Is Alcoholic Diagnosis Helpful?

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diagnosis of alcoholic or adect, i think, in a lot of ways, saved my life. And then that complete identification with it is what caused me to sort of move out and away from 12 step programmes. For me, it didn't help ever, because i definitely got worse with each diagnosis. But where it's helpful to have some identity attached to mental illness, for me, one is, i don't want people to be ashamed. The other thing about not drinking, is that i live a very structured life. I did not become normal, and now i can go party, you know. This is actually something i need to identify with to get well.

Sarah Fay is an author and activist. Her writing appears in many publications, including The New York Times, The Atlantic, Time Magazine, The New Republic, Longreads, The Michigan Quarterly Review, The Rumpus, The Millions, McSweeney’s, The Believer, and The Paris Review, where she served as an advisory editor. She is currently on the faculty of the English departments at Northwestern University and DePaul University.

In this episode, Eric and Sarah discuss her book: Pathological: A True Story of Six Misdiagnoses

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Sarah Fay and I Discuss the Challenges of Mental Health Diagnoses and…

Her book, Pathological: A True Story of Six Misdiagnoses
Defining mental illness and how mental health diagnoses come from the book, “Diagnostic & Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders” (DSM).
Her many diagnoses of mental health disorders in her lifetime
How DSM diagnoses lack validity and reliability
How chemical imbalance theory has been debunked and cannot be proven
The problems with primary care physicians diagnosing psychiatric conditions and overprescribing
How mental illness diagnoses can often become our identity
The different schools of thought on treating mental health conditions with medication
Emotions are vibrations in our bodies and responses to our thoughts
Pathological: The Movement and the three important questions to ask yourself

Sarah Fay Links:

Sarah’s Website

Pathological: The Movement

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If you enjoyed this conversation with Sarah Fay you might also enjoy these other episodes:

Rethinking Mental Health with Eric Maisel

Gabe Howard on Mental Health

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