I'm largely in favour of self-diagnosis. It probably comes as no surprise, given that I'm self-diagnosed with c-ptsd, myself. I have a primary care doctor and I'm on medication, but my official diagnosis is mixed anxiety and depression, even though c-ptsd is a much more accurate description of what I experience. Although I've recently started seeking more professional support, I'm still strongly in support of self-diagnosis, because I don't think I would be where I am now without it.
For many people, googling how they feel is the first step towards healing and symptom management. It was for me. I am now in the process of getting a more accurate official diagnosis, but it is not a cut and dry or simple process. I could be waiting for weeks or even months to be called in for an intake appointment, and it took me a long time to get to a place where I felt like I could take these steps. If not for self-diagnosis and the online community, I don't know that I ever would have felt validated and secure enough to reach out for this level of professional help at all.
I think one of the most obvious reasons to support self-diagnosing, is that it doesn't take resources away from anyone. It doesn't hurt anyone. It's simply a tool to try to understand yourself and your feelings and what you're going through better. It can also serve as a jumping-off point if you decide to go to the doctor to seek more help for your mental health. Being able to articulate how you feel by saying, "I experience x, y, and z, and I think I have *insert mental illness*. What options are there available to help me with this?" can be a really strong starting point when it comes to advocating for yourself.
Speaking of advocating for yourself, some people have to fight for a proper diagnosis, and I know from friends who have fought that same fight that it's exhausting, and it can take a lot of mental endurance. That's not something everyone can handle, and those people still deserve to understand more about what they're going through and figure out how to cope with those things. Just because you're unwilling or unable to seek professional help with your mental health doesn't change the fact that you still deserve care.
This leads me to one of my biggest reasons for supporting self-diagnosis: mental health care is not comprehensive or accessible enough.
I long to live in a world where everyone has access to comprehensive mental health care, but the fact is that right now we don't, and sometimes we just have to make what we do have work for us, and if all you have is internet access, self-diagnosis can be a lifesaver. Literally.
I wouldn't feel comfortable seeing a male psychiatrist or a male therapist, so I can't even begin to imagine trying to navigate mental health care as a person of colour who feels that way about white people. You need to feel safe for treatment to be effective and to get to a place where you can be honest enough for an accurate diagnosis, and the truth is, not all doctors exude an aura of trustworthiness and safety to all or even most of their patients. There's also an argument to be made for people with medical trauma, but I feel like that's another conversation for another time. But I will say, medical trauma is a very real thing. There are people with perfectly legitimate distrust of doctors and medical professionals, and they deserve respect and support.
Doctors can be wrong, or worse, dismissive. Fatphobia in the medical field is rampant and disgusting, with some psychiatrists so focused on the number on a scale that they refuse to listen to their patient's concerns and thereby compromise the level of care that person receives. People might walk away feeling so discouraged that they never go back, never try to find someone more compassionate, and what then?
And what about poor people? Uninsured people? People with no support system? Homeless people? I live in Canada, and I am lucky enough to have a permanent residence, so most of my medical care is covered - though it is not nearly comprehensive enough, but I digress.
So what about all the people that fall through the gaping holes in these systems? Are they supposed to just suffer silently and painfully, never able to connect with people who go through what they experience because they don't have access to proper and comprehensive mental health care? That's absolute bullshit of the highest order.
I feel like it really can't be overstated that it can take a very long time and it can be a really challenging fight to get an accurate diagnosis and the right care team. It is an arduous and daunting process, and the proper supports just aren't there for all groups of people.
Now on to my final issue, the common complaint that people self-diagnose for attention. Another very tall order of bullshit, in my opinion. The idea that people wanna slap themselves with highly stigmatized labels for the attention is laughable. Mental illness sucks. No one who is neurotypical actually wants this.
Is the possibility that some people might try to use illness to get attention worth alienating, suppressing, and holding back everyone else who are just trying to understand themselves a little better? I don't think so, because again, it doesn't take anything away from anyone. Some might argue that there's a case to be made about people misrepresenting certain mental illnesses through self diagnose, but I feel like mental illness is already so incredibly stigmatized that the true impact these people have in the grand scheme of things cannot possibly be bigger than the affect bad representation in the media gives us. And if we're being truly honest with ourselves, if someone is faking an illness for attention, they're not healthy. They may not be ill with what they're claiming to be ill with, but they're certainly not healthy, and they deserve the same respect and care anyone else deserves.
I've talked a lot about the different circumstances in which people might not be able to access care to be officially and professionally diagnosed, but I also want to cover another group of people: people who don't want to be professionally diagnosed. This might be a controversial opinion, but I believe that not wanting to be professionally diagnosed is a reason as valid as any other to self-diagnose.
It really all just boils down to one simple thing for me in the end, though. You don't need someone with a really expensive piece of paper to tell you that what you're feeling is valid. I believe you. You are valid.
Are you self diagnosed? Do you ever feel excluded from conversations about mental illness because of it? Let me know in the comments below!
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