When A Diagnosis Is A
Catalyst For Change
When a medical professional pronounces, “You have ...” everything changes. That one sentence can if you let it encompass your whole inner and outer world — your identity.
It is effortless to identify with a diagnosis. It often begins innocently enough, when a professional, who wants to come from a place of care, strives to be sympathetic.
Sympathy creates a power viewpoint with the ‘sympathetic’ person in an above position of power represented by a ‘Poor you; you need me to feel sorry for you, to fix you’ and the ‘poor you’ in a below place. Automatic subliminal victimhood, if you are not careful to reframe to match the intention behind the sympathy. The aim was to be caring. A positive reframe could be “Thank you for caring, and we will conquer this together.”
Words powerfully express our beliefs and feelings. Even small words hold great responsibility and profound meaning. Consider the hidden meaning of words such as “I suffer from…,” and “I have <name of disease>…”.
Suffer implies ‘unfixable’ and damages feelings of self-worth. And, ‘I have’ constitutes ownership of something unwanted.
Strive to use empowering, uplifting, and optimistic words to lay the framework for positive reframing and an encouraging outcome. Even simple changes such as “I’m experiencing…” instead of “I have…” can reframe your capacity for positive change.
Positive reframing unhelpful thoughts, feelings, and words and replacing them with more positive or adaptive ones can change how we feel about our diagnosis and long-term prognosis.
What happens when you choose to use the diagnosis as a catalyst for change?
And, enjoy this short Q&A from our thought-provoking The Autoimmune Hour episode titled ‘What Now?
Navigating Your New Normal’ with Tamara Green LCSW and David Dachinger from Loving Meditations as they join Sharon Sayler, your host for an authentic and insightful chat about identity and creating a positive new normal.