Sarah Fay on Pathological: The Dangers of Overidentifying With a Mental Health Diagnosis EP 144

Jun 2, 2022

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Sarah Fay discusses her new book Pathological and how, by researching her six misdiagnoses, she concluded that the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) is utterly inaccurate. | Brought to you by Masterworks (https://masterworks.io use code PASSION to start your journey).

Sarah Fay (Ph.D., MFA) writes for many publications, including The New York Times, The Atlantic, Time, and The Paris Review. She's the recipient of the Hopwood Award for Literature and grants and fellowships from Yaddo, the Mellon Foundation, and the MacDowell Colony. She's on the faculty at Northwestern University and the founder of Pathological: The Movement.

She is the author of the new book Pathological: The True Story of Six Misdiagnoses: https://amzn.to/3McFd7o (Amazon link).

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What I discuss with Sarah Fay:

Almost one in five people (47.1 million) in the US have been diagnosed with a mental health condition. That number increased by about 1.5 million from last year. More may follow with a mounting sense of isolation in our fragmented country. But is a mental diagnosis the path to healing or a self-fulfilling prophecy?

Sarah suffered from six mental illness diagnoses for almost thirty years, all labeled because of the DSM. She realized the DSM is seriously flawed, even useless, but it's all we have through that process.

Time Stamps

0:00 Intro and announcements
2:41 Introducing Sarah Fay
5:07 Why Anorexia and Bipolar illness were defining moments
8:29 Why Pathological is eloquently written through the use of punctuation
11:47 How her mental illness diagnosis impacted Sarah
19:08 Why the DSM is seriously flawed, even useless
29:20 Why the DSM has no scientific validity
35:12 Why do we desperately want an answer and relief from our suffering
38:28 Why chronic loneliness is so rampant in the world today
43:53 Why suffering, grief, and loneliness are part of the human experience
46:00 Why the DSM can't define dysfunction
51:14 How her whole world disappeared because of her diagnoses
56:45 Overcoming withdrawal from psychological drugs
1:00:27 Why when she stopped considering herself sick she no longer was
1:05:27 The Cautionary Tale of the Dangers of Over-Identifying With a Mental Health Diagnosis
1:06:57 Show Wrap Up and Synthesis

Where can you find Sarah Fay

* Pathological: The Movement: https://www.pathological.us/

* Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sarahfayauthor/

* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-fay-460570188/

* Twitter: https://twitter.com/sarahfayauthor

Links

* My interview with Susan Cain on her new book "Bittersweet"

* My interview with Gretchen Rubin about knowing yourself

* My interview with Dr. Michelle Segar on her new book "The Joy Choice"

* My most recent solo episode on why you must feel to emotionally heal

*My Solo episode on work-life balance: https://open.spotify.com/episode/7AZksXySbYVoMPMuma5DpB?si=_VPv5sn3QBCq2pYVh-LXkg

*Solo episode on overcoming burnout: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5keAXxjRs3Q8NKZYWBlPXS?si=N-nf0iQjThSzgsCAutPVPA

*Solo episode on how you stop living in fear: https://passionstruck.com/how-do-you-stop-living-in-fear/

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