Self Diagnosis

Way to use an extreme to define a norm. By the definition of extremes, these are outliers.

What harm did this diagnosis do?

So they were pregnant and didn't tell their doctor about hallucinations/delusions? At that point, it's not self-diagnosis's fault. When you're pregnant, you tell your doctor EVERYTHING because it's ALL relevant. Also, did this do harm to the baby? Anemia is quite common in pregnancy because the baby takes the iron from the pregnant person. If untreated with iron supplements, iron levels will go back to normal after birth.

Extreme to define a norm. Also this person had a very atypical case of diabetes, or they had physical symptoms they didn't think were related. I mean it's atypical anyway because hearing voices doesn't even appear on diabetes symptoms lists. At any rate, not paying attention to all the symptoms and diagnosing based on the symptoms you deem relevant is something that doctors deal with too. They misdiagnose too. All. The. Time.

This could have been written by my mother. Except she WAS diagnosed with depression only to be RE diagnosed with MS. That thing I just said about doctors misdiagnosing........


My personal position is there's nothing wrong with self-diagnosis. You cannot receive treatment through self-diagnosis and self-medication is a very different issue. Research is key, but pretty much everyone I know who has self-diagnosed has researched and researched and researched. At the end of the day, it leaves people feeling less alone, more understood, and less scared. And that's really what we should hope for people.

No one has ever been able to give me a reason why self-diagonsis is wrong. Just outlier stories of people who missed symptoms and who misdiagnosed themselves. Usually, these stories are presented to me by people who think that doctors do no wrong. Who have not seen their family members and their friends misdiagnosed and thrown under the bus by the medical community, who have not themselves been thrown under the bus by the medical community time and time again.

I'll end here with a story. This isn't so much self-diagnosis as it is unqualified diagnosis.. but from the time I learned what bipolar was... I was about 10. I diagnosed my father with it. He had been officially diagnosed with major depression, but I knew that wasn't the whole story. I saw him in mania. I knew what that meant. I even approached him about it, and I knew he had already heard that before due to his reactions. But he didn't want to face the truth, I guess. He got addicted to drugs chasing the mania and alcohol to try and forget the mania while in his depressed states. Last year, he finally brought these thoughts to his therapist/psychiatrist while detoxing from meth. How much pain would my family be spared if my dad listened to 10 year old me's diagnosis?

what harm did it do for the person in my post who self diagnosed with bipolar disorder when she had perimenopause/ menopause...she ended up on medication for bipolar which causes a non bipolar person to have suicidal feelings, hallucinations and delusions, not to mention many physical health problems due to having medication she did not need. she ended up in the hospital psych ward where they took her off the bipolar meds and told her that they were going to start out with a clean slate, to disregard everything she found online and what others have told her. to relax, let the professionals do their job. she was placed on hormones (the birth control pill rather than the bipolar meds) and she was fine. if she had not tried to self diagnose she could have saved herself a whole years worth of problems, a hefty emergency hospitalization bill, and loss of her job, loss of friends.

no she did not realize she was pregnant, (yes it is possible to be pregnant with out missing a period,and with out morning sickness and no weight gain.) if she had gone to a doctor rather then self diagnosing she would have found out she was pregnant and that anemia (not enough red blood cells to carry oxygen in her body) can cause a person to have hallucinations and delusions. instead she self diagnosed with schizophrenia. she could have saved herself and her future daughter a lot of problems if she had been correctly diagnosed with pregnancy anemia rather than self diagnosing. when she finally did go to her psychiatrist he sent her to the medical doctor to rule out a few physical things that can cause hallucinations/delusions, at which point she discovered she was pregnant.

no if anemia isnt treated during pregnancy that means the baby isnt getting enough nutrients and oxygen. anemia is when a persons body due to lack of iron doesnt produce red blood cells. red blood cells carry nutrients and oxygen through the body. her daughter ended up with many physical problems and deformities because she didnt develop correctly in the womb due to lack of oxygen and nutrients.

self diagnosing may be ok for you but ....for me and those I know....I do not recommend it. and do not believe its in the best interest and I believe it does more harm then good.

I'm a little curious how your one friend was prescribed bipolar meds on a self diagnosis alone.

it is very easy to end up on the wrong meds. medicating a person is not always easy. just read the boards and theres usually more than one posting a week of members telling how their treatment providers tried them on the wrong meds, or hey are having horrible side effects that clearly show they may need a medication check or medication change....especially when there are so many symptoms that are shared by many mental and physical health problems....

menopause symptoms.....tired, depressed, rapid mood swings, extreme highs, extreme lows, memory problems, other emotional/mental symptoms...

bipolar disorder symptoms.....tired depressed, rapid mood swings, extreme highs, extreme lows, memory problems, and other emotional mental symptoms

I don't think you understood my ????? What I'm saying is that doctors don't go by what someone diagnosis themselves with. Like if I go in and say, "I decided I have bipolar" they're not gonna turn around and just hand over the meds without someone kind of examination. I understand that docs dont always get the dx right, but they don't just take someone at their word if they just walk in and say, "I have such and such illness."

Hi,
I LOVE your question.
I go to school for psychology. My last psych class was Abnormal Psych (all the disorders).
I have always been a self-diagnoser and one to diagnose others (tip: be careful who you diagnose...some people dont like it, haha.)
I diagnosed myself with panic disorder maybe half a year ago.
A few weeks ago, I diagnosed myself with bpd.
I own the DSM 5 and even w.o it, it is easy to find the dsm criterion for each disorder so one can see exactly what is needed to have a diagnosis.

The only problems with self diagnosing are 1: personal biases (people often see themselves differently than how others see them-to put it briefly) and 2: the person may not have an accurate understanding of the criterion needed for diagnosis.

If those two things are not an issue, there is no problem or necessary fallacy with self-diagnosis.

I do not have anything against self diagnosis; I think we know ourselves better than someone else can and don't need a profession to tell us we are "anxious" or "depressed", etc. Diagnoses are used by professionals to help a patient/client, prescribe the right meds, or know what direction to work in but I don't know that self diagnoses can help/hurt more than professional ones or that professional ones are necessarily necessary ...I think most mental health diagnoses are based on questions asked us about ourselves and I think we can come to some of the same conclusions as a professional, with regards to most mental health questions.