Gemma Spake

The idea is that there's some huge biological epidemic when we can very clearly see all these factors that are really increasing our conversation around mental health and increasing diagnosis rates at times as well.

I think at the end of the day, what we're really circling is like, who deserves a diagnosis, deserves being in quotation marks, and who doesn't?

And what does a label actually mean?

Obviously, it means something.

That's why people are so protective over it.

That's why it's so closely guarded by clinical guidelines.

What does a label mean to people?

Why is it important?

Why is it discussed?

Why is it controversial?

We're going to talk more about that after this short break.

I felt like I got hit by a truck.

I thought, how could this happen to me?

So what we're really getting to is like, why is a label important?

A formal diagnosis and a label is important because of the doors that it opens.

Firstly, it opens the door of self-understanding.

And whether that's self-diagnosis or formal diagnosis, I think the understanding is the most crucial part.

Research continuously shows that although a diagnosis is a complicated feeling for some, for most it is a relief and it's self-affirming and it provides much deeper understanding.

A label then also provides access to treatment, relevant accommodations, educational support, workplace adjustments, legal protections, medication, you know, the list goes on.

And the reason it provides that is because we live in a society that runs off of systems and those systems need a clear reductionist way of categorizing people so they know who gets let in the door, so they know who gets access to what in society.