willow-wanderings:

Self-diagnosis gets shit on a lot but here’s a simple fact for you: Everyone does it.

Literally. Everyone.

Have you ever gone to the store and bought a pack of nyquil without being expressly instructed to do so by a doctor?
Why would you do that? Why would you buy medicine when you haven’t been diagnosed with anything? Oh, that’s right, you diagnosed yourself with a cold/flu like illness and then treated yourself for it.

This is a reasonable thing to do and everyone does it.

If you dropped a cinder block on your arm and then noticed it really hurt and crackled when you tried to move it, are you going to think “it’s probably broken” or are you going to think “well a doctor hasn’t told me it’s broken so I guess everything’s fine for now” and just go back to working?
No reasonable person would do the latter. They’d do the former and self-diagnose a broken arm.

So to say that self-diagnosing for some kinds of illness is ok but not others is incredibly hypocritical, first off. And second… what reasonable person would, in the above situation, think “[my arm]’s probably broken” and not follow that with “I should go to the ER and get it taken care of?”

That’s what self-diagnosis is. That’s what it’s for.

Self-diagnosis is a means by which someone who’s ill or injured in some way can go to the doctor and say “I think [this] is the problem.” Doctors are not wizards or psychics, they can’t just stare at you and know exactly what the problem is. You have to give them somewhere to start for them to get anywhere. You can’t go to a doctor and just shrug your shoulders when they ask “so what are you here for today?” and expect to get an answer. If you don’t already have some idea of what the problem might be, no doctor of any kind anywhere is going to be able to help you.

“Doc, I’ve been coughing and nauseated for days and running a fever. I think I might have the flu or something.” This is acceptable.

“Doc, I did a lot of heavy lifting and now my shoulder hurts. I might have messed up my rotator cuff.” This is acceptable.

“Doc, I’ve been feeling really down, had no energy, been getting headaches, and am having trouble sleeping. It’s been going on for a long time. I think I have depression.” This is… unacceptable?

What the actual fuck? Those are all the exact same thing.

Self-diagnoses, the majority of the time, are arrived at after weeks or even years of intense study and research. We’re not looking at one wikipedia page for five minutes and then calling it quits, mystery solved. Nope. It probably starts with the wiki, then it moves to the wiki’s sources, then medical articles, and so on. For years. Until we’re sure the information is correct as possible.

And self-diagnoses do one of two things: gives us something to tell a doctor when we get to one, OR, gives us the information we need to deal with the problems on our own and create coping strategies to get through the day.

Professional diagnosis isn’t always an option. It might be too far away, too expensive, not covered by insurance, not even available at all where you live, etc.

It can also cause problems. There are states in America, for example, where being diagnosed with autism automatically disqualifies you from being able to vote in any election (if you don’t think that’s unreasonable, that autistic people can’t possibly be capable of navigating the complexities of elections, consider that an autistic is writing what you’re currently reading).
Some diagnoses can literally rob people of their ability to control their own lives, makes them wards of the state, so they’re forced to let someone else control where they live, where they work, how they spend their money, etc.

Self-diagnosis is not intended to be the be-all-end-all. But for a lot of people it’s a starting point, or a way to understand and manage their lives, or a way to cope as much as possible without losing their rights and freedoms.

And again, literally everyone does it.

So quit being hypocritical gatekeepers.