Quick disclaimer: With the content of this blog, I by no means intend to deny, dismiss or minimize health issues that people struggle with and the need to address those issues. My heart’s desire with this blog is to encourage you to think outside the box and perhaps encounter a new level of soul healing.
So that being said, let’s talk about LABELS. Of course in the world of nutrition, we encourage, teach and preach the art of looking at food labels. Food labels tell us about what’s inside of the product we are considering to consume. Generally, these labels are accurate, but that’s not always the case. This blog is about another type of label; the kind that pertains to health. These labels are hopefully generally accurate to what is going in our health, but do they correctly describe us?
Today in the U.S. there are about 72,616+ different diagnosis codes available to health care providers. Some are more common and simple than others. Common ones that most of us are familiar with are for things like: headache, flu, & asthma, but there are also very complex ones like fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva (a disorder where bone starts to replace connective tissue)! Diagnoses are given once the cause of symptoms has been determined so health care professionals can develop an appropriate treatment plan to help their patients. Is this bad? Absolutely not!
Just to prove that I am not against this concept of diagnosing and treating health issues, I’ll give an example from my own life: When I was having terrible headaches, body aches, loss of appetite & feeling weak after being bitten by mosquitoes in Kenya, I went to see a doctor. I suspected malaria, but needed a professional’s diagnosis and help in order to get proper treatment! I had testing done to confirm that it was indeed malaria. I was diagnosed and immediately began treatment for malaria.
This example was simple, the doctor diagnosed (or labeled) the symptoms I was experiencing & treated me. However, nowhere along the way did malaria become a label by which I identified myself. I never said, “my malaria” or “I am malaria.” That seems strange. But had it gone on and on, I am sure I would have been tempted to call it mine. Herein lies the topic or issue I wish to discuss in this blog: Giving something a label is different than calling someone by it. Diagnoses are meant to label the presence of disease, but not by which to identify a person. Yet, I have seen in my own life and the lives of countless patients how this small, but significant difference can change the trajectory of health. We have gone from solely identifying what is wrong in our physical or mental health with a label to identifying people, either others or ourselves, by them.
Another example from my own story: I struggled with mental health issues growing up. From obsessively washing my hands until they bled as a middle schooler to feeling so down my freshman year of high school that I missed more days of school than I attended in person. Those issues were real, they were difficult to live with and my parents wisely sought help for me. Mental health care providers diagnosed various things such as OCD, depression & anxiety as they worked with us to help me. The problem was, that instead of me simply getting help with the things I was struggling with, I began to identify myself by them. I used phrases like, “My depression” & “My OCD” vs “I feel depressed.” or “I am battling obsessive thoughts”. There is a marked difference between the two: in the first I am identifying myself as the struggles and in the second I am simply identifying the struggles. But I didn’t know any better and others around me, who also didn’t know any better, affirmed these struggles as my identity. So I settled in and accepted the fate of a lifetime sentence to just cope under labels that seemed to be mine. That is…until others challenged me to think differently!
In my early adult years, I remember some dear friends of mine who questioned those labels I had identified with. They did this because they saw what God sees. They saw who I could really be with His help & began to call it forth. With their words, they began to peel back the labels I had accepted for years. And let me tell you, when the challenge first came, I was thoroughly OFFENDED! I got out my tape, super glue and staple gun to try to stick those labels back on. They threatened the “Me” I had accepted and learned to be. Keeping the labels was easier than what it would require to take them off and work towards true healing. But even in my resistance, something deep within my soul wondered….what if they were right? What if I am not what I struggle with? And what if there really was deeper healing for me?
Well, there was! It took a while and some resistance, but eventually I came to the place where I decided to disagree with the labels I had acquired and find root level healing. I never ignored the real issues I struggled with ‘cause the truth was: they were still there! But I searched God’s Word to find out more of how He saw me, let Him speak to me of who I am in Him and so let Him heal my soul. I learned to identify that when feelings of deep sadness, hopelessness, anxiety or obsessive fear came, that they weren’t mine & therefore, I didn’t have to welcome them to stay. I would tell them and myself the truth over & over & over again. I “ate” these new truths for breakfast, lunch, and dinner! And as I waged this battle in my mind, I have found they have less and less hold over me. They still come knocking on the door of my heart. I acknowledge they are there, explore why they may have come up, & address them without welcoming them back in to rule over my life. They no longer define me!
If you have struggled with physical or mental health issues, I would implore you to assess how you have identified with those issues. Are you a person like me who says things like, “my cancer/diabetes/anxiety/depression/arthritis/colitis….”? Have you accepted them as a permanent label over your life? If so, this can change! Again, I am not saying you ignore the real issues that are there. They may never go away completely. However, I would challenge you to shift from identifying with those issues as a part of who you are to simply identifying them and taking steps to find help/healing. My life has been transformed and I have so much freedom from making this change! I still struggle, but I battle from a place of victory and I have been changed. Dear ones, I know it is God’s desire for you to experience the same. I pray that through this blog you will be either affirmed in the changes you have already begun to make or be challenged to change and find true freedom.
Blessings,
Becky