By the time I lost count of the number of times I spent time in behavioral health hospitals, I had also lost track of their different diagnoses for me.
Schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, ADD, ADHD, psychosis and clinical depression are the ones I can remember. But sometimes I wonder if there is actually a person alive who has ever received the oh-so-coveted professional diagnosis of “normal.” And if too few people are normal, then the inherent bias informing these definitions is greatly understated.
That is not to say that mental health issues do not exist. But the degree to which we stigmatize them does not correspond to the shared experiences many of us are having.