There was a two-hour special (on some popular science channel like "discovery") about Marylin Monroe. One of the points made by the psychiatrists was the she was clearly depressed (rather than having something else wrong) and that her doctors used about the worst possible treatment. (Freudian analysis is useless, except for depression where it's actively harmful.)
It's important to get these diagnoses of mental illness right. Of course, the same can be said for physical illness; thyroid imbalance is different from diabetes.
I do agree with you, about getting a diagnosis correct, whether its a diagnosis regarding mental illness or physical illness, the diagnosis needs to be so very correct, so that the treatment is effective, and a possible cure are attainable...
For so long, people thought nothing of it, when someone went to a doctor for a physical illness or physical problem...but let that same person see a doctor for a mental illness, or a mental problem, and bam, they are labeled as a 'whacko', or 'nuts', or some such other nasty word....and for so many people, they would have rathered suffered with their mental illness, than face being made fun of for seeing a mental health specialist...and thats just plain sad...
Thankfully today, people have progressed to the point, where they realize that seeing a psychiatrist, may be the best thing in the world for someone, who actually needs that type of health...tho there are still those out there, who think anyone who sees a psychiatrist deserve scorn...
I was diagnosed as being severely clinically depressed after my older son died...that diagnosis came one year after he had died...for the whole year after he died, I struggled along, trying to be a mother to my younger son, trying to be a good wife to my husband...but I could feel myself, slowly going downhill, to where I did not know...
Eventually my husband, along with a fine friend, saw me in such a sorry state, that they took me to the emergency room of our local hospital, and within 5 minutes a psychiatrist talked to me for about 1/2 hours, and he advised me to check myself into the psychiatric unit...best advice I ever got...with therapy, with proper meds, with group counseling, with support group interaction, I believe my life was saved...otherwise, I dont know what would have happened to me...I just could not face life without my son...
Now, tho I still grieve, I am no longer the wreck I was...I have learned to live with my grief, have learned not to let grief and depression ruin my life....
I guess my point in telling this story(sorry if it bored anyone), is that proper diagnosis, and proper treatment, for any illness, mental or physical is a blessing of our modern medicine...at least to me..