This came across my feed from notable psychologist Nicole LePera aka The Holistic Psychologist. It resonated strongly with what I have seen in clients who show up either saying they have some mental health condition (without formal diagnosis) OR were recently diagnosed by a clinician.
We explore a bit and note the high stress, multitasking, way-too-much-to-do, high demanding work and life they have. They say they cannot focus on anything. They have high anxiety and fear about what seems to be everything. They may be depressed about their situation and their relationships. They have zero energy to do anything, let alone get out of their situation. They are hanging on for dear life, sometimes for real and in their perceptions too.
Then they either label themselves or they go seek help with a clinician. The clinician gives them a test and they cross the threshold on the testing to some clinical diagnosis of a mental health condition.
Look, I’m not knocking the mental health clinical field. However, when you take into account the situation these people are in, these diagnoses may lead to resolutions that aren’t the whole story.
For example, I had one client who noted they could not focus. They went to a clinician who diagnosed them with ADHD and they began to talk about medicines to help.
Subsequent exploration yielded the fact that this client HATED what they were doing and all they wanted to do was avoid it.
Hmm OK. We coach on awareness of that, and then some possible resolutions to get past this notion of HATING what they were working on.
Client feels better and empowered. Focus….improves.
(More) Hmmm….
It’s just a lesson in awareness here. That context matters and can bring up symptoms that can be classically diagnosed. If you’ve been surfing the net and picking up all these juicy big mental health words and then start thinking you might be suffering from one or more of them, just be aware that it may be something that is situational and at this moment in time, and that there are often a lot of resolutions you can do yourself (or with the help of a coach or the right clinician) and without the need for medicines.
There is never any harm in checking with a clinician on anything but take charge of your own path and add the information you get from any resource to your own and make the right call.
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