I’m so tired of this dumb trope. No, your self-diagnosis is not helpful. And yes, you can get diagnosed if you’re poor. There are many ways to do so, you dont have to go through a fancy psychiatrist, and the US public Healthcare system will actually pay for it.
Yeah, but if you’re disabled and broke you get free healthcare in America…
Source: That’s why I’m not dead.
Man, even knowing how fucked 'murica is it still keeps surprising you with more fucked stuff. It just never crossed my mind that getting a diagnosis could cost money for someone.
it’s even funnier when you might have any given variety of mental disorders.
Could be ADHD, could be autism, hell might be both or neither! Could be SzPD, could be a variant of that, could be any other generic personality disorder. Hell maybe i’m just shitposting and i’m perfectly normal!
So now that balloons to the period of about 5 years, 20 tests, and many thousands of dollars, both spent and lost.
OH and how could i forget. It does precisely, almost nothing. Because disability is super fucked. And any other services that do exist are probably also a nightmare, so what’s even the fucking point of having them!
Also I think that you need psychiatric support if you really have ADHD, people think that have a untreated ADHD it’s like having a super power.
Tell me you’re American without telling me you’re American.
Public schools do free screenings in other to qualify for special education or 504 school accommodations. This may only cover students in the district home area and not private school students or adults.
The down side is that some school districts have quotas on how much of the school population can be considered SpEd or 504. But a pediatric psychiatrist can make that determination regardless of the school diagnostician findings to justify accommodations.
a fucking quota?!?!!?
Yeah. They figure that SpEd students comprise about a certain percentage of the general population and set their quota based on that.
It’s the same reason that certain racial groups won’t get sent to discipline centers otherwise it seems that there’s too many POC in the alternative school.
As someone who’s due a diagnosis (hopefully) soon, what type of questions do they ask you?
a lot of stuff about childhood experiences. it’s helpful to have someone present who knew you as a child, but failing that, you can talk to them beforehand I suppose. I imagine this sounds like a headache, so don’t worry about calling mom if it sounds stressful or confrontational. id say the ideal is a teacher who knew you well but doesn’t have stakes in the diagnostic label like a parent might. maybe a sibling.
Hi my parents took me to a psychiatric but did not say anything about adhd. I did not know what the process was, so I didn’t ask them for that diagnosis. They did give me anti depressants but I stopped going after 3 sessions cause i didn’t feel like it was going anywhere. Do you think i should go back and ask for a diagnosis? I also want to add that i live in a country where mental illness is still not real. So im not surprised the doctor was not communicating with me openly
that sounds hard. i cant give you medical advice - you know yourself better than me anyway. one thing i can comment on is that changes usually take a combination of medication and behavioral changes (aka therapy). so it’s not surprising that things didn’t improve after 3 sessions. it takes a lot of effort!
I literally got my diagnosis in one day at my PCP as he went through the DSM 5 criteria and asked some questions about my childhood. It took 30 min and he was not a pill pusher. He does not ever prescribe stimulants. I tried his nonstimulant medication recommendations after feeling the need to have some intervention and they were terrible. When I asked to try a different treatment, he referred me to an in network psychiatrist and things were smooth sailing. The same was true for my two brothers who were also diagnosed as adults and one was diagnosed in another state also at his PCP.
All that being said, I think people make the jump to a psychiatrist too early when they can seek screening at a PCP first. I had to answer a few more questions for onboarding at my psychiatrist, but I never ran into any issues. I also did not have to pay for an ADHD screening because I had already been diagnosed at my PCP.
rolling through DSMV and calling it a day is wild, from my experience, at least with more off the cuff mental disorders a survey containing about a thousand or so questions is the bare minimum. Plus a few more rounds of that as you try to narrow down any other potential disorders it could be, because it turns out this is a really hard field to deal with.
There is definitely utility in getting a diagnosis like this, but i’d imagine most wouldn’t for most things other than basic stuff like ADHD, depression, anxiety etc… There is a considerable risk of just being wrong about something, even if you roll through something like ICD10 which is markedly better than the DSMV. If you’re lucky there are a few good localized options like the akhtar profiles for SzPD which can summarize the general disorder into a handful of specifics actions more so than a broad behavioral checklist.
I’m in Canada, so things here are a bit different. On top of that, things differ greatly between physicians.
I went into my primary care physician, and I inquired about ADHD, because I’d done some learning, and thought I had it, but didn’t want to self diagnose. I thought he’d give me a referral to a psychiatrist for diagnosis, instead he gave me a survey, which was maybe 20 questions at most, took maybe a minute to fill out. After, he looked over my answers, said something to the effect of “this seems consistent with mild ADHD, do you feel it is affecting your life?” Very yes. Then he prescribed me a relatively low dose of ADHD meds, and as soon as I got that prescription filled, my life changed for the better.
I’ve been on it ever since and much happier for it. Took like 3 minutes at my primary care physician.
