#it shouldnt be this hard to understand that your intentions going into taking substances like this have a profound effect on the outcome
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it is kind of wild seeing posts where people are like refuting the idea that psychedelics can be healing/medicinal/spiritual/generally anything other than purely recreational based on one experience they had. why are you guys Richard Nixon
#people will do recreational shrooms recreationally in a recreational setting and be like 'healing?? my experience was recreational!'#as if research hasnt been proving that psychedelic assisted therapy is shockingly good at helping with various mental disorders#including ptsd and addiction since the 50s!#it shouldnt be this hard to understand that your intentions going into taking substances like this have a profound effect on the outcome#ive had very very silly psychedelic experiences amd also very serious ones#just depended on my intentions and my ability to cultivate an environment that facilitated that#research into this was halted for 35 years because of this type of thinking. please dont stop it again! this could help so many people
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20 reasons why i think self dx is dangerous (as a nd/mentally ill person whoâs spent a decade researching psych)
this was made purely to highlight the dangers of self diagnosis and the importance of necessary medical treatment
important disclaimers:
self dx =/= self advocacy, i.e. researching symptoms that you think you might have and trying to compare them to your own behavior without actually dxing yourself, regardless whether you are going to seek medical help. i believe this is extremely important: it can provide you w/a sense of validation to know youâre not alone, and it can put you in touch with your feelings a little more once you realize there actually may be something going on with you.Â
this post is not made for the intention of judging the character of people who self dx- there are many other posts out there about the ableism factors, Â the trivialization of mental illness, or the way tumblr communities handle mental illness, etc.
tl;dr: .itâs not a fucking joke, please go get checked out by a professional medical practitioner, or donât (but pls do), but whatever you do please donât self dx
i often see the phrase âno one knows you better than yourselfâ as a justification for self dx and while youâre the only one who has access to your emotions and thoughts, no one is objective about their health, thoughts, and emotions. itâs impossible to truly dx yourself with any mental disorder because you subconsciously bring different types of cognitive biases into the process â this is why âmedical intern syndromeâ is such a prevalent phenomenon. you might know your emotions and thoughts, but this fails to address the fact that your perception of your feelings are grossly affected by your true mental illness (which says something ab your mental illness in and of itself).
not having access to mental health care doesnât mean you should dx yourself with a mental illness, its not black or white. i often see teenagers saying they donât want to get a prof dx because they donât want their parents involved and i totally understand that, ableism is so terrible and iâve experienced it for so long, trust me. luckily, there are ways to access mental health care at little to no cost, insurance or not, without getting your parents involved, but im not here to judge those who struggle w/resources to care.
untreated mental illness does not go away & a pro dx is crucial for access to treatment, disability benefits or other types of care or services. this could literally mean life or death. the prognoses for untreated mental illnesses are across the board terrible and may have devastating effects on your life: the longer theyâre left untreated because you decided to not seek treatment, the more disabling theyâre going to become. like one argument for self dx is that not everyone can access mental health care/resourcesâŠso instead they do something that literally prevents them from accessing resourcesâŠ.. uhhhhhh ??
you could put yourself in grave danger because symptoms of mental disorders may actually be life threatening symptoms of serious physical issues requiring medical care: thyroid issues, liver damage, vitamin deficiencies, blood/bone/brain infections, neurological disorders, many types of cancer, autoimmune disorders, brain tumors, epilepsy, diabetes, etc
you could put yourself in grave danger because you may be dealing with early symptoms of a more serious mental illness, such as schizophrenia, DID, etc. there are many early symptoms that mask other disorders. obv all mental illnesses are very serious but if you self dx with depression because youâre experiencing the ânegativeâ symptoms of schizophrenia: lethargy, lack of affect, etc. you may not think a pro dx is necessary and early treatment is crucial for successful long term treatment of schizophrenia.
there is so much misinformation about what symptoms look & a psychiatrist is able to determine the degree and direction of the symptoms. there is a huge spectrum within each symptom and it honestly takes a trained medical professional to determine the severity. for ex: mood swings are common in both bipolar disorder & BPD but they look and feel totally different for each disorder. people justify this with: âwell i fit the literal dsm diagnosisâ except,,,, you probably dont. the dsm was NOT designed for people who are not medical professionals to interpret- there are nuances of specific symptoms that determine a dx
just because you experience several behaviors doesnât necessarily mean you have a mental illness at all, diagnoses are based on the specific combination of symptoms. you may look at mood swings, anxiety and issues w/interpersonal relationships, and think you def have bpd; however itâs important to factor in that mood swings/anxiety are associated with hormones, eating patterns, stress, situational conditions etc but since youâre in the lens of looking for a diagnosis you might point to that and think it fits within that diagnostic criteria. im not saying youâre faking or donât have a mental illness, im saying one or more of your symptoms may not be accounted for mental illness.
