We need to understand the current diagnostic criteria so we can have shared conversations. We also need to remember a group of people made them up, and didn’t agree on everything before the criteria were published. They are approximations and aggregates that were informed by an understanding that will continue to change.
We need to learn evidence-based interventions so that we’re not just winging it with other people’s lives and vulnerabilities. We also need to be mindful that other people made these interventions up, hoping to improve on what has gone before and the interventions will very likely be improved on again.
We know better than to repeat the mistakes of 50, 200 or 1,000 years ago. And we are making the mistakes they will not want to repeat in 50, 200 or 1,000 years time. And very likely making them sincerely and with the best of intentions.
Best practice is only best practice until something better comes along. And if we wait long enough, the next better thing may well be a reworking of a past better thing. We need to learn our craft but also know its place in the bigger history and the way it evolves over time.
So we can work hard to hone our skills while leaving room for a dash of skepticism. We can care about the frameworks that guide us while also learning to hold them lightly. And that just might be the most evidence-based thing we can do.