Hey, everybody! Happy Thursday.
Now, today's question comes from Twitter.
I hopped over there and asked you all what you wanted me to talk about today,
and I got a ton of requests, so if this question isn't yours, don't worry.
I've jotted them all down in my list and those are coming soon.
So make sure you're subscribed, and make sure you have your notifications turned
on, 'cause you don't want to miss 'em.
But today's question is a good one, and it is: "How important is a diagnosis in
therapy? I've been in therapy for four years and I never got a clear diagnosis."
And I hear this a lot, and I think it's important to talk about all of the
different components of a diagnosis. Firstly, I wanna talk about the client's
perspective, okay? For whoever asked this question, I think that a diagnosis is
only important if it matters to you. If you have all these symptoms, and you
wonder what the hell is going on, and you feel terrible, you don't know how to
describe it to people, having a word, or having a term or a diagnosis to describe
it can be really helpful, and it can be validating. For many of my clients,
they'll say, "It's just so nice to be able to say, 'Oh, it's just my anxiety, or I
have panic disorder, and so that's what's going on,'" and to have a term that you
can place on it can be like, "That's what it is! I'm not just going crazy or feeling
like I'm drowning periodically. That's what's happening!" And so in that respect,
I think that diagnosis can be - or diagnoses as a whole - can be really
helpful, and really beneficial, because it can help us feel more understood, and
help us better help ourselves. Then we might know what workbooks to look up, what
specialists we might wanna see if we're not in therapy, or if we're in therapy,
maybe we need to move on to a specialist. All sorts of things.
It could open up a whole world where we can help ourselves better.
Now, the second component is the therapist's perspective. And diagnoses are
important to me for various reasons, the first being, if I work with a treatment
plan, which I think all therapist should do, and a treatment plan is really what I
put together with you. It's a living, breathing, working document that we
utilise in order to make sure that we're still working on our goals together, and
we're still moving and tracking towards those goals. And so when I first meet with
my clients, I often ask them, "What symptoms are you experiencing, like, what
brought you in today? What goals do you have? Short term? Long term?" And then
I'll even sometimes break them down into personal goals, work or school goals,
things like that. And so that kinda helps us track what we're doing together. It's a
treatment plan. It's a plan for your treatment, and a diagnosis can really help
with that, because once I kind of know what we're working on - let's say it's
self-injury and we wanna work on those impulses - it can help cater the tools and
techniques I'm gonna offer in order to help you achieve the goal. Another reason
that diagnoses are important is insurance companies. And I have to be
honest: that's probably one of the number one reasons why I ever write down a
diagnostic code, and go through the symptomology step by step, is because
insurance companies require it. They need to know what's going on in order to
cover your treatment and your therapy sessions. A way to kind of hopefully make
this make sense is like, you couldn't just go to your regular GP doctor and have
them just bill your insurance for five hundred dollars and not explain any of it,
right? They usually have, like, a breakdown with these codes about what they
were treating. Like a code saying you had to be tested for the flu, right? And so
the same goes for therapy. And you can see why it's necessary, although it's very
annoying. And so there are certain diagnoses that get extreme, great coverage
you can go to inpatient, you can get all this stuff, and there are others that
they're like, "Oh, you can have five sessions, and we're done." And so those
codes are very important. And those codes come out of DSM diagnoses.
And that's really why we have to have them, and that's why I have those
conversations with my clients about it. I always talk to my clients about it
before I put something on a super bill, or an insurance form. Because insurances
keep that information, and in the States, we've been dealing with 'pre-existing
conditions', and what that means for coverage. And a pre-existing condition
just means that you had something before you got that coverage. And so then they
may say, "Oh, we can't cover you." And so different diagnoses can lead to that.
So it's really important as a client, as a patient, to understand what's going on
your record and to understand what they think that you're struggling with, because
you are the only person who knows your experience through and through. And so
it's important to have a conversation about it. And if you feel like you've been
given the wrong diagnosis, or you don't know if you have a diagnosis, you can ask,
and you can talk about it, because at the end of the day, it's yours. It's what
you're working on. It's what you came to therapy for, and hopefully you feel that
it fits your experience. I think the message that I want you all to hear is
that you have a right to know what it is. You have a right to ask about it. And
more importantly, you have a right to ask for other opinions. I always, if a client
doesn't agree with a diagnosis, which I don't - I actually don't think I've had
happen - knock on wood - but if it hasn't
happened to me - but if it did, I am more than willing to send my clients out
for different assessments, to go to different testing centres if they don't
think that the diagnosis that I gave them fits. And so know that you have a right to
talk about it, you have a right to tell them why or why not you think it fits, and
you have a right to get other assessments, because we need to make sure
that we're getting the treatment that we need and deserve, right? And if we
aren't diagnosed properly - let's say they're treating bipolar disorder when we
really struggle with borderline personality disorder - I have a video to tell you
the difference - then we might not be getting what we really need. And if we're
on medication, that can get even more confusing. Just know that you have a
right to ask them about it, figure out what it is, and to have a conversation.
Because diagnoses can follow us, they can get us treatment, they can make sure we
get the help that we need, and they can make sure that we're actually getting the
treatment for what we're struggling with. So talk about it, know that it's
completely okay to question it, to agree or disagree. And a therapist isn't going
to be upset with you asking what it is and why. It's part of the treatment process,
and I honestly believe that they should all be open to having it with you.
So speak up, advocate for yourself, and make sure you're getting the treatment
that you need and deserve.
I hope you found that helpful. I know there are a lot of questions regarding
diagnoses, and I hope that just kinda clears up what rights you have, and how we
diagnose people.
And as a surprise, and a little bonus, I put journal topics in the description.
I know a lot of you have been missing them. If you are an OG viewer, you
remember on my FAQ videos, at the end, I always offered up a journal topic, and I
know a lot of you have been wanting them, so I put some in the description.
So check those out. And as always, thank you so much to my Patreon patrons. WIthout
your support, this channel wouldn't be possible. So this video is brought to you
by them. Thank you. Thank you so much. And if you're curious what Patreon is,
you can click the link in the description and check it out. It's just another way
to support channels like Kati Morton, and make sure that we can continue to
create content. Now click over here to subscribe. I put out videos twice a week,
and I also do some livestreams, and you don't wanna miss 'em, so make sure your
notifications are turned on, and I will see you next time. Bye!
Subtitles by the Amara.org community