Rant: Stop Self-Diagnosing!

I feel you. I can be really frustrating to hear people throwing around illness like it’s nothing and self diagnosing themselves. Especially with illnesses that are hard to diagnose such as BPD. I would really encourage her to see a professional. I think a lot of people who self diagnose with illnesses such as BPD, PTSD, and bipolar do feel like something is wrong with them. Maybe she’s just trying to find a diagnosis that explains the way she feels and behaves? Just keep encouraging her to see a professional. Also, try setting some boundaries. Tell her you care about her but you’d rather not hear about all the different things she’s self diagnosing herself with.

I worry for my sister in a similar situation. Apparently she and her husband answered my dad's question of, "what do you do for fun?" with, "look up what's wrong with us". But now they are both being diagnosed with so many things. I'm conflicted because I want to be supportive if it's genuine, but at the same time are they just so knowledgeable about symptoms that may or may not fit them to then convince a doctor they do have these things? (Side note, only one of these diagnoses are actually confirmed by physical testing, the rest are psychological or unconfirmed physical conditions). Now my sister is talking about applying for disability benefits since being diagnosed with all of these things in the past couple of years. Plus, she's pushing everything she's been diagnosed with onto me, thinking if she has it, I probably do. Sorry this turned into a rant of my own

There are two very different comments under this post and I wanted to put my two cents in on both: being able to afford insurance and therapy is unfortunately a luxury (if you live in America) and I started out with explaining that I have traits of certain disorders with many people before I successfully got to a therapist. I even told people that I was bipolar before I was diagnosed because I felt that I knew my body and mind better than anyone at the time, and to some degree, that was true. However, I am not a licensed psychologist and have understood that from the beginning. In addition to that, I haven’t even figured out the extent of what all of my diagnoses actually are yet but I know I have *traits* for certain conditions. I would say if she’s been self diagnosing like this and you are (rightfully) annoyed as someone who has had a legitimate diagnosis, maybe say it’s better to explain they have traits of certain disorders rather than totally self diagnosing before they seek a medical professional, and encourage them to do so

This is unfortunately the downside to having things like TikTok and such. The over-simplified diagnoses are in abundance. She should definitely see someone though, if she can relate to so many symptoms.