Okay. I'm one of the most pro self diagnosis beings you will ever meet, but sometimes I wish people would have more caution.
I think it absolutely is valid to look into what you experience, do lots of research for extended periods of time, and say that you're pretty sure you have [blank] or are [blank], especially because offcial diagnosis is a privilege. It is classist to deny that.. BUT it's good to be extra careful and make sure you're not excessively fixating on certain disorders or illnesses.
It absolutely is possible to accidentally convince yourself you have something that you may not because of that. That phenomenon is called cyberchondria. It's a kind of health anxiety that makes you look too much into symptoms that may actually be normal or linked to something else. I've experienced this before myself, so I absolutely understand others who go through it.
I feel this especially happens with things like dissociative disorders. I don't think some people realize that pretty much anyone can have dissociation.. and memory and identity issues can be connected to so many different things. It's not good to just immediately jump to "oh I must be a system!" Trust me, I've been through that myself. It's way way better to avoid ever convincing yourself you definitely have something like that going on with you when you don't know for sure. You can even unintentionally end up manifesting "symptoms" of whatever illness/disorder you think you have. It may be completely unrelated, but your brain tells you "it's 100% because I have this."
I'm not saying this happens to everyone who looks more into their mental issues and gets fixated, but it absolutely can and does happen. I just wish people would be more mindful about what they're doing when it comes to these things. It is okay to not completely know what's up with you. I know it sucks sometimes (I hate it myself), but it's better than going down rabbit holes and spiraling because you can't decipher your real experiences from what you're unintentionally convincing yourself is happening.
A response to this rant that I got that made an excellent point 👉
In the end, though, I also do not think anyone going through this deserves hate or to be fake claimed. I seriously do understand it and doing that just makes the individual feel worse. They are not "faking" anything because they're not intentionally doing it, and they're most likely unaware that these things can happen. That's why I think it's good to be educated on the umbrella of health anxiety and find ways to manage those issues if you do go through them.
