Self Diagnosing

As someone with mental illness I find it really problematic and really dangerous when I hear that people are self diagnosing themselves with mental illness or even personality disorders. It really scares me because I feel like some people just push themselves to the most trendy mental illness and it feels like people than don't understand the process of being diagnosed with a mental illness, or a personality disorder.

What also scares me is when someone clings to a disorder and then they start to act out other traits of that disorder to try and show they have it more. The negative behaviors, or symptoms. This scares me personally because I think people are so fixed in trying to feel comfortable with being in a mental disorder group that they do anything to be apart of it. I also notice this as really dangerous too, because even if you do have depression, if you partake in the depression behaviors you can also make it worst. Like if you know you get depressed so you seek out more depressed people to feel accepted and all they do is talk about killing themselves, hurting themselves or putting up negative thoughts all the time, its not going to help that person recover or it might also push them into a less safe spot with their depression.

 I think there is a difference between being self aware and diagnosing yourself with a mental illness. Being mindful and self aware is totally fine, if your noticing problems or your noticing things that aren't right with your body and mind thats fine.  I think its important to keep those things in mind, just don't plug them into google and attach yourself to what google gives you. I think its also important to than talk to friends or family about it to see what they say. But also ulitmately listen to yourself. (Because not everyone is supportive with mental illness or a personality disorder..) and seek professional medical help if you think you need it. especially if its a mental illness that can be treated with meds, because it'll help take down some of the symptoms while you work on skills.

Another problem I notice with it, with depression for example, if you think you have it, and you google it and google says yeah you do. It might make it harder for that person to seek out help, there are loads of sites with information and its so much info at once that it can over load you, Not to mention blogs, and other sites that they have different opinions and there is also different types of depression... and its just, its so much.  Its also really hard because there are terms like Major depression, seasonal depression, and manic depression. Which all sounds like different levels of "depression." But they aren't. Clinical doesn't mean "server" and seasonal doesn't mean "moderate".

A lot of mental illnesses are defeating, and I remember when I was diagnosed I was asked how I felt about finding out I had my mental illnesses or finding out I have my personality disorder and how does that make me feel? And honestly it made me feel a little bit defeated and a little bit broken. I also felt like it made me weak, even though I thought I was strong going through everything I've gone through, it felt like the diagnoses were saying I was weak. And I think thats also just the way I saw mental illnesses a lot. I never really saw it as something that happens because of trauma. I saw them more as a sign of weakness. I guess thats also just because of the only form of info I had on mental illness was the "emo" movement/fashion.

So sometimes I don't think people are really mentally prepared. Also knowing how the media has portrayed a lot of mental illnesses it might not make people feel comfortable with knowing what they have.  Especially stuff like depression, or anxiety, ect. I mean I think a lot of people grow up with the idea of media taking a hold of mental illnesses and saying "Oh well that person is just an attention seeker" Or "That person is just crazy". I mean how many mental illnesses have we heard about on the media that has been true? None. Its this person is crazy, that person just wants to be skinny, that person is just sick and twist. Also with how media portrays mental illnesses its almost always given to someone who is a problem character. We don't tend to see good characters with mental illness, or personality disorder. Its always the disliked character.

My biggest problem with self diagnosing is sometimes people get really fine with the idea that they have something, I also notice sometimes people go for the biggest forms of the disorder. Compared to have depression, people might be like oh well I have manic depression and they tell people, but they never speak to a professional, which is also really scary when you think about how many people pass away due to their mental illness and commit suicide.

I do think that people who are noticing problems with there mental health should always seek help, and I think its important to be self aware and seek out help, but I just really find it scary when people self diagnose and than don't seek help.