Remainder that self-diagnosis is valid
[PT: Remainder that self-diagnosis is valid /PT end]
I'm aware that my blog isn't an activism blog, but positivity blog, but I think it's an important thing to say, especially since it's Disability Pride Month.
It's sad to see so many people who say that you should never self-diagnose and that you can't say that you have a disorder if you don't have an official diagnosis.
There are multiple reasons why someone might decide to self-diagnose instead of getting an official diagnosis.
In some places health care is (very) expensive and not everyone has enough money to get it. In other places health care is on a low level, and staff isn't educated enough to treat their patients. And there are places were awareness about disorders, disabilities is very low, so getting a diagnosis would be very hard.
In some places, you can lose some rights, if you get a diagnosis. E.g. in Russia you are banned from driving if you're deaf, hard of hearing, colorblind, have epilepsy, paraphilic disorder, are on schizospec, have personality disorder, behavioral disorder, neurodevelopmental disorder, or have gender incongruence. So if you wanna drive a car in Russia, you can't get any of these officially diagnosed (I'm not even sure if it's the whole list, since I took that information from English articles, and my level of Russian language is too low to check sources in Russian). (sources: [source 1 link], [source 2 link])
Some diagnoses are demonised by society, seen as "dangerous" or called "crime disorders". Psychotic disorders, personality disorders, behavioral disorders, addictive & dependent disorders are heavily stigmatised, and that's why people with these disorders might not seek official diagnosis. There's also risk of forced institutionalisation and forced medication. For people with paraphilic disorders there's a risk of being put in conversion therapy, which doesn't help at all, and doesn't make attraction go away.
Some people working in medical fields don't update their knowledge, even though they have possibility to do that. E.g. A person might not get a diagnosis of autism and ADHD, because the psychiatrist has an outdated knowledge, and doesn't know that they can be diagnosed together (if I remember correctly, you couldn't be diagnosed with both autism and ADHD until 2013). There are also some people in medical field who don't believe in existence of some disorders (e.g. some people who work in mental health field debate existence of Dissociative Identity Disorder, or don't believe in its existence at all). Some people working in medical field won't diagnose with some disorders, because they're unresearched.
People working in medical fields are *biased*. Socially imposed females often are told that they're overexaggerating their symptoms, or their symptoms are blamed on hormones. Symptoms of fat people are often brushed off because of their fatness. Black people are more likely to be (mis)diagnosed with conditions that are seen as "dangerous", because society sees Black people as "dangerous". BMI used in diagnosis of anorexia nerviosa doesn't show how much of your weight are your muscles and how much is your fat (that's why a lot of athletes fall in the categories of "overweight" or "obese" according to BMI), has racial bias and was created by mathematician, not physician. Some people in medical field won't diagnose you with something, because you don't fit *their imagined* presentation of the disorder, or because of some other nonsense (e.g. "you can't be autistic, because you have friends!", "you can't have ADHD, because you're in high school!", "you can't have BPD, because you're nice!"). There are many other examples of bias in medical field, but it would be hard to write it all down.
In many places minors can't get medical help without parents'/legal guardians' consent. And in some places there are organisations that spread some bullshit that giving minors rights to get medical help without parents'/legal guardians' consent is an attack on parents' rights (e.g. far-right, ultra-conservative organisation in Poland Ordo Iuris does that.... Ordo Iuris is a big problem on its own, but I'm digressing). Many minors can't get help because parents/legal guardias don't believe them or belittle their problems. Some parents/legal guardians don't even care about their children's wellbeing. Other parents/legal guardians don't even believe in the existence of mental disorders.
There are also some disorders, conditions that aren't listed by DSM or ICD as diagnosable, like misophonia, but it doesn't mean that these disorders/conditions doesn't exist. They still exist and people still have these disorders/conditions, even if they aren't listed as diagnosable.
Also, we live in ableist society that see any disability as something "bad", "undesirable" etc. Disabled people are discriminated by society. E.g. some diagnosed disabilities can make it harder to find a job. Some ableists employers may not hire somebody, because they have a disorder diagnosed (if I'm not wrong, it's illegal in some countries to do that, but a lot of people won't probably care about that). People may turn away from you, exclude you from social groups etc. if they know that you have a disorder diagnosed.
There are many other reasons why someone might choose to self-diagnose, instead of getting an official diagnosis, but that's all I can think of for know. I hope this will help others with realising why some people choose self-diagnosis instead of getting an official diagnosis.
