{"id":7518,"date":"2013-09-04T08:50:21","date_gmt":"2013-09-04T15:50:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=7518"},"modified":"2013-09-03T12:24:26","modified_gmt":"2013-09-03T19:24:26","slug":"abilitys-muse-when-diagnosis-becomes-an-identity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2013\/09\/04\/abilitys-muse-when-diagnosis-becomes-an-identity\/","title":{"rendered":"<em>Ability\u2019s Muse<\/em>: When diagnosis becomes an identity"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>There is value in diagnosis; it can be a source of comfort and a means to guide treatment. A diagnosis should be a way of defining a specific set of symptoms. But when a diagnosis becomes an individual\u2019s defining trait, a dangerous line is crossed. Who we are as individuals becomes compromised and we are reduced to little more than a label.<\/p>\n<p>The child playing in the park isn\u2019t an epileptic, and the neighbour across the way isn\u2019t a schizophrenic. That child has epilepsy, and that neighbour has schizophrenia, and the minute we as individuals start identifying ourselves and others as a diagnosis first, and a human being second, we have taken away from the very identity of whom we speak of, boiling down the multifaceted human self to an often negative and even stigmatic identity.<\/p>\n<p>When a label is assigned to an individual it can be demeaning, and although the notion that labels are empowering thrives in many circles, this mentality doesn\u2019t apply to everyone. We as a society deny the richness and complexity that we each hold, simply in the language we use, and our attitudes and beliefs tend to follow suit.<\/p>\n<p>To label is to refuse the very essence of who we are: a multitude of abilities, experiences, and passions. We are each so much more than a diagnosis. Don\u2019t be the label that we as a society are so quick to assign.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There is value in diagnosis; it can be a source of comfort and a means to guide treatment. A diagnosis should be a way of defining a specific set of symptoms. But when a diagnosis becomes an individual\u2019s defining trait, a dangerous line is crossed. Who we are as individuals becomes compromised and we are [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,109],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-columns","category-september-4-2013"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7518"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7518\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7520,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7518\/revisions\/7520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}