Stigma

So I came across a piece of writing a few weeks ago that upset me quite a bit.
Someone was extolling his at-home do-it-yourself treatment of his child's near-crippling anxiety disorder and declared it a success. Apparently it was successful primarily because this was "accomplished' without "labeling" the child with an official diagnosis.
The parent read a bunch of books on OCD and anxiety and used the cognitive behavioral therapy techniques described in them.

I just don't get this whole idea that a diagnosis equals a "label" of some sort that is harmful to the child. Any diagnosis I've ever received, for myself or for my children, has been a huge relief. A relief, that is, coupled with appropriate medical care.
No one worries about "labeling" a child with diabetes, or a a birth defect, or any of potentially thousands of other diseases or genetic conditions. What makes a diagnosis of mental illness or learning disability somehow detrimental?
I get that there is stigma. I have three children with severe anxiety disorders and suffer from depression and anxiety myself. As first one, then another, then the third of my children became unable to function without professional help; I had to confront my own hesitance to be open about our diagnoses.
I worried about what people might think. I tried to rationalize my way out of my own need for therapy. Through this I realized that for me children to understand there was nothing shameful about mental illness I had to be as open and honest with them and with the world as possible.

The only way to combat stigma is to confront it head on. When my children were first diagnosed, along with the despair and worry and fear of the unknown, came information, help for them and for myself, and treatment. Treatment that, frankly, allowed my children to make it to adulthood.

Then we were hit with the diagnosis of a genetic defect. Again, there was fear and worry, but also the relief of finally understanding the root cause of the symptoms we suffered, knowledge of the treatments, and help to manage the illness in the years to come. Did this "labeling" of the symptoms we suffered - pain, fatigue, gastrointestinal issues, etc. - somehow impinge on our feelings of self-worth or cause others' to cringe a little? Of course not.

I guess success for some might equate to continued sheltering of the child throughout adulthood, but that doesn't seem to be a whole life to me. Learning to cope and perhaps to overcome learning disabilities, sensory issues, and mental illnesses is essential to living a whole, full, independent life.
My adult children still struggle with their various illnesses and will their whole lives. But the tools they learned in therapy and the medications they take allow them to live full, whole, unsheltered lives.
Had I chosen to pretend that I could keep them in a cocoon of protection in which they never had to face the world what kind of lives might they have now? What kind of life would I have?
Don't be afraid of a diagnosis.
If you are, please face your own biases and fears about mental illness and don't pass them on to your child. There is no shame in diagnosis, no shame in taking medication, no shame in seeking help to deal with a mental illness. Hiding behind the false wall of "labeling"will only delay the help your child needs and will pass on the very stigma you are afraid of.
Burying your head in the sand won't help anyone; least of all your child.