You wake up one morning with a stuffy nose and a headache. You’re exhausted despite a full night of sleep, and you’re coughing up a storm. A quick check on the thermometer from your medicine cabinet says your temperature is 100 degrees. You decide, confidently, that you’ve got a cold and call in sick.
Congrats, you’ve just self-diagnosed.
Here’s another scenario for you to consider: you tend to bounce your leg whenever you sit, even if you aren’t nervous or impatient. You understand social cues, but only because you’ve memorized them and what they mean. You avoid certain fabrics because they’re too rough or itchy against your skin. Loud, prolonged noises like from a crowded grocery store drain your energy and make you snappish.
These are things you’ve dealt with all your life, so they’re normal. One day, for whatever reason, you come across a list of behaviors commonly associated with autism. You mentally check off nearly every item on the list. After a period of anxious consideration, you decide, tentatively, that you might fall somewhere on the spectrum.
Congrats, you’ve just self-diagnosed.
At its core, self-diagnosing is the process of seeing a set of symptoms or behaviors that you exhibit and giving that collective a name. This is done without the help of a doctor or other health professional.
It's not hard to self-diagnose. Any website like Web MD that lists symptoms and leads you to a possible cause is self-diagnostic. If you plug “Autism test” or “ADHD quiz” or “Am I depressed?” into the Google, you’ll get plenty of results encouraging you to answer a few questions to find out.
The how is fairly easy, then. What's left to consider is the why.
The Reasons
For every reason people decide to self-diagnose, there is inevitably a drawback or something that may give them pause. Some of these reasons are complex. Others are simple. They're all valid.
Explanation, Identification, and Validation
Sometimes, we have symptoms or behaviors we simply can’t explain.
Why do I always knock on a counter when I pass it? What does it mean that I can’t eat certain foods a certain way? Why are some noises so overwhelmingly grating that they distract me from what I'm supposed to be doing?
Googling these questions and others can offer explanations for behaviors and reassurance that nothing is wrong. They’re just quirks of the brain that are ultimately harmless as long as they're managed in a healthy manner.
According to Jennifer Katzenstein, the co-director of the Center for Behavioral Health at John Hopkins All Children's Hospital in Florida, social media like TikTok has caused a rise in children and teenagers self-diagnosing.
Because they see videos of people discussing symptoms they also experience, they’re more likely to start identifying as autistic or OCD or clinically depressed/anxious. As Katzenstein explains, it’s a combination of self-identifying and feeling seen, even if their own symptoms/behaviors are within the normal range.
Seeing other people experiencing the same symptoms or behaviors is validating. You aren’t making these things up. Sometimes, that validation is all a person needs to move on and continue living as they always have. Other times, that validation gives them the confidence to approach a medical professional. It can also be reassuring to see someone with similar experiences living well and happily. That can soothe any worries about major life changes that might arise with an official diagnosis.
Cost
Unfortunately, many people don’t have the ability to see a mental health professional. Getting tested for conditions like autism is notoriously expensive. Getting evaluated can cost anywhere from $500 to $5000. And there’s no guarantee medical insurance will help cover the tests or any follow-up visits/procedures.
When all of that money could be coming out of your pocket, you have to consider if a professional diagnosis is worth the cost. Unfortunately, for most people, it isn't something they can afford.
On the other hand, a medical diagnosis can be helpful if it’s required to qualify for disability accommodations. It can also be reassuring to have an official medical diagnosis rather than just your own surety.
Otherwise, many people will find it hard to justify the cost of something that does not fundamentally improve or change their lives.
Unheard by Medical Professionals
Some people feel like they’re being dismissed by medical professionals when describing what they’re feeling. Whether it's a matter of their doctor not effectively communicating their thought process or simply not offering the attention the patient needs, it can be discouraging.
It’s common to feel like a doctor isn’t understanding when you try to explain symptoms you’re experiencing. When the doctor is also dismissing or invalidating those experiences, it’s even more frustrating. If someone isn't seeking medical treatment or a referral to a mental health professional, skipping over the official doctor visit is an easy decision to make.
