We all get sad and afraid, but when does it become major depression and generalized anxiety? After you see a psychiatrist. Better than any writer I know, Aviv narrates how a diagnosis changes how a person feels over time. To get there, she mines her own history. She develops case reports that would make Golden Siggie proud. She makes good work of the research literature. From her journey, she creates a common ground for patients and professionals to narrate what happens when they meet each other. Reading Aviv, you might wonder if her quote of Percy’s Love In the Ruins– “Allow me to have a proper disease, Doctor, he all but tells me.”–is a plea she is telling us all. Throughout Aviv completes a balancing act between two true stories: the relief and burden of a diagnosis.