You know what is scary?

theunextraordinary:

dragonage-sucks:

63 % of people who self diagnose believe that the Internet gave them the correct diagnosis, they believe they were able to properly able to diagnose themselves. And only about half of those people take their findings to their doctor only to not believe them because it was not what they found on the Internet. (X) (2 links)

People who self diagnose are more likely to dabble in drugs to self treat which can lead to addiction.

If you’re getting your information from anywhere that ends with .com it is most likely not run by any sort of medical professional

It has become such a problem that google is trying to make it so if you search your symptoms they put you in touch with an actual doctor

Listen when doctors say self diagnosis is bad

Extra Information

Some articles on why WebMD is bad (2 links)

It’s better to take your findings to a medical professional instead of taking the internet’s word for it (2 links)

More doctors saying no to self diagnosing

doctors support self advocacy and have written many papers on how to do it properly. (4 links) Here are some more

Unless you have went through the same amount of rigorous training that physicians do, you are probably not going to be able to fully interpret your medical problems

The reason I made this post is because I have seen many post recently praising people for being self diagnosers, I have seen many tumblr descriptions claiming they have “self diagnosed autism and ptsd as well as schizophrenia ” and you know what, that is scary. I am scared for these young kids who think they have these problems because the Internet says so, I am scared for the young kids on here who may turn to self treatment drugs that are highly addictive, who do not know how to properly dose themselves. This is not about ragging on people, this is about their safety and well being.

And if you find that you have turned to self treatment, contact an addiction specialist/ doctor that can help you on the path to recovery (x) (x)

TL;DR:

Self advocacy: good

Self diagnosis: bad

antipromia:

Stop telling people they should pursue self diagnosis. This is incredibly irresponsible. You are not their doctor. You are not qualified to give them medical advice. Realizing something needs to be addressed is fine. Thinking that you know more about what’s going on than someone with at least 8 years in training just for the purpose of diagnosing and treating you. Seriously. Stop.

Dear every person who lists all their mental illnesses in their “about me”

sjwsmustbedestroyed:

Also directed towards self-dxers, 14 year old “psychos”, and Tumblr.

I can most certainly tell you that the only illness you have is Attention Seeking Syndrome (ASS). You’re not sick. You were never sick. If you have 20+ mental illnesses listed in your about me, you’re ableist for fetishizing mental illness and wearing them as labels.

First, WebMD is not a doctor. Any “mental illness” quizzes you took online are not professionally constructed.

Let me debunk your self diagnosed mental illnesses by providing information that several of the things you list can not be diagnosed together, as they act as one illness, not two. Bipolar disorder and schizophrenia aren’t diagnosed together, as a lot of people seem to do. Instead, a patient would be diagnosed with Schizoaffective Disorder. [x][x][x] Furthermore, while bipolar (I or II) is easier to diagnose, schizophrenia would take more than just a simple quiz to diagnose. Multiple tests are conducted to determine if you have schizophrenia, and a lot of aspects are considered. It’s a difficult disease to diagnose, because it’s highly likely that it could be something else (especially if you’re still a very young teen or preteen). Furthermore, it’s highly uncommon to show schizophrenic behaviors in your early years of life (though, not impossible). Symptoms usually begin at age 16-30. [x][x][x] If you’re diagnosed with schizophrenia at the age of 12 or 13, you’re either going through prodome (which occurs when symptoms start very early, and when an adolescent starts realizing these behaviors aren’t normal), you were one of the rare cases that was diagnosed as a child, or you’re a liar. Taking these factors in mind, most younger teens and children wouldn’t be diagnosed with Schizoaffective Disorder, anyways, unless proven otherwise. For the people who actually do fall into the age category, I highly recommend asking for a doctor’s opinion because, as I previously stated, it’s a hard thing to diagnose. If it’s difficult for trained professionals to diagnose you, what makes you think you can do it?

Another example is PTSD coexisting with Acute Stress Disorder and/or Adjustment Disorder. Because they both have similar symptoms (anxiety, dissociative symptoms, etc.) but aren’t the same, only one diagnosis is needed. You don’t get to have all three, because your condition can be explained using only one of the diagnosis’s. Which brings me to another idea – if you suffer from “trigger warnings” and claim to have PTSD because of an event, that doesn’t make it PTSD. It could be either of the other two. You won’t know unless you get diagnosed properly.

