Phil recently had the opportunity to speak at Thrive 2020, a forward thinking mental health conference that happened in Guernsey on Oct 17, 2015. Phil uses the clip below in his talk. It always gets a great response from the audience, so we want to share it here with you.
In 1952 when the DSM-I came out it had 106 “mental disorders”. Now, in 2015, that number has expanded to 365 disorders with the DSM-5. Some disorders even include a common occurrence for many in Seattle – caffeine withdrawal!
Labels may be useful for insurance purposes, but for those going through a mental health crisis labels often hinder recovery. Imagine, or remember, if you were told that you had one of these disorders like schizophrenia or bipolar? Not only can this have damaging effects to your self-esteem and self-trust, but people diagnosed with a “mental disorder” are often more vulnerable to stigma and discrimination.
What do you think an alternative is to using labels in mental health care?
