The "I Didn't Comment in Another Thread" Thread

Status
Not open for further replies.

log in or register to remove this ad



Yes, for as much as people complain about the overuse of terms, like "OMG, I'm so OCD about my coffee", there's an argument to be made that it's actually a positive shift in attitude towards mental health. If I had to pick between OCD (as a random example) being stigmatized and not talked about or publicly discussed and occasionally used frivolously, I'll take the latter.

Normalizing mental health issues means people will talk about it normally. And metaphors and hyperbole are part of normal speech.

And as I've noted about people self-diagnosing, sometimes they may be right. This seems far from impossible in the cases of milder versions of disorders that don't strongly interfere with someone's life, but still conduct impairment. Its all very fine and good to tell people if they think so to see a professional but there can be all kinds of reasons, economic temporal or social not to do that, and better to have a sense that you may have a genuine problem you need to engage with to either think you're a bad person or ignore it. You just don't want to attach to much significance to your amateur diagnosis, because a particular problem can come from multiple sources.
 


I have a relative who apparently takes Tiktok's mental health advice and has now diagnosed his whole family as having ADHD, his father as having ADHD, his sibling as having ADHD, and is demanding everyone respect this as a serious diagnosis and behave accordingly.

Now, I'm sure it's possible that he's nailed it with all these diagnoses, but if he's taking this all so seriously, I would feel a lot better if he actually had a medical professional involved.
 
Last edited:

And as I've noted about people self-diagnosing, sometimes they may be right. This seems far from impossible in the cases of milder versions of disorders that don't strongly interfere with someone's life, but still conduct impairment. Its all very fine and good to tell people if they think so to see a professional but there can be all kinds of reasons, economic temporal or social not to do that, and better to have a sense that you may have a genuine problem you need to engage with to either think you're a bad person or ignore it. You just don't want to attach to much significance to your amateur diagnosis, because a particular problem can come from multiple sources.
The way I see it, a limp is not the same as a broken leg. A broken leg is much more serious, and if you have a shortage of medical personnel those should probably focus on treating someone with a broken leg over someone with a limp.

That doesn't mean that the limp is not an issue. It just means it's an issue you can deal with reasonably well on your own. Maybe you get a cane or something, and avoid doing things that would put a strain on your bum leg. Sure, it might cause some other problems down the line like issues with your back or something, but you'll deal with those as well when they come around. You get by, but your quality of life suffers a bit compared to someone who doesn't have a limp. So ideally, we should fix that limp.

This can be translated to mental issues as well. Someone can be on the autism spectrum, but not so far along it that they can't figure out strategies to cope. Someone can suffer from depression without being suicidal. And so on. It's still worthwhile to help these people, and perhaps we should make sure to expand access to mental health treatments and reduce the stigma associated with it.
 

TikTok has for example pathologized a lot of behavior that actually is very common. Fuzzy terminology as described previously and self appointed experts have convinced a significant number of people they have autism, adhd, dissociative identity disorder, ptsd etc. and it is not helping a drowning system.

It’s serious and impactful stuff actually…and it comes at a bad time when real need is further from being met.

The other thing you mention is spot on as well—-over identification with the problem. I have a depressive episode and now I am not “neurotypical” for life? Many with one depressive episode will only have one episode (thank goodness!).

You are a person with history of depression. Maybe. Unless you are convinced being sad for a few days after a disappointment is synonymous with depression and it’s now a label and…

I would listen to one of these hucksters analysis of my mental well being as much as I would someone telling me to make myself well by ingesting tide pods.

I must refrain from going down this rabbit hole as I'm 99.9% it would have me removed from the site, but yes, its wildly out of control, and not remotely helpful for people with actual problems.
 

And yet, with mental health access being a frakking joke in the United States at the best of times, for many self-diagnosis is all there is, and it can still be extremely powerful to be able to do.

I could (and let's be honest, probably will at some point) literally write a dissertation (and have already written a thesis) on the problematics of the deep professionalization of the mental health industry at the expense of the undersold but overwhelming power of community care, but I won't dig too deep into it here.

Sure, like most Tiktok/Twitter/[insert social media platform here] trends, it's become fully overblown to the point of parody, but there's deep and powerful kernel of truth at the core.
 

I have a relative who apparently takes Tiktok's mental health advice and has now diagnosed his whole family as having ADHD, his father as having ADHD, his sibling as having ADHD, and is demanding everyone respect this as a serious diagnosis and behave accordingly.

Now, I'm sure it's possible that he's nailed it with all these diagnoses, but if he's taking this all so seriously, I would feel a lot better if he actually had a medical professional involved.

My neighbor is like this. She has been diagnosing her kids with any number of mental health, behavioral, anything under the sun, issues for their entire lives.

Spoilers: They are all fine, and well adjusted, and there is a reason her husband left her.

Spoilers x 2: She is terminally online, wonder if there is a connection.
 

Status
Not open for further replies.
Remove ads

Top