people keep attacking me because i'm against self-diagnosis. can you please explain to them that everyone has their own opinion ? thanks :)
So, self diagnosis gets tricky and I understand why people do it.
In my opinion, the BEST thing you can do is take your self diagnosis to a professional and have a conversation about if it’s the correct diagnosis or not and why you feel that may be the diagnosis you have (if any). I was able to find an AMAZING psychiatrist because I “knew” I had bipolar disorder and looked for someone who specialized in bipolar disorder. He was able to help me more than any other therapist. Because I had an idea what I was struggling with, I was able to narrow down my options and find the best fit in a psychiatrist.
For some people, they may be unable to get professional support. Often it’s because of money but there may be other reasons as well. It’s not fair to jump all over someone when you don’t know where they’re coming from. Having that diagnosis for themselves may also help them cope. So, again, don’t get on their case because you don’t know what they’re going through.
It is a tricky thing though because we tend to over-diagnose ourselves. Also, if people give themselves every diagnosis they feel like they may fit into, it’s minimizing to the people who are actually suffering those diagnoses. For those reasons, I’m personally against self-diagnosis.
But, like I said, I understand there are reasons a person may be left to self-diagnose and I’m not going to be rude to anyone about it since I don’t know their situation.
If there’s a reason you feel a person is over-diagnosing or taking advantage or minimizing the actual disorder they’ve identified with, then talk to them privately in a message and explain why you feel that way. Don’t attack someone who is obviously struggling.
I do feel when people self-diagnose it’s nice to state that... but again, that’s my opinion.
There are dangers to self-diagnosing that I think people who self-diagnose need to be aware of. We’re very biased when we self-diagnose and we’re also not usually trained in the field of psychology. This is just a quick article from Psychology Today on The Dangers of Self Diagnosis. I’m not saying this to be mean, I just think it’s important for people who self-diagnose to be aware of and acknowledge those things for their own safety.
Again, while I don’t agree with self-diagnosis for the sole purpose of avoiding professional support, I do understand why there are people who feel they may need to do so to help them cope and who aren’t avoiding therapy but unable to find the level of support they actually need. I think that everyone needs to be careful and it would be nice if they disclosed that they came to the conclusion of the diagnosis themselves but I’m not going to attack anyone for their choices.
As someone who does have multiple diagnoses from professionals I also do feel it can be minimizing when people take advantage.
I think it’s a pretty controversial topic to be honest and while there is some wiggle room in my book it’s a very fine line and something that should be looked at on a case to case basis.
