A narrative of my lived experience of a whole series of psychiatric diagnoses and their impacts on me, ending with a discussion of clinical recovery from psychosis

Abstract

WHAT IS KNOWN ON THE SUBJECT?: All health service users in Belgium have the right to be informed about their diagnosis. There is a whole spectrum of prognoses for psychosis, but many practitioners show a bias towards believing that psychosis is always regressive. WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS TO EXISTING KNOWLEDGE?: This paper is a first person narrative of one thread through my experiences as a mental health service user: the story of my diagnoses. A case study of the functions and impacts of diagnosis. WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE?: Practitioners need to reflect on the impact diagnosis can have on a person and avoid assumptions that the experience and prognosis is universal. A diagnosis can play a positive therapeutic role. ABSTRACT: Purpose The purpose of this paper is to stimulate nurses and other mental health professionals to reflect on what they understand by a psychiatric diagnosis and how they use this understanding. Background I have twenty years' experience as mental health service user, and in this time, I have received numerous diagnoses which have had a variety of impacts on me. Methods The paper began as notes drawn from introspection. I ordered my memories and reflections chronologically to reconstruct this narrative. Keypoints My case makes the point that psychiatric diagnosis is not an established, universal science like in somatic medicine, but a still evolving complex of contradictions and opinions and should not be treated as authoritative. I aim to challenge what I see as a general overestimation of how much a diagnosis tells you about a person and how you should treat them.