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“Trendy” diagnoses

Alien0n3arth

I’ve got some negative experience and also some thoughts. It’s about the self diagnosis in mental health conditions being not accepted mostly by professionals. 
There are various online tests - screening tools. AQ50, AQ10, RAADS, and many others. There are also tests for ADHD. These are screening tools, not designed to diagnose. When you fill out the test, you get the result. If your result is significantly high, you get a message- you might have xyz condition, it’s better to contact a mental health professional. What is the reality? If you fill out the test or even few of them and their results together point to this condition and you go to the professional, there is a high chance, that they will not take you seriously, there high risk of hearing the stupid  “trendy” comments about diagnoses that everyone wants to have, that you just want attention, you’re just lazy not willing to work on yourself, or laugh and question if you know it from TikTok. 
There is a huge ocean of information and also misinformation out there, we as non professionals often lack the ability to differentiate what is true, what is not, but it also depends on where do we look for the information. Social media is more likely to deliver us more misinformation than books, but it’s not all black and white. 
the truth is that we ourselves know best what we experience and a professional who questions that, who tells us “you are exaggerating, creating your problems yourself, or that “this is not a problem” erode our trust and make us more cautious about contacting them. I heard from a psychotherapist (psychiatrist and psychologist, with long experience, doctor, lecturer at a university) that lack of friends is not a problem when I told her it is. When I was a teenager, I was suicidal because of this. And then I heard such a thing. 
So I feel it like - if you think that xyz condition describes your problems and explains the why’s, better stay as you are and don’t dare self diagnosing or reaching out to professionals with your insignificant problems. I hope I will finally find someone treating me seriously. I hope others here have better experience. In my case I was told by few professionals that Im probably autistic, the first one - the lecturer gave me her “trendy” comment after I described her my problems. I haven’t even mentioned anything about autism. I will see if it leads me anywhere or I stay as I am trying to cope. At least the self dx helped me manage my life in a way that is a bit easier for me and recognize how to name actually my struggles and strength and weaknesses. I’m not sure why I’m sharing this, just want to share some thoughts and experience. Can anyone relate? Sorry for a long post

Parents

  • If anything, I’ve learned that being ND is about tolerance and acceptance. I don’t have a formal diagnosis and doubt that I will seek one now, in my mid-life. I suspect that I would struggle to get one, given what I’ve read about experiences like this and I wonder what effect that would have on my mental state. Probably not good. 

    Instead, I’m continuing to learn about my condition, to accept it and tolerate it. The more I do this the more I recognise similar traits in others and the acceptance and tolerance of them in myself helps me to accept and tolerate them in others. My wife and I now recognise that she might also be “somewhere on the scale”.

    I don’t wish to seem judgemental but I think for some, diagnosis might not be that important and perhaps it shouldn’t be sought. If you can, a quiet and calm acceptance of what you are, without the need for a label, can work. I accept that might not be good for everyone, particularly if medication is needed. Thankfully I can cope without it and so with this approach I can get by. I think there may be many like me who don’t need to be medicated and yet who fret and worry about trying to get a label that’s not really going to help them either way. 

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  • If anything, I’ve learned that being ND is about tolerance and acceptance. I don’t have a formal diagnosis and doubt that I will seek one now, in my mid-life. I suspect that I would struggle to get one, given what I’ve read about experiences like this and I wonder what effect that would have on my mental state. Probably not good. 

    Instead, I’m continuing to learn about my condition, to accept it and tolerate it. The more I do this the more I recognise similar traits in others and the acceptance and tolerance of them in myself helps me to accept and tolerate them in others. My wife and I now recognise that she might also be “somewhere on the scale”.

    I don’t wish to seem judgemental but I think for some, diagnosis might not be that important and perhaps it shouldn’t be sought. If you can, a quiet and calm acceptance of what you are, without the need for a label, can work. I accept that might not be good for everyone, particularly if medication is needed. Thankfully I can cope without it and so with this approach I can get by. I think there may be many like me who don’t need to be medicated and yet who fret and worry about trying to get a label that’s not really going to help them either way. 

Children
  • in reply to Arise

    I’ve heard few times from professionals that I’m on the spectrum but I don’t need dx because it wouldn’t have helped me. I don’t want meds anymore, I’ve tried at least 3 different ones and nothing helps. For me I’m not sure, if I need a label and for what. I would like to meet some people, to join a local support group I need dx, but there is also a risk that I would have not fit the other people out there. I think there are also ways of meeting people without having diagnoses, I will talk to the psychologist I have an appointment booked. Here in Germany I noticed higher level of quality in health services generally. The psychiatrist who directed me to psychologist here and gave me list of psychologists to help me find one, he said, that such a “trendy” comment was highly unprofessional and it shouldn’t have taken place at all. I’m not trying to be smarter than mental health professionals, I’m just afraid of them based on my negative experience. The psychiatrist who prescribed me meds for Tourette’s and my family who forced me to take it when I was still minor, they stuck in my memory the most. Despite my complaints about the side effects they didn’t listen until I started threatening the worst.