Dangers of Self-Diagnosis

"I have a headache. I think I will take some aspirin," says Girl A.

"I was feeling sleepy, so I chugged a coffee to get some energy," says Girl B.

"Yesterday, I was sad, but today I am happy. I am probably bi-polar," says Girl C.

Wait, what?

Self-diagnosis can work for things like headaches and tiredness. But, when it comes to mental health, it's best to leave it to the experts.

Student Assistance Counselor Bridget Luce explained, "With self-diagnosing, there is a lot of room for error for individuals and those individuals not fully knowing or understanding the diagnosis they are giving themselves or the best way to handle that."

Self-diagnosis is often based on a lack of appropriate information that would usually be provided through a diagnosis given by a healthcare professional.

"A lot of the time, regular people that don't have any kind of degree in psychology or any kind of medical setting see things online and think: 'Oh, I do that,' and then they think: 'Well then I have this [mental illness]," said senior Addison Hacker.

Hacker also explained how these thoughts have the capability to invalidate those who truly struggle with a mental illness. "Somebody might feel anxious about something one time and then claim that they have anxiety," she said. "Sometimes, they get distracted by things, then they think, 'I must have ADHD,' and they go around telling everyone that they have ADHD. Then, the people that really do have it and struggle with it. It's not fun because it's an actual hardship."

Another negative factor of self-diagnosis is that it has a large negative impact on the mental health community. Over time, the mental health awareness community has made a lot of necessary progress toward a healthy viewpoint on mental illness. Things like self-diagnosis that make mental illness seem simple and unimportant by disregarding medical diagnosis, force a step backward on the community.

Self-diagnosis could cause a person to think differently if they believe they have an illness. "I think people that self-diagnose almost trick themselves into believing that they have the mental illness that they think they have," said Hacker. "Then, they start having more tendencies of that mental health issue."

Another thing self-diagnosis causes people to do is to ignore the advice of a professional if – in their own mind – they have already decided what they "have." "They have their mind so made up on what is happening, if they do talk with a professional, I think sometimes it is hard for them to even consider something else going on," said Luce. "This could also possibly cause them to ignore symptoms that do not align with what they have diagnosed themselves with."

While self-diagnosis is largely negative, it does have a minimal amount of positivity to it. "I think that it's definitely positive for people to recognize some behaviors or tendencies they might show of certain mental health issues, but from that point, they need to go seek a medical professional that will actually diagnose them," said Hacker.

As long as a person recognizes that self-diagnosis is unsafe, they have the capability to notice similarities between their behaviors and symptoms of a certain mental illness. "I think there are positives with awareness of different experiences or symptoms," said Luce.

Overall, a person should not put their trust in their own feelings without talking to a professional. Instead, they should get properly diagnosed by someone with an education and license.

"If you notice that you have tendencies or you think that you feel different or you feel like something's different with you, just go to a therapist or a psychiatrist or even your doctor," said Hacker. "They can do tests and you can tell them how you feel or things that you've been doing, and they will be able to correctly diagnose you and give you the correct medication or coping strategies to help."

Story by Aria Glover