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Bridget Young's avatar

As a health psychologist, I could not agree more. I used to sit in a room with other clinicians assessing hours and hours of psychometrics (psychological testing results) and we would argue the resulting diagnoses ("consulting"). One clinician favored ADHD so much that he assigned it *almost every time, even alongside other disorders that would- according to the DSM- rule it out. There is so much human judgment and assumption and error in this process that it became unethical and laughable to me. We are forced into a medical model by insurance companies that demand a code to bill and those little codes become part of peoples' permanent identity. Do you know how many times I just diagnose Adjustment Disorder (?) cuz, we're all adjusting to some life event when we need psychological/emotional help. Thanks for putting this into the world.

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Nan Tepper's avatar

Love this, love your book. I read it before I started working with you, and it blew me away. As a mental health consumer with too many years under my belt of being in the care of pharmacologists playing willy-nilly with meds and my brain, I grew very skeptical over time that they knew what they were talking about. The first time I was ever prescribed an antidepressant in the late 80s, I asked the doctor to explain how the medication worked. He shrugged, and said they had no idea, but that it worked, and that it was due to a chemical imbalance in my brain. The shrug stuck with me. But I still gave my power away for too many years, for too many meds. Living a different life now. The doctor exclaimed, "It's better living through chemistry!" I exclaim, I'm living better by understanding the trauma I experienced, working through those issues that kept me from enjoying a full life, and overall prefer a much more holistic approach to my health, mental, physical, cultural, and social. It's all connected. And I still take an antidepressant. It helps, but it's not the only answer, not by a long shot. Thanks, Sarah, for sharing it, for writing it, and for being so up front about your own history. xo

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