fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #3592 ]

[ SECRET POST #3592 ]

⌈ Secret Post #3592 ⌋

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If you have a mental illness, how can you know what truly is wrong with you? Self diagnosing is stupid AND dangerous.

But if you can't know what is wrong with you how can you ever know you are mentally ill?

NAYRT-

Knowing something is wrong without being able to pinpoint the exact cause isn't unusual.

Which is why people with depression can never tell that they are abnormally not feeling happiness and people with anxiety can't figure out what the fuck is up with their breathing when they hyperventilate?

Why are mentally ill people never allowed to be able to narrow down what is going on with them without it being self diagnosis. Do you go to the doctor a lot and be like "something is wrong but I have no idea what"?

There is a difference between going, "Hm. I think I might have depression. I should see a doctor about that to confirm it." And, "I have depression and I am going to self medicate with _______."

Self medication was never in the picture, you were saying how can mentally ill people know what is wrong with them, and imo that perpetuates the weird myth that if you are not completely delusional and think you are fine you aren't REALLY mentally ill.

I do think people should confirm their self diagnosis, and also probably get second opinions on diagnosis, and even if you can't get to a doctor self medicating is always bad. But I also think people on the internet jump on anyone online who go "I think I have ____" with "YOU FAKER HOW COULD YOU POSSIBLY KNOW" way too much.

Self diagnosis =/= self-edication, though.

I can't think of many forms of self-medicating that wouldn't suck whether or not you had depression. Self care is different but if someone responds to feeling like shit with drinking or taking drugs that's probably not a great idea no matter how mentally sound they are. And there's no such thing as self-medicating for autism (unless people fall for the diet/herbal snake oil du jour), just different kinds of behavioral modifications that might help.

If someonewho thinks they have depression has access to medical care and meds and a therapist and decides to take St. John's Wort instead because it kind of works like an SSRI, they're an idiot because even SSRIs, which have a specified dosage so you don't have to worry about how a plant was dried or when it was harvested or how long to steep it, should only be taken under a doctor's supervision because people can have bad reactions to specific drugs, because they can play merry hell with your brain while your body gets used to them even if they work, and because they might interact with other meds you take or food you eat or whatever. Just because a plant might do the same job (without the benefit of a standardized dose) doesn't mean it can't cause the same potential problems.

But those are problems with self medication, not self diagnosis. And the other problem with self diagnosis is really a behavioral problem, in that some assholes use self-diagnosis to excuse their being assholes.

I used to say that all the time throughout my first year of therapy. It took months to get a diagnosis, which then had to be readjusted a year later. I changed medications three times that first year. And my doctor was at the top of her field, in NYC.

And yeah, you might say, "A suicide attempt in freshman year clearly means depression, you could have saved yourself some time!" but guess what? It wasn't "run-of-the-mill" depression. There were complications. And for awhile I was convinced it was bipolar disorder because I'd done some reading and well, all the "symptoms" fit.

My point is, feeling unwell without certainty of what is wrong is a common situation for people with mental illnesses, I don't know why you would write it off out of hand.

But you could, you know, note down symptoms and patterns, and narrow down broad areas of possibility, without saying YES THIS IS WHAT I DEFINITELY HAVE, surely? You could say "I feel depressed a lot, and at these particular times, and it might have something to do with some kind of depression." And that can be useful and important and meaningful knowledge, even without knowing for sure What Is Going On.

I agree with AYRT that there's this really weird hostility towards any kind of self-examination or self-understanding that's not sanctioned by medical professionals, and I really don't understand it.

But consider that:

- Mental illnesses can alter your perception and screw with your cognitive functions.
- Many of them manifest during adolescence or young adulthood, catching the subjects by surprise.
- As you are aware something is wrong and that something is fucking up your life, you are increasingly driven into anxiety over the cause and desperately want to find answers -- opening you up to becoming a victim of your own biases.

It is so easy to become convinced you've found an answer just because you wanted it to be something.

Charting symptoms and patterns is very helpful for a) presenting the findings to your specialist and b) keeping track of your progress during treatment. Self-diagnosing without seeking professional opinion and just living with it as described in the original comment that started this thread does sound extremely risky.

I really want to make sure that I'm understanding this, because I think I'm missing something here, but you're saying that you shouldn't try to understand how your mind works and your personality and habits and ways of being without help from a therapist? You're just supposed to, like, ignore all of it so that it doesn't stress you out and treat it as a black box?

Also, to be clear, I'm not trying to defend the "self-DX and then live with it" strategy from the OP. But I think the criticism of self-diagnosis, in general and in this thread, tends to be needlessly hostile and vastly overstate its case, in a way that really bothers me. I think there can be a lot of good from self-understanding and self-analysis, even if it can't really issue into a definitive diagnosis.

You are talking about sufferers of mental illness. The first priority when it comes to dealing with these issues should be -- like with any other kind of illnesses -- to prevent harm. Considering how serious and insidious many of these conditions can be, yes, I do think self-reflection needs to come after seeking professional help, especially if you are already experiencing symptoms noticeable enough to affect the quality of your life. Many people don't even realize something is seriously wrong until they are already in crisis.

I don't know where you're getting "ignore" and "black box" from, because therapy certainly doesn't involve doing that. Learning coping mechanisms, monitoring your behavior, and performing self-analysis can and often are all part of a comprehensive treatment regime. Sometimes they are the treatment, no medications necessary, but again, they need to be administered as part of a guided process. I mean, we're always saying that we need to de-stigmatize mental health issues by treating them like physical problems, and this is what you do when you suspect you're seriously ill: see a doctor (or try to, if you live in States).

This. I spent years thinking I had anxiety when in fact it actually turned out to be OCD that manifested itself as the "pure o" form, meaning that I have obsessions but no compulsions that go with them. I would never have guessed that I had OCD without a doctor diagnosing me because I thought OCD always involved stuff like constant handwashing or having to check and recheck things and I never did any of that.

Wow, I'd never even heard of that being a possibility. Definitely not something I would have thought of on my own if I were in your shoes. Hope things are better now for you.

They are, thank you! My psychiatrist and I were able to find a medication that worked for me, and between that and therapy, I'm now at a point where I no longer even need the meds. I'm so glad that I went to see a doctor because I'd never heard of it either - apparently it's far less common than the typical form of OCD, so there hasn't been much research done into it yet. But it's easy to see how someone who has it could think they have anxiety if they're constantly worrying about things, which was the case for me.

The same way that I know I have a sharp pain in my stomach but I don't try to diagnose the cause.

EXACTLY. Knowing something is wrong =/= I know exactly what is wrong. Knowing that something is wrong will probably get you in the right ballpark, but an actual diagnosis will be much more precise.

But my point would be that, you know. Figuring out where exactly it hurts, and getting some kind of understanding of what makes it worse and what makes it better, is not a bad thing. Obviously a doctor's diagnosis is precise and their advice is useful, but that doesn't preclude your own understanding of your own body or your own mind.

But you can't treat something without a diagnosis, and the risk of self-diagnosing something is that you might very well get it wrong, and trying to treat the wrong thing could end up making it worse. There's nothing wrong with going to a doctor and saying "I think I might have this because of X, Y, and Z," but the final verdict should come from the doctor. It may turn out that you actually have Q instead.

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[ SECRET POST #3592 ]

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