Another example? Depressive disorder and Bipolar (I or II) disorder. Because Bipolar Disorder includes symptoms such as mania and depression, you’d only need to be diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder, not Depressive Disorder. This is because your depression itself isn’t a disorder, it’s a side effect of a disorder you already have. You wouldn’t need two separate diagnosis’s since depression’s already covered in Bipolar.

You Are Not Special

What you’re doing is harming actual mentally ill people, because you’re actually romanticizing mental illness and using it to get special snowflake points rather than actually spreading awareness of the issue. Yeah, you heard me. It’s one thing if someone asks and you explain your experiences. It’s another thing to slap your “mental illness” on every single wall and shove it in someone’s face just to get sympathy or excuse you from your crappy behavior. You’re literally putting it on display for people to see, like some kind of trophy for the “most sick”. No one ASKED if you have Depressive Disorder/Schizophrenia/Narcissistic Personality Disorder/PTSD/ASS. If you have 20+ mental illnesses listed down your side bar, that’s telling us that you just want attention for the things you don’t have. That’s telling us that you’re so insecure for not being pitiful enough, that you had to diagnose yourself with something like “Narcissistic Personality Disorder” when in reality it’s not the disorder, it’s you. You realized you’re a self centered butt and now you’re using it as a crutch to excuse your disgusting attitude towards people. Also, it’s not a freakin’ contest. You shouldn’t be competing with Tumblr for the most mental illnesses listed.

A person shouldn’t be diagnosed with that many illnesses. If you’re hoarding every single mental illness because “oh dat’s so meh!!11!” or “i can rELATE CUZ i HAVE 3 OF DEEZ SYMPTUMS,,,” then you need to get off the internet and come back when you mature enough to respect the people who actually suffer from these life altering sicknesses. You’re hurting people.

YOU’RE HURTING PEOPLE AND YOURSELF

Because so many people are self diagnosing themselves or falsely tagging themselves with something they know they don’t have, less and less people are taking mental illness seriously. People are afraid to get help because they either don’t want to be grouped in with the likes of you, or they’re afraid that someone will just say “just pretending,,,” like you guys are making it out to be now. Plus, you’re acting on a hunch and following stereotypical behavior that’s hurting them. Believe it or not, you’re making Narcissistic Personality Disorder to be something completely heartless and rude. So many people who are self diagnosing themselves with this are just trying to excuse their rude behaviors, which in turn actually gives people with actual NPD a bad name. Mental illness is not cool. It was never cool.

Furthermore, you’re also hurting yourself. Let’s say you do have something wrong with you, and you self diagnosed yourself. You’re not. A. Professional. You could have symptoms of something else entirely, and now you just put yourself at a disadvantage because now you can’t get the resources you need to help your illness. It could be something dangerous. Your mental illness could be the result of a dangerous brain tumor or cranial cavity that’s altering your personality. Or, it could be another mental illness that you just misdiagnosed because you wanted to be cool.

Self Diagnosis =/= Self Assessment

I don’t want to hear “wELL YOU’RE CLASSIST AND ABLEIST CUZ WE CAN’T AFFORD A REAL DIAGNOSIS,,,,” because that’s just a crappy comeback you use when you know you’re wrong.

You can self assess yourself. If you look up symptoms and suspect you might have something, that’s when you get a check up. You can say “I suspect I might have this because……Maybe I should go get it checked out. I’m not entirely sure.”

But it’s completely different when you smash your keyboard on WebMD, find something that has a few symptoms you share, and then go “I AM SELF DX’D WITH THIS BECAUSE ITS SOOOO MEH!!!!”

I understand some of you might have parents/guardians who aren’t willing to accept, or that you have no income. I get it, I do. But that doesn’t give you the right to self diagnose yourself. You’re in no, way, shape or form a professional. Instead, you can self assess yourself and – when you have the opportunity – get some help. It’ll help everyone in the long run.

There’s also many organizations and clinics that have available resources. [x][x][x] Take advantage of that. Don’t use WebMD, for Pete’s sake.

The Mind is a Powerful Tool

Let’s bring some psychology into this. Self diagnosing is not valid because, naturally, the mind is biased. You heard me. It’s biased.

I was previously a hypochondriac. This means that I, too, used WebMD to search up my symptoms whenever I felt like something was wrong. I mistook the flu for something like pneumonia, or aching bones and numb muscles as cancer. These were never the cases, but I always feared that I had some horrible disease that would kill me.

