Look Beyond the Label
ACT for ADHDDSM labels are a double edged sword. They can have very positive effects, they can also have very negative effects. Because the label says you've got a disorder and in the case of ADHD, a neurodevelopmental disorder, your brain has developed abnormally, that can actually trigger self-judgment, self-criticism. Even more problematic can often lead to self-defeating belief systems. I can't do the things that are important in life because I've got this disorder. Really the best way of dealing with labels is to hold them lightly.
I say to clients the label on the jam jar is not the jam. Try spreading the label on your toast, it doesn't spread very well and doesn't taste very nice. The label on the jam jar just refers to ingredients that are inside the jar. So let's hold that label lightly. Let's have a look at what the actual ingredients are. So let me show you something, I've got in my bag. Oh, okay. Is that a goodie?
So there you go. Jar of cottage jam. So what does the label on the jar tell you? It's raspberry jam. Yeah. And it, on the other side, it tells you about the ingredients in there. Right? And where it was manufactured and a few other things like that. Yeah. Which would you rather spread on your toast, the jam or the label?
Jam. Right. The label doesn't really spread very well. Yeah. So what what we can say here, you know, this is your mind labeling you, basically. This is what mine's your mind's a lot like my mind. Our minds like to label everything so that we've got it sorted, you know, Good person, bad person. Yeah. Scary thing, safe thing. And this is kinda what your mind does to you.
It kinda puts a label on you, and the label is basically dumb, stupid, slow, something like that. Yeah. Not good enough. Right? Yeah. And so let's come back to this jam jar, you know. If I kinda you can put all sorts of different labels on it. Right? If I put the label bad Yeah. Does that mean it's a bad jam? And if I put the label good, you know, does that mean it's good jam?
No. No. And we could, like, put labels on it all day long, and none of those labels would would change the nature of the jam. Right? So our work here then is see if we can kinda do a little bit of of taking the power out of these labels. I'm gonna ask you to do a little bit of work with me. I'm gonna ask you to kinda let get caught up in the label, and then we're gonna do a bit of work around kinda loosening up, you know, letting go of the label. How does that sound to you? Sounds like a great start.