Meanwhile, my brother went to his primary, who referred him to a psychiatrist, who did weeks of discussions and examinations before any prescription was provided for him. He also has ADHD.
Different physicians, different people, different experiences.
Murica
$5k?! A doctor’s visit is $250 for me (insurance doesn’t cover anything until I never reach the deductible). Also there were only like 2 tests totalling 20-ish questions. The hardest part was making an appointment, which I never would have done if I wasn’t also making appointments for other pressing health issues.
Nah, I can’t even do that because every place in my area will straight up say that they will never diagnose an adult with adhd.
Then use one of the many telemedicine doctors that actually align with modern science. How weird of them.
Self-diagnosis is not valid. By definition. Not even a psychiatrist can diagnose themselves. What you’re talking about is either 1) advocating for your own diagnosis or 2) self-treatment.
Both of these things are valid.
Advocate for yourself for a diagnosis from a health professional if it will unlock new treatment options. But also just look into how others with similar problems have successfully managed their problems. Consider how you could implement similar things. That’s what’s at the heart of therapy for ADHD anyway.
But diagnosis itself is only useful as a tool for describing symptoms and informing treatment. If a collection of symptoms speaks to your experience, then the only point in putting a diagnostic label on it is to say “Maybe these things that helped others with similar symptoms will also help you.” But in order to do that effectively, there also needs to be a differential diagnosis to ascertain what it is not. This is why healthcare providers need to be involved in the process. Two different things can look very similar but have very different etiologies and different treatments.
Social media needs to quit putting so much emphasis on diagnosis and more emphasis on treatment. This post should be removed for medical misinfo, but I hope people at least read the comments to see why this person seems to be such a snakeoil influencer.
Self diagnosis is fine. There’s coping mechanisms one can use without an medical diagnosis. If they see not enough one can try for an official diagnosis.
There’s no such thing as self-diagnosis. That’s my point. What you said about coping mechanisms is exactly what I said in my response: that diagnosis informs treatment, so just try different behavioral applications that help you without worrying about the diagnosis.
Holy shit, I just realized that you’re one of the mods. This is absolutely embarrassing. I can’t believe you’re spreading this garbage. STOP telling people to diagnose themselves! You’re contributing to genuine harm of the TikTok Diagnosis era.
“Diagnosing” yourself is a step along the way to finding behavioural applications that help you. I would never have even begun to start pursuing half the things that have helped me if I didn’t see a bunch of people sharing their experience as autistic and go “oh shit, might I be autistic?”.
What you are referring to as “telling people to diagnose themselves” is actually just encouraging people to look inward and outward, find common themes between themselves and others, and use those findings to inform what they can do to help themselves and those around them.
If, in fact, you don’t take any issue with that and its instead just the word “diagnosis” that you take issue with, then I have no right to stop you from being that pedantic but there are better hills to die on.
actually just encouraging people to look inward and outward, find common themes between themselves and others, and use those findings to inform what they can do to help themselves and those around them.
That’s actually what I am saying you do. Why would you call that “diagnosis”? Why not call it “pizza-stomping”? Why not call it winning a nobel prize? Words mean something. The fact that so many people cannot understand why this is frustrating is exactly why it is frustrating. I actually like the nobel prize comparison. That’s not too far off from what’s going on here lol.
What it leads to is communities of people who increasingly have little relation to people who are actually diagnosed with the condition. “hey i like pizza do i have adhd” “yeah man totally! i have adhd and i love pizza” “yeah it’s totally a major symptom” and then when someone comes along saying “uhh that’s not actually diagnostic of adhd” they get told to fuck off
these words mean something. these conditions mean something. the treatments mean something. we have boards and licenses and ethics surrounding all of this. if you want to go wild wild west at it, im sure you’ll have a lot of fun and make great friends along the way, but all of this contributes to the undermining of our society’s understanding of mental health
Oh fuck off
This is a pretty poor reply from a moderator. The user you’re replying to is correct. Not only that, it is staggering that someone who mods a sub of this type is advocating for self diagnosis. Sharing coping mechanisms is one thing but advocating what amounts to circumventing mental health help is frankly irresponsible. I don’t see how anyone could find it even rational to advocate to the potentially mental ill to diagnose themselves.
…what? I agree with you?
I even shared an anecdote about my own self diagnosis? I’m genuinely baffled that you just lash out at someone who agrees with you.
they probably meant me
Based reaction
I agree with most of what you’re saying, but the way you’re presenting it is almost confrontational.
True, self-diagnostic in a strict sense isn’t a thing, but as you point out after, a collection of symptoms can speak to one’s experience. Finding this insight, in my case, was an eye opening moment because so many things in my past and in my day to day suddenly started to make sense.
Coming to terms with this realization is especially useful for people who have strong negative views on mental health issues, and driving people to “self-diagnostic”, as in recognizing that they may be neuro divergent, is a worthy effort.
It doesn’t replace actual professional help and diagnosis, but it’s a first step that needs to be encouraged.