Others self-diagnose as a way of preparing for doctor visits, a means of putting medical terms to what they're feeling. In the process, some people find comfort knowing there is, in fact, a word for their experiences. It allows them to advocate for themselves during the next doctor's visit or use that self-diagnosis as the reason for finding a new doctor.
Community
Some people self-diagnose because they want to find other, like-minded people with similar experiences.
In this case, the process may happen in reverse, too. They find the community first, and then self-diagnose because of how seen they feel and how much better they understand themselves.
Community also offers the ability to ask others how they navigate their symptoms or behavior. It eases the feeling of drifting alone in the ocean and offers support without judgement.
Coping and Adapting
Self-diagnosis can also make coping with/adapting to behaviors easier.
If you understand the underlying root of a behavior (for example, constantly scratching at your arms when wearing your wool sweater), you can take steps to avoid the behavior (getting a different sweater).
Many people turn to self-diagnosis because they are looking for ways to regulate their behaviors. If someone believes their behaviors are indicative of autism, they can look for content about coping and self-regulating by other people with autism.
While the methods may not work, they’ll feel more reliable because they are coming from someone with autism instead of a behavioral specialist or doctor. For some people, that confidence in the person’s experience is strong enough for a placebo effect to occur. Because they believe a method which works for one person will unfailingly work for them, it does.
The Concerns
On the flip side, there are some concerns that medical professionals and parents have around self-diagnosis. According to “Self-Diagnosis of Mental Disorders,” a free-to-read article published in Sage Journals, there are three main concerns surrounding self-diagnosis.
Social Pressure
Much of self-diagnosis is being done by adolescents, people who are in the middle of forming their individual identities while trying to find communities. When they’re feeling pressured to both fit in and stand out in a socially acceptable manner, how many could be influenced into incorrectly self-diagnosing?
In other words, what is the likelihood that a teenager will see a TikTok influencer talk about irrefutable signs of bipolar disorder (such as impulsivity, anxiety, or loneliness, which are all common in teenagers) and believe they are bipolar?
The TikTok influencer is seen as a trusted individual, one who is knowledgeable, especially about conditions they may have. If someone with the condition says these behaviors are indicative of only this condition (instead of, say, the normal hormonal balancing of being a teenager), self-diagnosis is inevitable.
Stubborn Self-Diagnosis
While self-diagnosing can promote confidence and make someone feel more comfortable approaching a medical professional, it can also harm that professional’s ability to treat a real issue.
If someone is convinced they have a cold, they’re less likely to listen when a doctor tries to explain they have the flu. The same can happen with mental health. Someone convinced they’re bipolar might be resistant to a diagnosis of depression, even though the two diagnoses share key symptoms.
Treatment then becomes difficult because the patient may feel unheard and become resistant to any medications or coping strategies offered.
Self-Fulfilling Prophecies and Excusing Behaviors
Someone who self-diagnoses might start exacerbating their own symptoms to continue legitimizing that self-diagnosis. They lean into the behaviors more than they try to manage or regulate them.
Everything a person does or feels is seen as being because of their diagnosis, which means they’re rarely able to take a step back and reflect on their experiences without that lens of self-diagnosis.
Additionally, people also use self-diagnosis to excuse behaviors that can harm themselves or others. Sometimes this is done intentionally, and other times it’s done without the person even realizing they’re excusing themselves.
Whether they realize it or not, they effectively tuck the name of a disorder in their back pocket to pull out whenever they might be held responsible for their actions.
So, should you or shouldn’t you?
Honestly, it all depends on you. If you’re fortunate enough to have the time and financial resources to visit a health professional, you should consider doing so, especially if you’re concerned about your well-being and symptoms. It can also be helpful to have official paperwork that diagnoses you.
On the other hand, some people don’t want to share that much about themselves with health professionals and simply want to have an idea of what’s going on with them. If that’s all they need, then that’s all they need.
In the end, all that really matters is to be understanding of ourselves and each other, to not be dismissive of our experiences and those of the people around us.
If you find yourself curious about some of the topics and mental health conditions mentioned in this blog, HCPL has you covered. We provide access to several health-focused databases that cardholders (cards are free!) can access for free.
Most databases, like the Gale Health and Wellness database, offer curated lists of mental health topics to make learning easier.
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