We have embraced the use of these labels as a means to gain insight into our own identities. While this normalization can prove beneficial in reducing the stigma surrounding conditions like bipolar disorder, anxiety, and ADHD, it also, regrettably, constrains our capacity to express a full spectrum of human emotions and reactions that are entirely natural.
Being human entails a wide range of experiences. I should be able to shed tears without being labeled as bipolar, just as I should be allowed to experience a moment of distraction without the assumption of having ADHD. There will inevitably be moments when I feel overwhelmed and unfocused, and this should not automatically translate into a diagnostic classification. It's important to recognize that these diagnostic categories were never meant to confine the richness and complexity of the human experience.
Shivana Naidoo is a child psychiatrist.
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