if you self dx and then donât get treatment and/or medication youâre generally at a HIGH risk for self medication which may or may not include self-harm and substance abuse. since mental illnesses generally do not get better over time, so the longer you wait, the higher your chances of engaging in self destructive behaviors. there are some mental disorders that are literally inherent chemical imbalances that can really only be treated with medication, no matter how much self care you engage in.
i often see the argument that âpsychiatrists just go down a checklist to diagnose you and thatâs it!â, as well as, âMy psychiatrist googled âx disorder quizâ and printed the first one that came up!! i was in and out in five minutes!!!â as justifications for self dx: like either your psychiatrist needs to get their fucking license revoked or thatâs just not true. the testing process generally takes an hour and involves diff types of observations of behavior as well as a very long list of questions- itâs not a fucking list printed from the internet from a random site.
additionally i see, âpsychiatrists make mistakes too!!â right, true but the chances of a psychiatrist making a mistake vs the chances of you making a mistake are very slim in relation to each other due to the reasons listed here, i.e. decades of research on a phd level
just because some people go to the psychiatrist post-self dx and learn they were correct about their self dx doesnt mean that it applies to everyone and REGARDLESS it doesnt mean you shouldnt get professionally diagnosed anyway. these are a few experiences out of a million. it literally doesnât mean that you are definitely right in yours.
quizzes taken on the internet arenât fucking diagnosis (and neither is 6 months of research)??? like i donât care if youâve taken ten of them. if theyâre designed with the proper controls they could def help SCREEN for mental illness symptoms, but even then it requires a lot of second party consulting, itâs something youâre literally not qualified for, for the reasons listed above.. if i took diff quizzes or tried to research my symptoms i could def try and self dx with so many diff disorders that arenât even comorbid. they need to be interpreted by a medical professional and are usually designed to help guide ppl towards treatment
âall psychiatrists are neurotypical and dont understand my mental illness!â how do you know theyâre neurotypical? they wouldnât tell you even if they were??? also what does being neurotypical have to do with their ability to correctly do their job???? would you expect an oncologist to have gone through cancer in order to do their job?
the concept of self fulfilling prophesy is hard at work with self diagnosis; if you attach a label of depression to yourself itâs going to influence your behavior and self perception whether or not youâre aware of it. you might end up seriously damaging yourself because youre trying to fit the diagnosis. when i obsessively tell myself i feel very depressed, after awhile i actually prevent myself from feeling better because i keep telling myself iâm depressed, for example.
one phrase i see a lot: âwell people self dx with a cold, why is this any different?â well, for one thing, the physical ramifications of a cold and a chronic mental illness ie a literal chemical imbalance in your brain are miles apart. theyâre not even medically comparable in terms of immediate and long-term effects. additionally, it really highlights the fact that many people treat mental illness as a personalized experience whereas they treat their physical health w/objective opinions from medical professionals. this analogy is not only inaccurate but itâs dangerous as fuck.
people might not be aware symptoms theyâre experiencing are abnormal because thatâs their normal state based on their actual mental illnesses. for ex someone who suffers from an anxiety dx might just be used to adapting to it their whole life when they actually have a serious disorder and not even think about getting help for it. your baseline cannot be assessed objectively.
sometimes the self dx community is enabling in a bad way- the lack of treatment for disorders real or otherwise make them more susceptible to encouraging/justIfying unhealthy coping habits. its kind of like the blind leading the blind. like itâs just not a good idea.
just because it might take a couple diff psychiatrists to get an accurate diagnosis isnt a good justification for self dx. this can be due to a million different reasons- maybe you were diff ages when you saw each one, maybe you were exhibiting signs of something else at the time- i was originally diagnosed with depression before bipolar disorder because my mental health hadnât stabilized so my mania wasnât present.
using the excuse of âask someone close to you what they think about you possibly having [x] dxâ as a legitimate step towards self diagnosis is as bad as saying you donât have a personal bias⊠like the answer from your friend/family member is based on so many factors: the nature of the relationship, how honest the person is, their emotional state at the time, their own ability to analyze the people around them, how aware of psychological symptoms they are, their bias towards mental illness, the way the symptom description is presented,  the setting the discussion took place, etc etc
last but not least, i see the phrase: âwell mental illness didnât suddenly appear as soon as i got a diagnosis!â obviously it was always there but you may have mislabeled it before your diagnosis if you self dxâd first, thats it. no one is pretending mental illnesses suddenly appear when a professional diagnosis is assigned
your best âresearchâ on the internet is not equal to ten years of medical school, its just not, and itâs concerning to me that self diagnosis is such a prevalent trend on here. please seek treatment, even if itâs in the form of your high school or college counseling center; the links iâve provided in number 3 may be helpful in locating mental health care, whether itâs a community mental health care center, or a therapist close to you who offers reduced cost treatment.
you owe it to yourself, itâs 10000% worth it.
#self diagnosis#self dx#anti self dx#anti self diagnosis#actuallymentallyill#mental illness#mental illness discourse#ableism#not ableism#prof dx#psychiatry#dsm v#actuallybipolar#mental health community#mental heath support#sjw bullshit#medication#self medication#self care
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