I don't actually care if teenagers are faking serious mental disorders. I think we should still be pro self diagnosis anyways because even people who fake it probably have unaddressed issues, and because it's better to leave this in the hands of the people who need help than the authorities who will seek to abuse them.
[transcription: ive never once met a neurotypical who pretended to have a mental disorder for attention[,] but ive met a lot of teenagers who were genuinely mentally ill and just trying to figure out what the fucks wrong with them]
To be very honest i think there is a nonzero amount of teenagers who will claim to have one of the "scarier" mental illnesses because they know that just saying "depression is kicking my ass and i'm scared" is going to get them brushed off. and i think that we've normalized depression in the wrong way. now, it's just accepted that people have depression, but you're not allowed to show the undesirable symptoms. and if a teenager needs attention, then their problems will probably be significantly less bad if you just sit down and listen to them. children's liberation forever.




















