“I am bipolar.”

“I’m OCD.”

“I’m borderline.”

Really?

I’m short. (It’s objectively true. The average American woman is 5’4″. I’m 4’11”.)

I’m a dog person.

I also HAVE brown eyes. And I have a goofy sense of humor. And I have an underactive thyroid (true fact).

Sometimes some of these characteristics matter more than others; sometimes not.

What’s my point?

We are not our disorders. 

Let me say that again.

People are NOT their disorders.

Especially for people who have been through “the system”—hospitals, clinics, programs—it becomes way too easy to define yourself by your illness.

So you may HAVE borderline personality disorder (which, by the way, is the WORST named illness ever, but I’ll save that soapbox for another day). Or you may HAVE depression.

You may also have an impish smile. Or a quick temper. Or a proficiency with juggling.

Let’s work together to find out all the things you have and you are. Because you are NOT your disorder.

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