Is self diagnosis valid when it comes to mental illness?

Hi! 

I have post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

I’ve never been formally diagnosed with it, but I know I have it.

This is partly because I struggled to find a consistent and qualified counselor willing to diagnose me.

A few of my therapists didn’t want to diagnose me because they didn’t want me to get “held up” on a diagnosis. 

Even though I wanted some kind of label and language so that I could articulate my pain.

I decided that I needed to start calling it PTSD.

Read more: How do labels can empower people?

I self-diagnosed myself with PTSD. But this doesn’t mean my PTSD is any less real. It definitely doesn’t mean that it’s any less severe. So is self diagnosis valid?

One of the most significant issues with self-diagnosing is that you might misdiagnose yourself.

Yes, professionals also misdiagnose many people. But they’re certainly less likely to make a misdiagnosis than yourself.

I recently spoke to someone who strongly suspected they had bipolar disorder. And then, after a few years of therapy, they found out they had borderline personality disorder.

Their self-diagnosis was ultimately based on misconceptions about bipolar disorder. They assumed that their sudden, inexplicable shifts in behavior, mood, and personality were because of bipolar, which is often equated with being temperamental, unstable, and inconsistent.

This view of bipolar disorder is reinforced by misrepresentation in the media. And the flippant way we use the term as an adjective to describe anything from unpredictable weather to a person who often changes their mind.

In reality, they had mistaken the symptoms of borderline personality disorder for bipolar disorder.

Borderline personality disorder is characterized by intense and unstable relationships, impulsive and possibly dangerous behaviors, feelings of emptiness, highly changeable moods, and a fear of abandonment. All of these symptoms might seem similar to our perceptions of bipolar disorder. In this case, self-diagnosing mental illness can be dangerous and is far from a valid approach. The treatment for bipolar disorder is way different from the treatment for borderline personality disorder.

You might also think you have a mental illness when there’s a physical cause for your symptoms.

This is explained well in this article by Srini Pillay M.D, The Dangers of Self-Diagnosis: how self-diagnosis can lead you down the wrong path.

"One of the greatest dangers of self-diagnosis in psychological syndromes is that you may miss a medical disease that masquerades as a psychiatric syndrome. Thus, if you have panic disorder, you may miss the diagnosis of hyperthyroidism or an irregular heartbeat. 

Even more serious is the fact that some brain tumors may present with changes in personality or psychosis, or even depression.

If you assume you have depression and treat it with an over-the-counter preparation, you may completely miss a medical syndrome. Even if you do not want conventional treatment for depression, you may want conventional treatment for a brain tumor."

In this case, trying coping methods for panic disorder or depression will be futile when you need some kind of physical treatment to help you.

This can be physically dangerous and might discourage you from seeking treatment.

For those who tend to obsess over our health and our symptoms, self-diagnosis can be a ticket to panic city. This is primarily the case when you use the internet to diagnose yourself.

This is because there’s a lot of information online about mental health and mental illnesses. This information can be helpful but can also be challenging to navigate.

For example, suppose you have a personality disorder like borderline personality disorder or narcissistic personality disorder. In that case, you might realize that these mental illnesses get a lot of hate and stigma – even in mental health communities.

Reading about these misconceptions can make you feel awful. Without the guidance of a trained medical professional, you might struggle with self-acceptance.

In many ways, professional diagnoses are usually only available for the privileged.

That’s because most marginalized people seldom have access to compassionate, comprehensive, professional mental healthcare.

It’s difficult to access if you don’t have money to pay for healthcare, if you can’t travel far because you don’t have reliable access to transportation, or if you’re queer or trans or intersex and can’t find a therapist that is accepting of your identities.

Finding a therapist who isn’t bigoted against us is a challenge.

For this reason, being judgmental towards people who have self-diagnosed – or implying that we’re not really mentally ill – often ends up hurting the most marginalized people.

Self-diagnosing enables us to reach out to other folks who have mental illnesses; we can form a community where we support one another and exchange management tips and resources.

Once you self-diagnose an anxiety disorder, for example, you might Google “tips for dealing with work pressure when you have an anxiety disorder” or “how to explain my anxiety disorder to a loved one” or "dating someone with OCD and anxiety."

You might also find and join anxiety support groups – online or offline – which can help you feel less alone.

Battling mental illnesses can be draining and isolating. Having a community of some sort can be super valuable and healing.

It will help us feel less like outsiders and more like we belong.

Is self-diagnosis valid? Naturally, there isn’t a straightforward answer to the question of whether or not self diagnosis is valid.

But in a world where mental health care is inaccessible for many, it’s pretty understandable why folks try to self-diagnose themselves. And for them, self diagnosis is valid.

The best we can do is be welcoming and understanding towards self-diagnosed mentally ill people while being aware of the downsides and risks of self-diagnosis.

Is self diagnosis valid when it comes to mental illness? was originally published on Everyday Feminism