really be human, but changelings, replaced by faeries. Martin Luther of protestant fame figured they were children replaced by satan who could only be cured through murder. So that's what my username is, a reference to a label for children who acted differently which justified their murder.

faeriechangling 4y ago

It's wasn't that I thought I was misdiagnosed, I agreed with the diagnosis, it's that I felt mistreated. I remember coming into that office that day and thinking "I'll make sure I won't get diagnosed with something else" because a fair amount of my past abuse was a result of institutional discrimination caused by school policies that mandated certain treatment of certain children with labels to the point of stupidity regardless of the child's consent or protests. The issue was, I had the same label as what had previously typically been a more severe disability, and thus was treated as mentally incompetent by policy. I didn't want to be diagnosed, I didn't want the treatment (And it never did end up helping), and none of this actually got to the root of my problems. I ran an experiment soon after diagnosis. I gummed my medication one week, and told the teacher I took it, and asked them how I thought I was doing. They thought I was doing great! I then took it, and said I stopped taking it due to side effects. They said I was really struggling. I stopped taking the drug after that, and got an angry response in return, as now that I was diagnosed, I had a moral obligation to treat myself. Do recall I was a recent victim of severe abuse when I say all this. I got another label later, I took one psychiatric medication, I reacted to it badly right away and called the doctor to report this in 2 days, something I virtually never do. He just told me to tough it out for a month to see if it worked. It was a month of hell I felt I was morally obliged to go through to "Get better" because as my doctor says, the evidence says I have to give it time. My issue isn't being misdiagnosed, it's being correctly diagnosed and the prescribed approaches not working. I've grown to see these labels as just packages of prejudices and I've had quite a bit of distaste for. I wish I could just be misdiagnosed, but it was only two years ago a coworker approached me and confided in how they had ADHD and thought I did too, so I don't have any ability to truly convince people I don't have these labels anyways. So long as this system is useful for other peoples purposes, my opinion and my experiences don't matter. You know what my username is a reference too? It's a reference to folklore about stolen children. At first children would appear normal, but when the faeries "stole" the child in early childhood, they would start exhibiting bizarre traits like obsessively counting seeds, jumping and dancing about, and unusual intelligence for their age. The people of the time figured these children must not really be human, but changelings, replaced by faeries. Martin Luther of protestant fame figured they were children replaced by satan who could only be cured through murder. So that's what my username is, a reference to a label for children who acted differently which justified their murder.