I Am Not My Diagnosis

[Jester]

I went through many years of wondering what was wrong with me, only to finally arrive at a diagnosis. Now, I am in a season where I'm coming to realize that my diagnosis is only an explanation, but it does not identify me. I don't have to give in to the flashbacks, the emotional dissociation, the paranoia. Sometimes, I have a tendency to mold my behavior to my diagnosis, but I don't have to do that.

I can laugh because something is funny. I can cry because something is sad. I don't have to remain distant. I can be afraid and still jump into the fray of a social situation, because PTSD doesn't keep me pinned down. Just because I'm afraid or nervous doesn't mean I can't interact, because "normal" folks experience those same emotions.

I have PTSD. It doesn't have me.

 

[Ladyghosthunter]

BINGO!!! You hit the nail on the head. We are not some kind of freak, or overemotional deviant that can't handle life. We are ourselves and we suffer through traumas much different than everyone else but we're alive.

I have PTSD. I am a survivor. I am me.

 

[Deleted member 1860]

Well I am my diagnosis. Hard to not be when you're rejected left and right for being mental. Glad you moved past it though.

 

[Upside Down Eagle]

Awesome Jester! Becoming ourselves starts with realizing what we are (not). :tup:

 

[The Albatross]

I am not my diagnoses (PTSD or the chronic physical ones)... they are aspects of "me", contained within me, but even the culmination of all of them does not define me, who I am or what I am about. It is adversity. I prefer to think of it that way and there are tools for how to deal with and manage that. The minute my brain conjures up my ailments and difficulties and weaves them as a hair shirt to wear or a heavy yoke to bear on my shoulders... I remember it's perceptual and that I have a choice. This far down the road, though there is at times no defense from the spontaneous reactions (triggers)... when I get some levity I can examine it and pick the perception that best serves me moving forward. It has improved my quality of life and gotten me back some dignity and self confidence regardless of what other people do or say. I'm not in charge or control of other peoples actions or behaviors... I am though personally responsible, if not always in charge or control of my own.

 

[Seasounds]

I am not my diagnoses (PTSD or the chronic physical ones)... they are aspects of "me", contained within me, but even the culmination of all of them does not define me, who I am or what I am about

.This speaks more to how i relate to myself. My identity is deeper (spiritual) than my diagnosis, and, being practical, I certainly need to tend to my mental health condition-as needs arise. The diagnosis helps explain many dynamics of mine, and I can work with them (victor), rather than being defined by them (victim), or being in denial of them (victim). This is how I find a way to not be defined by my diagnosis.

@Jester, awesome, to know the diagnosis doesn't define you!