Damn right I’m confrontational because this is literally medical misinfo being peddled by a grifter and you’re eating it right out of her hand.
The differential is what matters. We go to a professional to figure out what it’s NOT.
I think it’s ego. People probably can’t handle the fact that they aren’t as smart as they think they are and don’t want to admit that maybe they’re wrong about their “”“diagnosis”“”. But that’s just a generalization. Go to a doctor. Fuck OP.
Suppose someone was on the fence here, and willing to hear you out instead of believing OP.
Because, as I said, while I agree with most of what you said, you’re doing a big disservice to spreading your message.
For a purely semantic sake, you’re probably right. But for a colloquial sake, the term “valid” here, doesn’t mean “legally valid” or “medically valid”, but instead means “emotionally valid.” For some people, confirmation is therapeutic enough to help. Also “diagnosis” doesn’t exclusively mean “medical diagnosis”. There are many definitions to the word, and in a medical sense, it usually means what you’re describing. But “I think I have ADHD” is a diagnosis. Not a medically valid one, but something that might help me get through the day sometimes. And if that’s all I need, then it’s emotionally valid.
Being told “your self diagnosis is not valid” to some people is the same as being told “There’s nothing wrong with you.” (Because most people aren’t working on a strict legal medical definition of “diagnosis”) Emotionally validating your assessment that something is wrong can very well be what drives people to advocate for a medically valid diagnosis.
Also, saying “You don’t have ADHD unless it’s diagnosed ADHD” is wrong regardless of stance on self diagnosis. If my arm is broken, it is in fact broken, even if it hasn’t been diagnosed. Undiagnosed issues are still issues. Too many anti-self diagnosis claims come across as saying that if you don’t have a diagnosis it doesn’t exist. At most you can claim “You don’t know for sure you have ADHD unless it’s medically diagnosed”
As with all things, a self evaluation is a useful “what do I do next” step.
Man. I hate to shill, but…
I faced many of those same issues, and after a year and a half of failing to set up testing, my doctor told me to go to adhdonline.com - they offer online testing $180, and give you results back in like a week. She’s already given me an ADHD testing referral, and she suggested that my insurer would probably reimburse me for the cost, but I have ADHD, so I never bothered with it.
It took me about 4 hours to do the test (but I did it while I was sitting through a day-long virtual meeting where I had to be present, but not ‘present’. So like, it probably won’t take focused people that long.)
And - yeah. Morally, it sucks. It’s feeding into the commodification of someone’s job and is morally kind of like using Uber or AirBNB. It’s convenient and maybe cheaper. Maybe it upsets a system that could use a little upsetting, but will likely upset it too much and have unforeseen impacts.
But it worked for me.The problem with online services like that is many of them dont properly test people. So when they inevitably get shut down suddenly you don’t have a reliable source of medication and you have to go through the whole process again just to prove it. Like with what happened to Done recently.
Self-diagnosis doesn’t help me get meds.
Self-diagnosis doesn’t help with relationships IMHO either and I mean that both from a personal and professional perspective.
Why you might ask?
YMMV but for me, I am an open book. Having the diagnosis meant I could talk to bosses when trying a new med, or explain to them when struggling. Knowing the diagnosis means you immediately diffuse an aspect of a challenge. For me, that has been immensely valuable.
Unofficial/self diagnosis helped me in my personal relationships.
I mentioned to my partner that a doctor friend thought I had ADHD, and it really helped them not take some of my most annoying traits personally.
I get where you’re coming from with needing an official diagnosis for work accommodations, but none of your friends are really going to demand to see a doctor’s note, so why would personal relationships depend on an official diagnosis?
I get where you’re coming from with needing an official diagnosis for work accommodations, but none of your friends are really going to demand to see a doctor’s note, so why would personal relationships depend on an official diagnosis?
The same reasons as from a professional experience. Yes they aren’t going to pull the doctor’s note but neither is work IMHO. What it does is provide more weight behind your words of “hey I’m not just googling this shit. I’m not just an insufferable asshole looking to validate that I am. I’m actually working with a psychologist.”
Friends, just like coworkers, etc. care less of the diagnosis. They want to know you’re working on you because I’d argue writ large people want to see you succeed. A self-diagnosis can help but it doesn’t give you access to all the tools you may need to succeed so from the outside I would argue that official diagnosis matters. It means you now have someone else on your “team” be it a GP or a psychologist or whatever helping you navigate things.
Nobody is suggesting otherwise or defending the medical system here.
Oh good, another doctor who thinks her own book, website, blog and youtube channel are an adequate substitute for professional, personalized care and diagnosis.
“It’s really hard to get a diagnosis, so why even bother trying? Just like the video and hit the bell for notifications!”
She comes up a lot on my Threads feed even though I don’t follow her and some of her takes are… uh, iffy. I understand that some doctors actually want to help people, but there are far too many out there that seem like they’re more interested in becoming some sort of famous guru. I wish more people took their advice with a grain of salt.
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