But how did I convince myself that I had these very serious illnesses? When I read the symptoms, my mind was biased and I linked them to what I was showing (or, thought I was) and panicked.

My point is, the mind is a powerful tool. It’s capable of tricking you. If you think you have something, in a lot of cases you’ll start unconsciously acting out the symptoms you read. Your mind will convince you that you have something, when in reality it’s just an illusion. If you say you have something like “Severe Antisocial Disorder”, and are continually happy and sociable with everyone you meet, there’s a high chance that this occurrence happened to you and you were never truly Antisocial – you just thought you were.

Why do you think doctors aren’t allowed to diagnose themselves? Even the best doctors need other doctors to evaluate them and their psych because they could misdiagnose themselves or have biased opinions.

You’re Insecure and Ignorant

Mental illness is a huge trend (and I say trend because where else are you going to see someone list 50+ mental illnesses they copied off of Wikipedia and claim they have them all?) on Tumblr. Almost every blog (typically in between the ages 13-15) I’ve come across, someone’s listed at least 10 of their mental illnesses. Your friends probably scream “ableism” at whoever dares to challenge their labels or “romanticize them” because political correctness is also a thing. Everyone’s trying to score them special snowflake points and seem oppressed. But, in actuality, they’re the ones fetishizing mental illness and making it seem cool and trendy.

Because one person’s doing it, everyone wants to do it. Early teenagers and even late teens and adults are easily influenced and want to fit in. Because mental illness is so cOOL!!! nowadays, something’s wrong with everyone. You might be diagnosing yourself because your friends all have disabilities, or because everyone else has disabilities.

But why. WHY depend on mental illness to get you oppression points and sympathy? Why use those things as labels? There’s a lot of other cool things out there, like favorite bands or cartoons! Hell, even glasses are cool! Why make mental illness a thing? Why further objectify it and milk it until it’s worthless?

Self-dxing yourself is ignorant. You invalidate the people who actually have a mental illness and you’re making it harder for them to get help. Why? Because YOU want to be cool. Because you’re so INSECURE about how boring you are that you have to slap a name on yourself to make yourself seem more unique. Well, you’re not. You’re ignorant. If you’re going to slap a mental illness on yourself, at least do some research on the people who have it and try to understand their situation, rather than just looking at the symptoms and determining you have it. Like, what the actual HELL?

A-A-A-Admin Butt! You’re So Ableist!!! My Feelings Are Hurt! 😥

If you’re offended by everything I’ve said so far, you’re apart of the problem. You’re probably someone who self-dx’d themselves and you’re probably getting upset because I’m talking about people like you. Someone had to say it. You’re not trendy. You’re not cool. You’re sick and disgusting and you should leave and grow up a little bit.

By Tumblr logic, I can’t be ableist. I am professionally, medically diagnosed with Major Depressive Syndrome. I have severe social/normal anxiety and paranoia. I have trichotillomania. I use to have a speech impediment because of how nervous I was. I can’t even function without my antidepressants and my anxiety medicine. Even WITH the medicine, I STILL feel anxious and depressed, but not as bad as I am without it.

I’m so anxious that I don’t go outside. I don’t leave my room. I have – literally – less than 5 friends. Believe it or not, I’m extremely shy as well, which is why I can’t reply to anyone without feeling sick. I can’t hold conversations and it’s really difficult for me to reply to strangers OR my friends. I sit and listen. I don’t know anyone on this website, I just jot my ideas down.

You have NO freakin’ idea what it’s like, being so anxious that you can barely live or breathe. You have NO idea what it’s like not being able to go outside into the real world. You have NO idea what it’s like going to school or the store, and every time you do you have an anxiety attack because you can’t stand being around people and everything suffocates you. You have no idea what it’s like, being constantly angry and bitter because everything makes you anxious and you can’t sit still. You have no idea what it’s like feeling like everyone and everything is out to get you, and you believe your friends are traitors talking behind your back and the world wants you gone. You have no idea what it’s like waking up in the morning, not wanting to move or breathe, not wanting to get up and not being able to feel. I’ve attempted suicide multiple times because I’m sick of living like this, and when I’m not attempting it I’m thinking about how I would off myself and how I’d be better off being gone. I’m sick of not being like a normal person’s suppose to be, not being able to function properly and constantly living in fear. I’m sick of being anxious of the time. I’m sick of taking my freakin’ medicine. I just want to live. I just want to breathe. With friends. With no problems at all. I can’t even make friends, because I can’t talk to people. I can’t.

