I am currently reading 'All The Bright Places' by Jennifer Niven and it has got me thinking. This page you see here got really personal for me real quick. What's going on in this chapter is the main character Theodore Finch is attending his first group therapy session. He soon realises everyone there feels their labels define them. I myself have been in group therapy sessions and in hospitals when the first question isn't how you are it's simply Name, Age, Diagnosis, Reason For Admission, Voluntary/Sectioned, Been In Hospital Before? Even in settings like that it's all about the label you've been branded with.
A lot of the people surrounding myself tell me I am far to harsh on myself. I blame my BPD on myself. I consider BPD as my label and I have let it define every part of my life from my relationships to college work. This book has got me thinking it shouldn't be that way though. Someone living with a physical condition isn't their Diabetes or Epilepsy etc they are who they have become and are totally separate from their illness or condition. However, a lot of people diagnosed with a mental health condition see themselves as just their illness and nothing more. I think this a factor of both public stigma and negative feelings towards oneself but it doesn't have to be this way.
The thing I have learnt today is you are not your mental illness. Unfortunately, though that mind set is hard to get out of.
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