Sarah Fay on Pathological: The Dangers of Overidentifying With a Mental Health Diagnosis EP 144

Sarah Fay discusses her new book Pathological and how, by researching her six misdiagnoses, she concluded that the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) is utterly inaccurate. | Brought to you by Masterworks (https://masterworks.io use code PASSION to start your journey).

Sarah Fay (Ph.D., MFA) writes for many publications, including The New York Times, The Atlantic, Time, and The Paris Review. She's the recipient of the Hopwood Award for Literature and grants and fellowships from Yaddo, the Mellon Foundation, and the MacDowell Colony. She's on the faculty at Northwestern University and the founder of Pathological: The Movement.

She is the author of the new book Pathological: The True Story of Six Misdiagnoses: https://amzn.to/3McFd7o (Amazon link).

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What I discuss with Sarah Fay:

Almost one in five people (47.1 million) in the US have been diagnosed with a mental health condition. That number increased by about 1.5 million from last year. More may follow with a mounting sense of isolation in our fragmented country. But is a mental diagnosis the path to healing or a self-fulfilling prophecy?

Sarah suffered from six mental illness diagnoses for almost thirty years, all labeled because of the DSM. She realized the DSM is seriously flawed, even useless, but it's all we have through that process.

Time Stamps

• 0:00 Intro and announcements
• 2:41 Introducing Sarah Fay
• 5:07 Why Anorexia and Bipolar illness were defining moments
• 8:29 Why Pathological is eloquently written through the use of punctuation
• 11:47How her mental illness diagnosis impacted Sarah
• 19:08Why the DSM is seriously flawed, even useless
• 29:20Why the DSM has no scientific validity
• 35:12Why do we desperately want an answer and relief from our suffering
• 38:28Why chronic loneliness is so rampant in the world today
• 43:53Why suffering, grief, and loneliness are part of the human experience
• 46:00Why the DSM can't define dysfunction
• 51:14How her whole world disappeared because of her diagnoses
• 56:45Overcoming withdrawal from psychological drugs
• 1:00:27Why when she stopped considering herself sick she no longer was
• 1:05:27The Cautionary Tale of the Dangers of Over-Identifying With a Mental Health Diagnosis
• 1:06:57Show Wrap Up and Synthesis

Where can you find Sarah Fay

* Pathological: The Movement: https://www.pathological.us/

* Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sarahfayauthor/

* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-fay-460570188/

* Twitter: https://twitter.com/sarahfayauthor

Links

* My interview with Susan Cain on her new book "Bittersweet"

* My interview with Gretchen Rubin about knowing yourself

* My interview with Dr. Michelle Segar on her new book "The Joy Choice"

* My most recent solo episode on why you must feel to emotionally heal

*My Solo episode on work-life balance: https://open.spotify.com/episode/7AZksXySbYVoMPMuma5DpB?si=_VPv5sn3QBCq2pYVh-LXkg

*Solo episode on overcoming burnout: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5keAXxjRs3Q8NKZYWBlPXS?si=N-nf0iQjThSzgsCAutPVPA

*Solo episode on how you stop living in fear: https://passionstruck.com/how-do-you-stop-living-in-fear/

-- Welcome to Passion Struck podcast, a show where you get to join me in exploring the mindset and philosophy of the world's most inspiring everyday heroes to learn their lessons to living intentionally. Passion Struck aspires to speak to the humanity of people in a way that makes them want to live better, be better and impact.

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