Schizophrenia involves being out of touch with reality. There are lots of mental disorders that can escape the notice of a therapist who doesn't know you real well. Schizophrenia is not a subtle disorder. If you were schizophrenic, just about everyone around you would notice.

Therapists are really not who you should rely on to diagnose anything. That's the job of a doctor, or of a clinical psychologist. The job of a therapist is to help you find ways of coping with the difficulties you are having.

Doing a lot of research on mental disorders can end up being a way of finding affirmation that you have reasons for finding life hard to cope with. You have to ask yourself why you need to do that. Some people strongly need to find affirmation that "It is not my fault." Some people are wanting to believe that they can't do any better in life because how they are is all that can be expected of a person with such-and-such a diagnosis.

Major depression is terribly disabling. Why not just work with your therapist in trying to find how you can get into recovery from being so awfully depressed. That's really enough of a job for the both of you to get busy on.

As your therapist gets to know you better, other things may emerge that can be given a name. Maybe you are obsessive. Maybe you have a phobia. Maybe you have a personality disorder. Maybe you lack meaningful relations with other people. Maybe you lack certain social or living skills. A rose by any other name would smell as sweet. The names that get put on your problems are not what is most important. What can you do about your problems? That is what is most important.

Ask yourself what you hope to get out of spending time with a therapist. If your therapist redirects you away from a line of thought - like: "I think I am schizophrenic " - then ask yourself why that makes you afraid. Time goes by very quickly in a therapist's office, and it's expensive. There are a million ways we can go off on fruitless tangents that are actually just ways of not getting down to business and figuring out what is it about our approach to life that's not working for us. Part of the therapist's job is to keep you on track and guide you away from wasting time. Otherwise, wasting time is exactly what most if us will do. It's hard to face that we need to change. It's natural to think that we must have a disorder that forces us to be the way we are. It can be comforting to read reams of articles that say how we are is just the way that a person with a certain diagnosis is prone to be. But where does that get anyone?