self-diagnosis

"Do not engage in the self-deception of self-diagnosis. It is common for people to hear about illnesses of all sorts on Oprah or Donahue (or the Internet!) and to then fool themselves into thinking they share the diagnosis with the talk show guest. If you research an illness carefully enough before you consult a doctor, you can even fool him into agreeing with your diagnosis."

http://www.geometricvisions.com/Madness/schizoaffective-disorder/what-to-do.html

"Self diagnosis is a dangerous practice. In fact, it is one of the most likely ways to get a misdiagnosis, which is the one thing we want to avoid. We recommend you always seek prompt professional in-person medical advice from your local qualified medical professional."

http://www.wrongdiagnosis.com/diagnosis/self.htm

Self-diagnosis does more harm than good, especially with mental conditions. The problem with mental disorders/illnesses is that one's state of mind can alter our health drastically. You can make yourself very ill. If you really think you have bipolar, you will subconsciously act it out. Unfortunately, because you convinced yourself that you have it, you won't recognize (eventually) that you are faking it. That's just one example.

In depression, you make yourself depressed. Depression isn't caused by biological traits or DNA. The more you convince yourself that you are depressed and that you have no chance of success, the worse your depression will be - hell, that's how you can become depressed.

Self-diagnosis isn't a good thing. Asking others what they think you have and taking that as an official diagnosis isn't a good thing. If you take these diagnoses seriously, whether they are true or not, you will probably start acting them out.

Mental conditions are usually just normal situations/experiences/conditions/etc blown out of proportion. Everyone gets sad. Sadness is not the same as depression. Everyone gets unwanted, disturbing thoughts, but not everyone gets obsessions. Do you see? In self-diagnosis, you only have one level of that condition to really experience. Many times a normal or slightly above normal level of the condition is actually being suffered (just the person doesn't really know how to deal), but because it is so distressing to the person, they might self-diagnosis them as having the mental illness level of that condition, even though they really don't.

I think self-diagnosis is a contributing factor to the rise of the diagnosis of mental illnesses in recent years.

This is not to say don't ask for our opinions, but don't take our opinions as fact. Don't even seriously consider them as a possibility without talking to a mental health professional. And when you talk to them, don't give them a general idea of what is going on ("I feel depressed"). Be as specific as possible about your symptoms. This will help prevent you from being misdiagnosed and will help you receive the proper treatment.

Psychologists can only diagnose you by what you tell them. Remember that.

I don't know if that was very coherent or not, but I hope you all understand what I'm trying to say.

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got this from another site...thought it would be useful here

plz consider this

-living dead girl

I am sure that will be incredibly helpful to those who bother to read it, although many will be so convinced they will not realise it is about them, I did get a real diagnosis, I made sure to be completely honest about everything and make sure I didn't make myself out to be something I am not, it is so dangerous to diagnose yourself then convince a professional that is what you have, you could end up being hospitalized or on medication for something that does not exist, well done on putting this up, it has some really interesting and useful information, I hope people read this, take care
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thanks...i wasn't the one who wrote it ...i got it from a different site...and thought it would be useful here..thank you for reading it...i hope it makes a difference..opened my eyes