It all comes down to balance... like anything in life. But balance can be hard to find when one is feeling off balance, afraid, confused and needing something to comfort them through it.

The opposite scenerio can just a well be argued. An alarming number of people will deny the seriousness of the problems negatively impacting their lives for fear of the stigma or simply a mistrust of doctors. They end up just putting everything back onto themselves. Listening to the people around them who say 'you are too sensitive. you need to just cheer up and get over yourself. There is nothing wrong with you a good dose of reality won't fix. you are just making an excuse to be lazy.' You accept their dx because you don't know enough or can't accept that a 'mental illness' might be at play or the symptoms of a real illness are distorting your thinking.

Add to that the wait times to see a professional. Too often GP's will toss samples at you while showing you the door. Some will refuse to make a referal spouting some of the same falsehoods as you have already heard. I had one GP say to me once, 'do something good for someone else, it will make you feel better.' Looking for a good doctor can be way too overwhelming a task when in crisis. Where I live it is a 6 to 12 months wait to see a psychiatrist for a professional dx. What does a person do in the meantime? At worst they die or if they are lucky wake up in a hospital psych ward. At best they start to look for answers of their own by getting informed. Yes, sometimes that means they get a little carried away in the process because answers even the wrong answers are comforting.

When I was first dx it wasn't long before a few more labels were added to the mix. I think this happens alot because there are so many common symptoms among the different labels. So if one label fits it is pretty likely that other labels will cross over to fit too. I think as one learns to live with the symptoms impacting their life, receives effective treatment and can draw upon a good support network the labels become less and less important. It becomes more about turning things around with an aim of recovery and maintain hope for remission.

I appreciate that you are encouraging people to be cautious of self dx and on-line quizzes but if just one person is saved because the search for answers in that way motivated them to go for help then it is worth any number of others for whom that may not be the case. If a dx provides some comfort, lets someone in pain know they are not alone, steers them in the right direction then 'have at it' I say. Go get professional help, confide in someone you trust and learn all you can to effectively identify and engage in effective treatment. Yes, the system is in overload and lots of people run to the doctor for things that may not need a doctor's attention but that is as much a system flaw as anything. While one might be able to 'wait and see' about a fever, that same approach for someone in emotional distress could be deadly. We need to be careful not to discount or minimize someone else's pain. If it is problematic for them then it is legitimate for them even if it may seem minor to an outside observer.

I am one of those people who has to be dragged kicking and screaming to the doctors for pretty much anything and even then I will resist treatment until I am near dead. One example: dx with hypothyroidism, need medication says the doctor. It took me 2 years of living with the symptoms and risking serious effects before I resigned to medication. I was going to fix it with diet and lifestyle changes. Research told me it was possible and I hung on to that belief even though I made no changes to either. Instead of going for the meds I kept repremanding myself for not taking better care of myself. I needed to do my part first before resorting to meds. Problem was I wasn't doing my part so all I did was continue to risk my life.

I had to survive countless suicide attempts, ruin countless relationships, pick myself up from countless burnouts, distroy my career, loose all my savings before I finally accepted a diagnosis I thought far to subjective for me to accept.

Let us fight for a better system of care. One that has layers of para-professionals who can take some of the burden off the end of the line doctors. Let us not put the burden of system overload upon people in need. Don't ask a person in crisis question whether they need help or not. The only response to crisis is help even if that help is just a shoulder to cry on or an on-line community to support them.