But then there you are, claiming you have so many illnesses – yet you’re able to live perfectly and free and you don’t have these issues at all. Feeling sad or upset isn’t an anxiety attack, nor is it depression. Feeling angry isn’t being triggered. Having bad memories that isn’t life altering isn’t PTSD. Shut the hell up. If you’re able to type normally while having your so called “anxiety attack”, you’re not having one.

Stop mocking us. You don’t know what it’s like. I’m not ableist. I’m just tired of this freakin’ trend and I’m tired of people pretending they’re sick when they’re not.

Disclaimer, ‘course

This is in no way directed towards people who are medically diagnosed or towards the people who want to help spread awareness. This is also not directed towards anyone who’s self-assessed and seeking medical attention. This is not directed towards anyone in specific. This is directed towards all the little 13-15 year olds (and/or older teens/adults) who are self-diagnosed with 20+ mental illnesses, proudly boast them up on their wall, use them as a crutch to excuse bad behavior and bring it up in every conversation like it’s their whole existence and nothing else matters. In specific: the people who think they’re trendy and cool for being “psycho" and simply use them for labels.

PS. This was way longer than intended…
Oh well. Someone had to get it out there. (:

bizarrolord:

badsjw:

Don’t do this, unless you have the credentials to diagnose autism. They might have something completely different like social anxiety, or just be introverted. This trivializes autism and makes it seem like some sort of cult you get inducted in when you have certain traits. Autism is much more complicated than this post makes it seem. Just don’t diagnose other people unless you’re qualified, alright?

^Plus as someone who certain people in my past tried to push into the autism spectrum when I wasn’t in it (I actually have generalized anxiety), I do not appreciate this, and I can tell that my followers on the spectrum don’t either.

I cannot believe people actually think you can just diagnose someone with autism like that. Like, I know that these people have no fricking clue what autism actually is, but good gravy, this is deplorable.

Source: badsjw

plebcomics:

SOURCE–ARCHIVE

Self-Diagnosis Masterpost

beckylouisethompson:

Self-diagnosis isn’t a diagnosis and no matter how much you disagree with/don’t like that, it is a fact and will not change.

Self-diagnosis is dangerous because:

your bias may cause you to ignore symptoms, for example, if someone diagnoses themselves with an anxiety disorder they may be unaware that their symptoms are due to an underlying heart condition. If you are treating the wrong disorder, then self-medicating can be particularly dangerous.

people may begin to play up to a disorder they don’t have. This may not necessarily be a conscious decision, but can be very dangerous (especially in the case of BPD) – you can read more about the diagnosis effect here.

self-diagnosis, when done online, can actually lead to higher levels of uncertainty and excessive need for validation, causing anxiety. Read briefly about this here

Self-diagnosis can harm diagnosed sufferers:

If somebody who does not have the disorder claims to have the disorder (and realistically a lot of self-diagnosers will not have the full disorder) then this can create unrealistic expectations for diagnosed individuals to live by. Imagine a person who diagnoses themselves with BPD and suffers from self-harm, low mood and an unstable sense of self – they do not experience some of the least understood aspects of the illness (unstable relationships, dissociation, impulsivity etc.) therefore if there are a number of people presenting like this who claim to have the full disorder, NTs will have limited understanding of actual borderlines when they come accross them. This may subject such individuals to abuse over their symptoms as it is not generally accepted that this is a significant part of the disorder.

self-diagnosis is particularly prevelant in BPD and anyone who doesn’t acknowledge a stigma towards sufferers in clearly in denial. Sufferers are already accused of “making things up” and “attention seeking” so when such a large part of the BPD community don’t actually have a diagnosis, this is going to skew the perception of all individuals with the disorder, including those who have a diagnosis. (I am not saying here that all self-diagnosers are making up their symptoms or attention seeking but to claim a full diagnosis without consulting a professional can give this impression to NTs and you need to think about the effect you’re having on the already problematic stigma).

this stigma can extend to health-professionals and self-diagnosers have not experiences the iconic look of a clinician’s face when they see that you have BPD. This makes diagnosed borderline’s the oppressed group in this sitation and if you are a self-diagnosed borderline it is not fair for you to influtrate the safe spaces of diagnosed borderline where they can discuss such issues.

