people are not diseases

An interesting fact I have discovered over the years of my professional medical career is a persons association of identity with their diagnosis, that is they take on their disease thus it becomes their identity. This is also true with other labels such as homelessness. I have shifted my language to reflect a different perspective. This means I state: “Jimmy has Depression, or Lucie is a woman who is homeless.”

We are more than the sum of our parts and are created in the image of a living and loving God, who views men and woman as valuable and not disposable. When people lean into situational identity, I think they lean into a position of vulnerability in the sense that they are objects.