Language: The Importance of Accuracy
Words matter. Listening to people for a living has taught me a lot about the importance of language. When a client is describing a situation, I want to understand the nuances of their story especially when it comes to their emotional experience. Brene Brown, author and researcher, has written a new book called Atlas of the Heart: Mapping Meaningful Connection and the Language of Human Experience, which helps deepen our understanding and use of emotional language. Through significant research, Brown and her team identify 87 emotions and emotional experiences, detailing the important and sometimes subtle differences between words that may often be used inaccurately interchangeably. Brown’s book is such an important read for anyone wanting to deepen their understanding of their own emotional experience and also enrich their relationships with others.
As a therapist, I appreciate Brown’s exploration and education because I witness many people who struggle to name their emotional experiences. Rarely are we taught emotional language. It has become more practiced in schools to teach social and emotional learning, but there are still huge gaps in understanding. Especially in my younger clients, I find a common referencing to emotional language from social media which is not always inaccurate, but without their own education of emotional language and how they experience it, words get muddled. Clients often report emotional experiences utilizing words that are more mental health buzz words than accurate diagnosis.
This all becomes even more problematic when people self-diagnosis their mental health issues. I am not a therapist that pushes diagnosis on my clients and rarely enjoy placing people in boxes, but I can not overemphasize how important it is to have an accurate diagnosis, if one is needed. There are amazing hairsplitting differences between some diagnosis and if you aren’t given an accurate diagnosis then it is more difficult to receive help.
I have observed life-altering changes for clients who receive accurate diagnosis, particularly when it was followed up with the right medication or therapeutic treatment. Even without meds, sometimes a precise diagnosis can soothe an individual’s mind because they finally feel seen and understood. When clients are able to explain to their family with detail what they have been experiencing due to a mental health diagnosis or join a group of other people who share similar symptomology, the relief can be tremendous.
Having said that, I also want to make the case that not everyone needs a diagnosis. You don’t always need a label to work on yourself, change behaviors, and improve relationships. There is a huge difference between having good days and bad days emotionally vs being bi-polar. Not everyone who gets easily distracted has ADD. Just because you like a clean home or your refrigerator organized doesn’t mean you have OCD. Again, my concern is with the accuracy of language and its use. The over use of very real psychological language is troublesome. Current buzz words, such as gaslighting, trauma, dissociative behavior, neurodivergence, narcissistic, sociopathic, bi-polar, etc., are muting the significant distress associated with these categories.
The bottom line is to value language and do the work to understand the words you utilize in describing your mental health.