It’s true for a lot of people that being bored leads to getting in trouble. That’s probably especially true for kids. Parents understand the panic that comes when you’re cooking dinner and you realize the kids have gotten quiet. Too quiet. That’s when you rush into the room where the kids are and find out what mischief they’ve gotten into!

Quick side note. My opinion is that boredom is not the worst thing a kid can experience. My kids hated being bored. But I was highly experienced in the art of boredom when I was a kid. When I think of it, it was boredom that produced some of the best games my brother and I ever made up. Boredom set the stage for amazing imaginary adventures. Boredom forced me into creativity. So if your kids complain when they get bored, just remind them how great their imaginations are, and give them time to discover some creative play. But keep an eye on them…

I remember being bored on one particular occasion as a kid. My mom was distracted with something or other, and I got into the kitchen pantry. I don’t remember what I was thinking but I do remember peeling all of the labels off of the cans in our pantry. When my mom walked into a stack of silver cans and a pile of labels on the floor, let’s just say she wasn’t thrilled. My consequence for that poor decision? Every day for a couple of weeks my lunch consisted of a surprise can, which I got to choose from the pantry. After several lunches of carrots, pumpkin pie filling or stewed tomatoes, I learned to leave the labels on the cans.

While labels are great for cans of food in a pantry, they aren’t great for human beings. A recent cultural trend, particularly in younger generations is a more positive view of mental health and mental health services. Often mental health services will involve a diagnosis. That can be good because a diagnosis is often the first step in the formation of a treatment plan that is accurately designed to offer an individual help and support.

The danger comes into play when an individual is given a diagnosis and they allow it to define themself, and to determine their self-worth. I have often had a young person come into my office and say, “I’m ADHD” or “I’m bipolar.” Or when I meet with an individual for the first time they “tell me about themselves” by listing their diagnosis. While I understand that being given a diagnosis can seem like a defining moment, especially in a young person’s life, we have to teach people that a diagnosis does not define them as a whole human being.

When a young person tells me they’re ADHD, I redirect their comments to state that they are a person who has been diagnosed with ADHD, and reinforce that those symptoms make up a part of their experience, but don’t define them entirely. Someone with depression and/or anxiety, for example, may feel like this is a label slapped on them that will define their daily struggle for the rest of their lives. “Having depression or anxiety” doesn’t doom a person to a life of frustration, exhaustion, and struggle. It’s a beginning point. People need to have hope that growth, healing, and learning can unlock a better future. And that kind of hope begins with understanding that a diagnosis tells part of their story, but not the whole story.

One of the principles in substance abuse recovery that I love is the notion that two competing ideas that seem like they both can’t be true can be true. For example, “I have abused substances and betrayed the trust of my family in the past,” and “I do not abuse substances and I have rebuilt trust in my most important relationships.” Both of those statements can be true at the same time. For many people, “I have been diagnosed with depression,” and “I am productive and happy,” seem like mutually exclusive statements. But they aren’t. It is possible to have ADHD as a diagnosis and be a person who systematically achieves goals on many levels of life at the same time.

I believe that the key difference between a diagnosis being a burden or a blessing is whether or not the recipient receives it as a life defining label, or a clearly defined set of symptoms that can be addressed successfully. You may have ADHD, but you are so much more than ADHD. You may have anxiety, but you are so much more than anxiety.

It is a positive thing that people are more willing to embrace mental health services and diagnosis. For it to remain positive as more and more people get engaged, parents, teachers, counselors and doctors need to make sure we give clarity along with a diagnosis. The diagnosis is not a label which is an end in itself. When received correctly it is a beginning which can lead to all kinds of hopeful possibilities.