Claiming that anti-self-diagnosis is albiest is a ridiculous argument because due to the reasons stated above, self-diagnosis disregards the feelings of diagnosed sufferers thus making self-diagnosis albiest.

“Some people cannot access medical treatment because of …” – this is unfortunately very true and it is disgusting that in this day-and-age some people are still denied access to the treatment they need but this still does not change the fact that you cannot diagnose yourself with a full medical disorder. This is why I am very much for recognising your own symtoms and self-advocation. This is not the same as diagnosing yourself and is the reason that most people seek medical treatment in the first place. There is nothing wrong with telling people that you suffer from “low mood”, “impulsivity”, “dissociaion” etc. and there is nothing wrong with tagging your posts with such symptoms, however claiming to have a very complex medical disorder without consulting a clinican is ridiculous, quite frankly. Doctors cannot diagnose themselves because you have a natural bias to air on the side of caution when it comes to your own health, so some kid with a blog deciding they can is laughable!

What I find particularly ironic is when self-diagnosed borderlines ask people not to reblog something they have posted if they find it “relatable” but do not have BPD themselves when that is literally what the OP is doing.

Yes some self-diagnosed borderlines are likely to have the disorder, however a significant number will not and the fact of the matter is that they cannot be sure. Surely if you know that you are at risk of contributing to stigma you would air on the side of caution and stick to the facts that you do know.

I am going to stop replying personally to posts now and reccommend that people read this instead, however, if you think that I have missed something that you would like answering (educated questions only) please don’t hesitate to private message me.

bxnprince:

cruelbby:

badsjw:

A SELF DIAGNOSIS IS NOT A REAL DIAGNOSIS!

You cannot officially say you have a certain mental illness unless a professional has told you so. Recognize some symptoms which may mean you have a specific mental illness? Okay. The next step is to go see a professional and/or to get help in whatever way you can.

I see 14/15/16 year olds diagnosing themselves with personality disorders that cannot be diagnosed if you’re under 18. I see kids diagnosing themselves with mental disorders that cannot co-exist. There are so many people that treat this shit as a little cute thing that they can put in their description and reblog posts about how their self diagnosed autism is a superpower.

Yes, I get that there are people out there that will be right when they self diagnose. But there will also be people that will be wrong. The thing is, you can’t know whether you’re right or wrong until you see someone. Self diagnosis will never be as valid as a professional diagnosis, so stop treating it as such.

you are aware that a lot of people are unable to be professionally diagnosed due to financial restraints, right? and that some of the Children who you are accusing have families who don’t believe in mental health issues and won’t get them help? And also if people are only allowed to have a mental disorder once someone tells them they do how exactly are they suppose to know wether or not to get diagnosed? The only reason I ever went to a therapist and got told diagnosed was because my family realized my issues and were supportive. Not everyone has that.

While I agree with the argument of people saying they have illnesses, for attention or whatever, is wrong, that isn’t the vast majority of people struggling. AND, not to mention, if someone IS faking a mental illness there is a very real chance that they are doing so because of underlying problems that make them feel they need to do so.

I’m not saying it has to be as official as a professional diagnosis, and I think anyone with the means should try to receive help, I just don’t understand why you are making such an angry post to shame young people who are just trying to figure out their struggles.

I feel like the reason that this is important is because it’s become such a prevalent problem in the community at large. I’ve seen people with actual PTSD get bullied off the site for not tagging their ships and ‘triggering’ someone, I’ve seen people with genuine disorders get swept under the rug and torn apart because of people who self diagnose and think that they know better.

The problem is not the minority of people who don’t have access to resources. The problem is the people who refuse the resources they have so that they can keep collecting those oppression points and cash them in. These people, these kids, are much like the otherkin and transtrender movement in that they poison the mental health community at large and make them seem like a joke. The people with identifiable concerns get washed out by the five hundred fifteen year olds with bpd (which, by the way, you cannot be diagnosed with and probably can’t even have until you’re an adult) and did (which is so rare that people doubt it exists and is so grossly misunderstood by tumblr I want to impale myself with a brick).

And these people ARE the vast majority of people. These are people that make serious mental illness a joke because their idea of dissociative identity disorder is pretending to be their favorite anime characters. It is a real problem and not only poisons the community, but propagates the already sickening culture that mental illness isn’t something that needs to be treated and that ‘ur perfect the way u are bb uwuwuwuwuwu’ and that is not a good or okay message to be spreading to people so young.