Self-Diagnosing Mental Illness

Photo by Ümit Bulut on Unsplash

Hi and Assalamualaikum my dear readers!

I hope everyone is doing well. Finally, I have some time to update my blog as I will not have classes this week because there are a lot of public holidays. It is too late now but I want to wish a Happy Eid al-Fitr to those celebrating, especially for some countries that are still shaking due to the sudden Raya announcement. Also, Happy Pesta Kaamatan and Hari Gawai! :D

So, I made some changes to my blog and today I am going to share a new post. I was thinking of posting about this topic after attending a programme about mental illness two weeks ago. I won't talk about the disease because I don't have the qualifications to do so. But, I want to focus on a worrying trend that is still happening and I can't believe how people tend to normalise it.

Have you ever heard someone randomly say:

• "Look at how I arranged these things, I'm such an OCD!"
• "Today is a bad day. I feel so depressed."
• "These things are increasing my level of anxiety!"

As humans, we will feel good and bad feelings and those feelings are valid. But, it is complicated, you know? I actually had some chances to learn how the experts try to diagnose a person's condition and I'm telling you, it takes a long time for them to get to the root of the problem. Sometimes, a person with mental illness such as OCD, depression, or anxiety often feels much worse than that and they don't even want to talk about it, which is so sad when people choose to be loud or keep quiet about this thing.

But, it is good for us to try to understand ourselves. I know there are some online self-assessment websites that we can access to see the level of our mental health. Some people feel comfortable doing that, and it is totally fine. At the end of the day, we need to know how far doing self-diagnosis can help us, and still, seeing the experts directly is the best choice.

Make sure to learn about the facts and science of something before we jump to any conclusions, so we know how serious the issue is. And if anyone is in need of help, please please please get it. There are a lot of people out there who are willing to help  <3

I think that's all for today. Have a nice day and bye! :)

References:

https://highlandspringsclinic.org/dangers-of-self-diagnoses/#:~:text=Can%20You%20Self%2DDiagnose%20Mental,associated%20with%20numerous%20mental%20illnesses.

https://www.dazeddigital.com/life-culture/article/40076/1/self-diagnosis-mental-health-anxiety-online

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/313247979_Self-Diagnosis_in_Psychology_Students