Reliable Self-diagnosis tests

@alexlove thanx

@

Hi, while I think a professional opinion definitely helps, I also think that diagnosing certain mental and physical illnesses is different than diagnosing others.

All illnesses seem to have criteria that the patient has to meet. Telling whether a patient meets criteria or not requires information about the patient. That information can be received in different ways. Also, some criteria require more objective observations than others, and there are a lot of other reasons that criteria are different from eachother. The illnesses themselves are different.

What does this have to do with self diagnosis? While some criteria can be met only through data only professionals can gather (like throuh tests), other criteria can be met only through observation. (This is true for some physical diagnoses, too.)


You may say a professional is trained to make correct observations and know how to understand the criteria–and you may be right. They have a lot of experience in finding these symptoms and understanding all the forms they can be presented in (or at least some of them do). Also, a professional may be able to pick up on things the patient cant–especially when it comes to symptoms like delusions.

While the professionals know the illnesses, the patient has the most experience with THEIR symptoms. If the patient is very self-observant, does lots of research on all the possibilities, and possibly ask others for observations on their behavior, I feel like self-diagnosis couldnt be that far off.

Actually, if you try to get a diagnosis from a psychological testing center (at least from what Ive seen and heard), the psychologist just sees if your answers to the multiple-choice questions meet certain criteria. Im not saying they have an easy job. Any good psychologist wont just look at the symptoms but their interaction and hidden meaning. Still, they can only dig so deep when they dont know the patient well outside the testing rooms.

Not to mention, based on someone in the field, one person can get different diagnoses from different psychologists. Misdiagnosis is surprisingly common, and a professionally misdiagnosed illness can be treated–with the wrong medication–much more easily than a self diagnosis. Whoever prescribes the medication is more likely to trust the professional.

I havent seen much harm originate from self-diagnosis. Many people seem to use it have a name for their symptoms… and a sense of resolution.

Although, I think the best solution is probably to work with a trusted counselor–as a team–both people being open to what the other can offer. (For example, the patient can offer observations and any research they do, and the therapist can offer experience and their observations of the patient.) my main point is that this issue isnt black and white. Mental (and physical) illness is more fluid than we think, so if we try to put it into boxes, there might be some mistakes no matter what.

Feel free to correct me on anything! Im just saying how I see the situation.

(Also, sorry about the other post that just says "@." I was trying to write this post on the 7 Cups app last night, and the app was being very glitchy. I have noooo clue how to delete posts on here lol.)

@Anomalia

Why ? We shouldn't encourage self-diagnosing.