02/10/2026
Labels are a little bit funny. Especially mental health labels. Which are, without a doubt, being scattered around social media by professionals, lay people, lay people who think they are professionals, and professionals who should think twice about attaching their name to impulsive declarations.
I can safely say that after 40 years of clinical practice, 42 years of living with the same man, 3 dogs, and 4 grandchildren, and decades spent studying and researching mental health diagnoses, I suspect I have more than a touch of: A.D.H.D, OCD, Anxiety, Depressive thinking, Chronic Fatigue, Neurodivergence, Learning Challenges, Aphantasia, Insomnia, Hyper-reactivity and Over-Sensitive Arousal Syndrome, (I just made that one up) Avoidant Behavior, Subclinical Traumatic Stress Disorder, Adjustment Disorder.
I'm sure there's more.
I am not making light of these diagnoses. Quite the opposite. Experiencing these traits over a lifetime has taught me something important:
A symptom without context is not a diagnosis.
And a diagnosis without context can do harm.
My point is that when labels are stripped of context, relationship, and careful discernment, they stop being helpful and start becoming displaced declarations.
Most of us, over a lifetime, will touch many diagnostic categories. That doesn’t mean we *are* those diagnoses. It means we are human.
And mental health - real mental health work - was never meant to be practiced at a distance, in absolutes, or without restraint and careful consideration of context.
Therefore, please -
✅ Be mindful of what you say or write. And what you claim to be true.
✅ Be discerning about what you read, hear, and believe.
💜
