What's your opinion on "self diagnosing"?
- Locked due to inactivity on Apr 30, '22 3:54am
Thread Topic: What's your opinion on "self diagnosing"?
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Just curious!! I wanted to hear the communities thoughts. All answers are welcome here
So w this, I'll give two different definitions for "Self diagnosing"
Self diagnosis concern: not necessarily fully claiming an illness/disability but feeling like you have it/telling yourself you have it and telling others you're "pretty sure" you have it, or may have it. Not seeing a doctor for this concern (for whatever reason. Can't or wont) , but allowing yourself to frequently worry about the fact you may have it and telling others you think you have it.
Claiming an illness/disability:
You have not been diagnosed, nor visited a doctor regarding your concerns but you fully claim a specific illness or disability. Ex: "oh I have schizophrenia!" Rather than "I think I have Schizophrenia" and you fully claim it in all regards and tell others you have a specific illness or disability. You speak for the community of people who have it, and you reference it as your own illness/disability
And on another question, do people who have not been professionally diagnosed with a mental illness or disability have a right to speak for the community of others who have been diagnosed with it? Such as "as a person with depression/ADHD I think... etc etc etc"
And do they have a right to educate others on their illness or disability if they have not been professionally diagnosed nor seen a doctor for their concerns?
Again. All answers are welcome. I'm just here to see what people think on this topic! Add anything else extra to the same topic in your answers if you'd like to -
I think people should not fully diagnose themselves.
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The first is fine (suspecting but not declaring) the second (declaring) is generally a bad idea.
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I'd say it's a complicated issue. I cannot say "don't self diagnose," but I also can't say "self diagnosing is totally okay.
Really it depends on what it is and who you are. On a primal level, if it walks like a duck and it talks like a duck it most likely is in fact, a duck. However, while medical practitioners are taught to look for horses, not zebras, they are in fact trained to know where those zebras might be and the average person might miss out on that.
I'd say if you're experiencing negative psychological effects the first thing to do is research them. Educate yourself on mental illnesses and personality disorders so you can recognize the signs and symptoms in yourself and others. You might very well be able to know that you have depression without some shmuck handing you a piece of paper spelling it out for you, however there are many mental illnesses with overlapping side effects and more narrow clinical criteria.
I disagree with the "self diagnosing is a sin" crowd of people. It seems a little self righteous and gatekeep-y. I don't really think you should need to pay $800+ to know you have an illness.
I also disagree with people who self diagnose with everything under the book. In the medical world that's considered munchinsin at its finest.
Ultimately it's about finding the balance between "knowing thyself," and respecting those who know more than you. The thing is psychologists might also not know what you have since they get a much more diluted sense of your symptoms. The DSM is constantly changing and updating definitions for what constitutes for certain mental illnesses, sometimes removing illnesses that others were formally diagnosed with entirely.
Point being, the study of psychology is rapidly changing and evolving. If you feel lost and in need of help reach out to someone, but if you feel like you understand what's going on with yourself it's fine to make general assumptions. Just don't over identify with them. A good place to start is to stop saying "I'm depressed," or "I suffer with depression" and start saying "I'm dealing with depression." Your self language will greatly affect how you deal with things -
That's really just a long ramble of scattered thoughts. Hopefully it makes sense. I'm notorious for not editing down my work although I certainly should since no one has time to read a repetitive rant.
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I think it depends on what you are diagnosing your self with.
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I feel to self-diagnose, you would need to do plenty of research and I mean REAL research. The problem with self-diagnosing is that a lot of people do so with limited knowledge, and unfortunately some do it for attention. I don't quite agree with it, but on some parts I do
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It kinda depends on the risks of treatment. You should not take medication for something you don’t use it for. The stronger the medicine, the worse the risk.
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i think it's alright, but only if you do very extensive research (even better if you can talk to people that have been diagnosed with what you’re trying to self-dx) for a long while. find everything you can and read through it.
although, it tends to be risky with self-dxing, because sometimes when you do research on it, you can convince yourself you might/have it, and you might subconsciously force yourself to have symptoms of the thing you’re looking at.
but whenever you self-dx, never say that you have it for sure - and if saying you think you have it makes you uncomfortable, someone saying that they " have self-dxed [insert] " and that’s a way of saying it hasn’t been diagnosed but they believe they have it.
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