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i think self-diagnosis is valid and i can’t believe i have to say it sometimes.
first of all, getting a diagnosis is incredibly difficult. it takes so much time and the system is discriminatory. (not even to MENTION the money that some people have to pay)
people also can have reasons for not getting/being diagnosed. it isn’t that hard of a concept.
self diagnosis isn’t “tiktok told me that if i tap my foot i have anxiety!!”
self diagnosis is doing research about yourself and the condition and eventually coming to the conclusion that, yeah, this (the condition/s) makes sense.
personally, i am in the process of getting the multiple diagnoses that i need to get accommodations in my life. i am very lucky to be have guardians that support diagnosis and believe in mental health. some others don’t.
there could be so many different factors affecting someone’s diagnosis or lack thereof. Saying that you should “NEVER SELF-DIAGNOSE BECAUSE YOU’RE TAKING UP SPACE/YOU’RE JUST ASSUMING/IT ISN’T REAL UNLESS IT’S BEEN CHECKED/ETC!!!!!” is just harmful.
people are so afraid to treat themselves in a way that makes them more comfortable (like, for example, getting ear defenders) because they haven’t been “proven” to be (insert condition here) and it just makes me sad.
someone i spoke to about it asked “well what if you’re wrong?!” and my response was “if you’re wrong, you were wrong. you just came to a wrong conclusion.”
someone knowing that something is up and doing research to find out what it is is not grounds to treat them like a lesser human being. seriously. i’ve seen people who self-diagnosed with PTSD get sent death threats because they were ‘probably just saying it for attention!!!’. get help.
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Happy September!!!!! That felt really passive aggressive but YEAH it’s something i have a very strong opinion on so i’m not gonna apologise for it. I might’ve worded some things incorrectly but i’m just kinda ranting here.
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Laddy
I know this may anger you and I want to tell you as nicely as possible, but self-assessment of mental disorders is unlikely to be accurate. This is due to the fact that people tend to fail to notice specific behavioral patterns they have, some of which can most likely only be spotted with the help of specialists. It does not matter whether you are able to access therapies or not; you just cannot replace a qualified psychiatrist who has spent so much experience on researching the field. What's much more preferable is that you search for every internal issue you might be experiencing (or in other words, speculate,) as it dodges the confirmation bias that causes people to dismiss certain traits they have without their own awareness. I don't even get the problem with leaving at least some room for doubt.
For example, when I speculated I had a poor attention span, I was given a load of memory and puzzle exercises meant to evaluate that skill. While I did solve a great amount of problems in there, I underestimated the score I would have received due to my self-deprecation that came along with my speculation. Well, it turned out to be very high, which confirmed that yes, my attention span was BETTER than I was thinking. A therapist then attributed my issues of concentrating with stress related to said self-deprecation I constantly had.
I really wish people would understand that not everyone knows themselves best, and most importantly, advocate for a wider access to healthcare instead of suggesting people to try to treat themselves, which itself can be so dangerous. After all, the latter is the equivalent of telling people to search for junk food instead of protesting for clean food. Despite this, I've seen self-diagnosers attempt to throw out the field of psychiatry (for example by saying that self-diagnosis is more valid than professional diagnosis), which is LITERALLY what helped me thrive thanks to the recognition of my autism.
DemonAngelCat
Honestly I agree and I’m lowkey jealous of the people who have the bravery to say “I have x thing” when a professional hasn’t said they do bc it’s scary how people will react and it’s the reason why I almost never make definitive calls on my mental health because I’ve never been diagnosed. I keep telling my parents I want an ADHD diagnosis and they don’t follow through on that, my mom seems blind to the fact that I have symptoms of autism and should probably get checked. I don’t even want to tell my parents that I might have bpd or some other cluster b personality disorder despite having symptoms because of the ableist attitude my mom seems to have surrounding them. I’m basically either scared to get diagnosed or my symptoms or requests are ignored, I’m ending up with no choice but to theory craft and hope I can get ahold of a professional myself when I turn 18 to see if any of my suspicions are correct. Getting a diagnosis is not as simple as people want to think it is and I’m getting sick of it.
Moufy
i mean there are some things that can be self diagnosed like depression and anxiety and stuff like that but for bigger things like DID or autism or ADHD and stuff like that i feel youd need to have someone with experience and an education on the subject to actually examine you and tell you what you actually have if anything at all
i mean, sometimes it can be pretty damn obvious. a professional confirming it doesn’t magic the condition into existence.
also, some people just can’t have a professional check it out, for whatever reason. that’s why i specified about the research bit.
i can understand where you’re coming from though
by ✦ LEE ✦; ; Report
just to add to this, i think that someone with an education on the subject is a very good idea because it really can confirm things, brings other things to light, help with your mental health, etc. i’m just highlighting the people who can’t access that/have difficulties with it because i think it clarifies why anti-self-diagnosis is an issue
by ✦ LEE ✦; ; Report
first valid spacehey take
by Moufy; ; Report
Mig and Szwarty
but what is your opinion of "tiktok told me that if i tap my foot i have anxiety!!” crowd?
i think (if iirc) that a lot of those tiktoks started popping up more around/after the pandemic, when everyone’s mental health was getting worse and people were left with their thoughts to figure things out.
with everyone being more focused on it then, i guess it was split between people trying to help by naming some of their own/other’s observed behaviours and failing, people who wanted some easy clout, and the very small minority which just wanted to be ‘aesthetically depressed’ or whatever. (which, little addition, wishing for ‘things to be worse’ is actually a sign of major trauma. that’s from a professional (my counsellor))
not great, but because of the climate it happened, and ended up getting too normalised, and linked to the rising diagnoses rates of mental disorders (which were actually due to more people seeking help + more available diagnosis compared to prior years)
by ✦ LEE ✦; ; Report