Do you think labelling psychological illnesses and disorders helps or hinders healing and recovery?

I remember my counsellor telling me once that she didn’t think that labelling people with psychological disorders, was particularly helpful in that it can lead to a client getting stuck with the label rather than working through an individual’s specific problems/ issues.

I tend to agree with this in terms of outsiders labelling us. However, I’ve recently started reading a book which resonates with my experience on so many levels and have found myself saying “That’s exactly what I ‘have’!”.

Knowing that I’m not just wandering around in the dark with multiple issues but that actually there is a name for it and that it can be found to have biological and psychological (not to mention environmental and other…) causes feels refreshing and comforting.

The problem I have is precisely what I think my counsellor was warning me against: the minute you begin to talk to people about said disorder, they immediately start formulating an opinion upon it…upon you and you either get labelled according to how they perceive you or they discourage you from labelling yourself because (for example…) “you’re not that bad though are you!” (trying to be helpful I suppose).

Would love to know your thoughts and experiences in this area, Thank you in advance xxx