The Pros and Cons of Mental Health Diagnoses

Bipolar Personality Disorder, Major Depressive Disorder, Seasonal Affective Disorder, ADHD… These examples are just a fraction of the list of mental health disorders recognized by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) — and the list continues to grow. The question is, how does receiving a mental health diagnosis help us? And less commonly asked — how might it hinder us?

The following is a list of pros and cons related to receiving a diagnosis, from the perspective of a professional therapist. Please keep in mind that these observations are based on my own experience, so take them with a grain of salt.

I’ll start off on a positive note by tackling the pros:

Sounds pretty good, right? Unfortunately, there are also some potential downsides to being diagnosed. Here’s what they look like in my experience:

If you are wondering whether or not you should look into getting diagnosed, make sure that you weigh the potential downsides against the upsides before making your decision. And if you have a diagnosis already, always remember that everything you are is much bigger than that. You are a magnificently complex system — more complex than anything we can even imagine. You are a human being.

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