Self-Diagnosis Masterpost
Self-diagnosis isn’t a diagnosis and no matter how much you disagree with/don’t like that, it is a fact and will not change.
Self-diagnosis is dangerous because:
your bias may cause you to ignore symptoms, for example, if someone diagnoses themselves with an anxiety disorder they may be unaware that their symptoms are due to an underlying heart condition. If you are treating the wrong disorder, then self-medicating can be particularly dangerous.
people may begin to play up to a disorder they don’t have. This may not necessarily be a conscious decision, but can be very dangerous (especially in the case of BPD) - you can read more about the diagnosis effect here.
self-diagnosis, when done online, can actually lead to higher levels of uncertainty and excessive need for validation, causing anxiety. Read briefly about this here
Self-diagnosis can harm diagnosed sufferers:
If somebody who does not have the disorder claims to have the disorder (and realistically a lot of self-diagnosers will not have the full disorder) then this can create unrealistic expectations for diagnosed individuals to live by. Imagine a person who diagnoses themselves with BPD and suffers from self-harm, low mood and an unstable sense of self - they do not experience some of the least understood aspects of the illness (unstable relationships, dissociation, impulsivity etc.) therefore if there are a number of people presenting like this who claim to have the full disorder, NTs will have limited understanding of actual borderlines when they come accross them. This may subject such individuals to abuse over their symptoms as it is not generally accepted that this is a significant part of the disorder.
self-diagnosis is particularly prevelant in BPD and anyone who doesn’t acknowledge a stigma towards sufferers in clearly in denial. Sufferers are already accused of “making things up” and “attention seeking” so when such a large part of the BPD community don’t actually have a diagnosis, this is going to skew the perception of all individuals with the disorder, including those who have a diagnosis. (I am not saying here that all self-diagnosers are making up their symptoms or attention seeking but to claim a full diagnosis without consulting a professional can give this impression to NTs and you need to think about the effect you’re having on the already problematic stigma).
this stigma can extend to health-professionals and self-diagnosers have not experiences the iconic look of a clinician’s face when they see that you have BPD. This makes diagnosed borderline’s the oppressed group in this sitation and if you are a self-diagnosed borderline it is not fair for you to influtrate the safe spaces of diagnosed borderline where they can discuss such issues.
Claiming that anti-self-diagnosis is albiest is a ridiculous argument because due to the reasons stated above, self-diagnosis disregards the feelings of diagnosed sufferers thus making self-diagnosis albiest.
“Some people cannot access medical treatment because of …” - this is unfortunately very true and it is disgusting that in this day-and-age some people are still denied access to the treatment they need but this still does not change the fact that you cannot diagnose yourself with a full medical disorder. This is why I am very much for recognising your own symtoms and self-advocation. This is not the same as diagnosing yourself and is the reason that most people seek medical treatment in the first place. There is nothing wrong with telling people that you suffer from “low mood”, “impulsivity”, “dissociaion” etc. and there is nothing wrong with tagging your posts with such symptoms, however claiming to have a very complex medical disorder without consulting a clinican is ridiculous, quite frankly. Doctors cannot diagnose themselves because you have a natural bias to air on the side of caution when it comes to your own health, so some kid with a blog deciding they can is laughable!
What I find particularly ironic is when self-diagnosed borderlines ask people not to reblog something they have posted if they find it “relatable” but do not have BPD themselves when that is literally what the OP is doing.
Yes some self-diagnosed borderlines are likely to have the disorder, however a significant number will not and the fact of the matter is that they cannot be sure. Surely if you know that you are at risk of contributing to stigma you would air on the side of caution and stick to the facts that you do know.
I am going to stop replying personally to posts now and reccommend that people read this instead, however, if you think that I have missed something that you would like answering (educated questions only) please don’t hesitate to private message me.
