Why Mental Health Diagnoses Make You Worse with Dr. Caroline Leaf

0:00I have a brand new book called Make Money Easy. and if you're looking to create more financial freedom in your life, you want abundance in your life and you want to stop making money hard in your life but you wanna make it easier, you wanna make it flow, you wanna feel abundant, then make sure to go to makemoneyeasybook.com right now and get yourself a copy. I really think this is gonna help you transform your relationship with money this moment moving forward. We have some big guests and content coming up. Make sure you're following and stay tuned to this episode of The Daily Motivation Show.

0:38Hi, my name is Lewis Howes and welcome to The Daily Motivation Show.

0:49When people self-diagnose that they have a mental disorder or mental problem, you're saying that's very dangerous. But what about if we go to a mental health specialist, a therapist, a doctor, and they give a diagnosis that we're ADHD or whatever it might be? Is that helpful or hurtful? And what should we do next after being diagnosed with a mental health disorder? So that's really a good question. It's an excellent question. It'll make it worse. Really? Because the thing that what we've seen from the research, and there's quite a few of our scientists that are trying to counter this narrative.

1:25And the narrative is that get your label, get your diagnosis, get your medication. And it feels like you're solving a problem because that's what you do if you have diabetes or if you have something wrong with you, go sort it out. And I'm all for sorting things out. But you don't need a label to sort out a life issue. You do need a label if it's cardiovascular disease or something because that's dealing with physical symptoms. But when we deal with stuff that's happening in the mind that does affect your physiology, which I've mentioned already. It could be an invisible disease, right? Or an invisible symptom.

1:59Well, that's the thing. It feels invisible. That's because we don't understand the mind. But we've got this thing that if I feel it physically, it's more important than what I can't feel physically. But we've got to shift our perspective on what do we feel physically. If you feel anxious, you feel terrible. If you feel depressed, you feel terrible. If you feel guilty or jealous, you don't feel great at all or whatever it may be. If you feel any kind of overwhelm, you don't feel good. So your mind, your experience, that's stronger than that hits you first before the actual physical sensation inside your brain and your body.

2:31But we've got so consumed with the physical that we want to label it and lock it in. So getting a diagnosis from a professional is, and some people may not want to hear this, but it will make it worse. because you've now got a professional set within, I mean, the professional set. So therefore, so we rather - It's making it more real. It's making it more embodied inside of you. Exactly. But aren't there a lot of people that, you know, say, oh, I've, you know, I got diagnosed and now I feel better knowing what it is because I was just going crazy, not sure what was happening to me or why I was feeling stressed or overwhelmed or anxious.

3:08Now this medical professional has labeled what it is and diagnosed me as having this mental condition. And I feel better now knowing. But do you think, are you just saying maybe temporarily it could help people feel better? Yeah, it's temporary. And that's what the research shows. But then you're living with this, I am this condition forever until you reverse it or change it or see it differently. Exactly. Well, a lot of the mental health professionals are trained in the fact that the brain can change. Yes, but once you've got that, this is a mental illness that you have for the rest of your life.

3:40So very often you are told that you have this disease. and just the word disease and the word diagnose implies that there is a proven underlying biological or neurobiological cause. So when we use it, it's the language that's being used. So when we say you've got cardiovascular disease, we can actually track it back to the heart. We can do the testing. When it comes to, I feel anxious. Lewis, you can feel anxious about something and I can feel anxious about something. Does it mean we both have a mental disease? No. No, it doesn't mean we have a disease. It means if I listen to your story, there's going to be a lot of stuff.

4:16If you listen to mine, there's going to be a lot of stuff and there's going to be different levels. And it's so complicated and so complex. But the word diagnosis is the meaning of diagnosis means that there is a confirmed scientific neurobiological cause. So when we use the word diagnosis, it feels so sciencey. Interesting. But there isn't. In mental health research, not to this day is all the billions spent on the genetics, studying the brain, studying have they found an actual chemical imbalance, neurobiological change. Even the research on ADHD, when they pull those three studies apart, research is coming out.

4:55Recently, there's been articles all over Apple News and Newsweek and everything about, hey, we've got to stop talking about ADHD as though it's an it. And 30 years ago, 40 years ago, my professors were saying, in 40 years' time, we're going to have this issue. So we've got to be careful of the word diagnose. What's better? I'm awful going to a mental health professional. But the language used is so important. So instead of saying, hey, Lewis, you've got an anxiety, disease, or disorder, there's something wrong with your brain. You're going to have to live with this the rest of your life. That's like a death sentence.

5:25I mean, it's awful. Rather say, okay, you are feeling anxious now. Let's talk about, you know, that's an emotional signal. There's four main signals that we manifest with daily all day long in different aspects. And the one is our emotions. And then the emotions where the next signal is where do you feel those emotions in your body? The next signal is how is this affecting your behaviors? And the next signal is perspective. How is this shifting your perspective? So it would be better for me to say to you, okay, you're feeling anxious. Let's talk about now what's going on in your life, logical, okay?

6:03Now let's talk about specifically what are your feelings at this moment, in this time, right now, at this moment. Where are you feeling it in your body? How is this affecting your behaviors? What is this doing with your perspectives? Okay, now let's reflect on that. And think of reflection. If you look in a mirror, you get a reflection. If you shine a light through a prism, it will come out as a rainbow. Reflect means I'm now going to start looking for the depth behind this. So I'm not just, I'm going to find what is this attached to? Because if I just say anxious, anxious, sore tummy, lousy life for perspective, and I'm irritable.

6:40Those are my four signals. That is a bunch of descriptions. It's not a disease. We've got to be careful of tautologies. It's telling us, those are descriptions of something. It's information. It's information. Exactly.

7:00Thank you so much for listening to today's episode of The Daily Motivation. And I hope you have an amazing rest of your day. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to click the link in the description. That will take you to the full episode of our main podcast on The School of Greatness. And if you are loving The Daily Motivation, please follow us over on Apple Podcasts and Spotify and leave us a review over on Apple Podcasts right now. And if you want more exclusive content and ad-free listening experience, make sure to subscribe to our Greatness Plus channel on Apple Podcast right now. And if you want to get even more inspiration from our world-class guests and learn how to improve your life and take it to the next level, then make sure to sign up for the Greatness newsletter and get it delivered right to your inbox over at greatness.com slash newsletter.

7:50Again, have an amazing day, and I'll see you tomorrow with another episode of the Daily Motivation Show.