Diagnosis 300.3

My therapist gave me a bill yesterday. It wasn't a bill in the sense that I've paid; I suppose it was a kind of receipt so that I could get reimbursement from my insurance company if my insurance company did that, which is doesn't.

Anyway, none of that is really important. What was interesting was that my bill said that I had a diagnosis of 300.3. I didn't know what 300.3 was, so I looked it up: "ICD-9-CM 300.3 is a billable medical code that can be used to specify a diagnosis on a reimbursement claim."

300.3 is specifically obsessive-compulsive disorder:

• "Anxiety disorder characterized by recurrent, persistent obsessions or compulsions: obsessions are the intrusive ideas, thoughts, or images that are experienced as senseless or repugnant; compulsions are repetitive and seemingly purposeful behavior which the individual generally recognizes as senseless and from which the individual does not derive pleasure although it may provide a release from tension.
• "Disorder characterized by recurrent obsessions or compulsions that may interfere with the individual's daily functioning or serve as a source of distress."

I suppose that's all fine and good. I do have OCD, in as much as it means anything to have a psychiatric condition.

But there was something a little unsettling about the whole thing. For one, being labeled as 300.3, a number, is a little strange. Does it really take that much more room to write out Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder? OCD abbreviated is shorter by two whole characters than 300.3 anyway.

Also, I wasn't ever really told I had been formally diagnosed. It's no surprise--we've been talking about OCD since session one. I had been thinking of asking at some point, "Am I formally diagnosed with OCD?" But hadn't upon realizing that it was a form of reassurance seeking--a way to confirm that my problems were indeed not "real" and were symptoms of my disorder.

The bill also concerned me for a bigger reason. Now that I've been formally diagnosed, if I ever try to apply for health insurance on the private market am I required to write in that I have 300.3? I've always had the plan of someday leaving my job and starting my own business and I might need my own health insurance in that case. I already had to pay a 30% markup last time I applied for health insurance on the private market for mild asthma, for which I take no medication and have had only very mild symptoms for the last 5 or so years. Will I have to pay another 30% markup for 300.3? Who knows? The situation may never come up. Maybe I'll ask my therapist about it next time anyhow.