Well, I think the RIGHT diagnosis leads to the right type of help. I am puzzled as to why anyone would discount a label when it means help. When kids are young, labels are mandatory for school help. As adults? Then I think it is up to the adult to get help and change and the diagnosis, unless it is medication dependent, such as bipolar or schizophrenia means less than the hard work the adult puts into improving his life. I have had tons of labels and am not sure if any are exactly correct, but, as an adult, I worked very hard to overcome some obvious problems that were affecting my life. Now I *do* think that Fetal Alcohol Effects (FAE) is very significant because Fetal Alcohol Effects (FAE) kids/adults do not know how to make decisions and many don't "get" right from wrong. They suffer very real organic brain damage and may need 24/7 watchdogs all of their lives. That isn't really a psychiatric label...it is a medical one and does not go away. If you doubt the Fetal Alcohol Effects (FAE) diagnosis, I'd find a specialist who works with Fetal Alcohol Effects (FAE) kids all the time. We found such a clinic in Chicago. It was awesome!
I do think a child's diagnosis is important, but I have had experience with a diagnosis being wrong too. Sonic was diagnosed with ADHD/ODD and bipolar. In my gut, I knew he was on the autism spectrum, but nobody would buy it so I tried to get him school supports, using his phony diagnoses, that would help him with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). It worked!!! When he finally got the Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) diagnosis, he got even more help and thrived.
When I saw Sonic's neuropsychologist, who is a sort of big shot who worked at Mayo Clinic for ten years, he told me, almost verbatim, "Our diagnosis is our very best guess concerning the symptoms and problems the child presents. WE MAKE MISTAKES ALL THE TIME, EVEN AT MAYO." So there you go.
Until psychiatry and neurological differences can come down to a blood test we do not know if that child who presents as ADHD is ADHD or that child who presents as bipolar is bipolar, etc. But the label can help us tremendously with getting FREE interventions at school and that to me is most important. I will qualilfy, this is how it works in the US. I do not know how this is handled in any other country.
Good luck and good question. in my opinion, due to experience with a drug using daughter, you can't really daignose or have your child get well if he or she is using recreational drugs. The drugs screw up the brain AND the prescribed medications. My daughter had a bipolar diagnosis. when she was using. Clearly, since she has been ten years clean, she is not bipolar. The symptoms were due to the ups and downs of the drug's highs and lows.