Like, for instance, having diabetes and pretending you don't. I did it once for 24 hours - just needed to escape from the whole reality of it for a while, but you can't really escape it. It's just sitting there patiently, waiting for you to start dealing again. And in the case of diabetes, if you don't deal, you die.
I deal with this a lot with kids with learning disabilities and helping their parents. The parents often don't understand (and get worried about their child being labelled) that their child would feel a tremendous sense of relief to know that it's Not Their Fault. The kids know there's a problem - of course they do. What they need is to have that problem identified to take the weight off their shoulders and to allow them to start dealing with the problem.
The same happened when I realized I had an eating disorder. Suddenly it wasn't just poor willpower (which seems odd from someone who managed to quit drinking and smoking) but an identifiable problem that I could learn to deal with, and fight when necessary.
We get worried about labels being used to pigeonhole people, the accepted wisdom being that once you're put in a pigeonhole you never get back out - but labels can be useful to identify and target issues that might otherwise drag you down.
Oh, and I second the recommendation that you try swimming rather than jogging
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2002-08-25 08:41 pm (UTC)I deal with this a lot with kids with learning disabilities and helping their parents. The parents often don't understand (and get worried about their child being labelled) that their child would feel a tremendous sense of relief to know that it's Not Their Fault. The kids know there's a problem - of course they do. What they need is to have that problem identified to take the weight off their shoulders and to allow them to start dealing with the problem.
The same happened when I realized I had an eating disorder. Suddenly it wasn't just poor willpower (which seems odd from someone who managed to quit drinking and smoking) but an identifiable problem that I could learn to deal with, and fight when necessary.
We get worried about labels being used to pigeonhole people, the accepted wisdom being that once you're put in a pigeonhole you never get back out - but labels can be useful to identify and target issues that might otherwise drag you down.
Oh, and I second the recommendation that you try swimming rather than jogging