Medical diagnoses are always general labels that are devised to express a broad understanding of illness. "Diabetes" is a diagnosis inferring certain physiological processes in an individual, but does not describe causes, complications, or limitations related to the illness in every patient. A diagnosis is an approximation of understanding, which does not, in our current state of knowledge, fully describe the genetic, physiological, biochemical, environmental, and behavioral contributors to a disorder. A label does not define a complex human being.

Unfortunately, just as the whole concept of mental illness implies stigmatized dysfunction-i.e., "crazy"-psychiatric diagnoses have been adopted as pejorative slurs. Patients, themselves, sometimes demand a diagnosis from a clinician-"Am I bipolar?" "Am I borderline?"-as if the appellation itself will effect cure. Although a formal diagnosis aids in understanding and predicting behaviors and codifying research, its most significant aspect is to initiate treatment considerations. And the reason that many treatments don't work the way we predict is due to the complexity of the many interacting molecules that define each unique individual. Clinicians and patients must understand that a diagnosis is an artificial tag for an intricate web of biological interactions. It is not a condemnation, and certainly does not pretend a full understanding of a complex human being.