Our society thrives on labels … Asian, thin, Catholic, short, autistic, shy, gay, Black, Jewish … and these labels are how society segregates us and tries to make sense of us. Most of the time these labels create problems and stereotypes which reduce the whole person into false categories. As Price Ea says in the powerful video below, when we believe these stereotypes, we are “choosing smallness over greatness.”

Society also creates stereotypes by labeling a list of conditions present in a person as a “mental health disorder.” This superficial label reduces a whole person into that diagnosis. A child who can’t sit still for long has ADHD. Someone with wider than “normal” mood swings is labeled bipolar. The woman who takes longer than “normal” to recover from grief over losing her husband is labeled depressed. In other words, a composite of normal human emotions and reactions is labeled as a “disorder” needing to be treated, and all too often with medication. In society, these labels can create a stigma against the person and ensuing behavior.

What is under that defining label? Perhaps that restless child has trouble sleeping. The depressed woman may have underlying self-worth issues that prevent her from working through her grief in a healthy way. When the label is removed and the soul condition is revealed, that is when healing can happen. The limits imposed by society or ourselves are gone, and we can examine the experiences themselves.

But in a therapeutic setting, labeling can be useful. Specific diagnoses often help with effective treatments, both medication and psycho-therapeutic. People are often comforted by having a diagnosis that explains – at least in part – what is going on for them. It can help them to not feel alone and more understood, especially by therapists but also sometimes by teachers and family members. The diagnosis can be a tool for healing, not just a label imposed by mental health professionals.

While society’s superficial labels can be greatly limiting, the label of “mental health condition” is useful as a means to an end, an impetus to reach out for assistance and healing.