Hi, what's everyone's views on self diagnosis. If a professional option is not available is it ok to self diagnose or is just best to be open minded and not being sure with what the illness is. Thanks
I personally don’t like self diagnosis at all because at the end of the day you aren’t a professional and what you think your symptoms are for any health condition really physical or mental could be something else entirely. That being said I understand that getting a diagnosis is a privilege for a lot of people as well, so I think if you want to say I have OCD type symptoms or I think I may have OCD but I’m not sure then thats fine but I overall don’t think it’s a good idea to self diagnosis for any medical condition, because again you aren’t a professional and there are a lot of conditions both physical and mental that can mimic each other. If you can’t get a diagnosis then I would focus on coping with the symptoms that you are experiencing and working on coping with those because you don’t need a diagnosis to work with your symptoms
How would you say Is the best way to work on the symptoms
@Chris85Floki I recommend things like support groups to everyone because support groups are almost always free. If you’re experiencing a lot of anxiety then I recommend finding grounding techniques that work for you whether that’s traditional grounding (think find one of each of the 5 senses), breathing exercises, starting to take note of where you feel anxiety and tension in your body and noting how you know your anxious can be helpful for some people and then practicing those techniques when you aren’t anxious regularly as well so they start to become like second nature. Some people like journaling, I’m someone who really needs a routine in the morning and evening to help me calm down a little bit and keep myself on track so if you need that work on that, there are a lot of things that you can do on your own you just have to figure out what works for you. If you can obviously see a professional but if you can’t that can be a good place to start to help the anxiety in general. I don’t do erp because for me personally it’s never worked for me, but if you try that on your own you have to go slow and take baby steps if you throw yourself in to deep to fast you’ll do more harm than good.
Sigh. I wish everyone had healthcare. On the other hand, OCD can go undiagnosed for years, so… not all providers understand what they’re seeing. You know yourself better than anyone. If OCD seems to fit, if other people with OCD think you have it, you probably do. Professional guidance is helpful and validating but you can figure a lot out on your own—there are good books/workbooks/podcasts out there. Find what works for you. For me, it was most important to believe that it was possible to make a change and to practice self-compassion. Wishing you the best.
In in the UK and the NHS is free but there mental health is awfull, basically you just get told you have anxiety and put on sertaline
If you can't afford a diagnosis, I don't have anything against self-diagnosing. A diagnosis is just a label on symptoms you're living with. Not having one doesn't change what you're going through, although it might change how you treat it. I personally don't have an issue with it, but I think it's beneficial to seek a diagnosis if it's available to you! :)
Hi, so can I do erp alone without a diagnosis
@Chris85Floki Technically, yes. But it's usually recommended to work alongside a professional when doing ERP. It can be a lot on a person.
I feel like in some ways receiving a diagnosis for OCD has in some ways made things worse. I’ve always had what I called “phases” throughout life, which I now know were ocd episodes, but I didn’t really make too much of them and even if it was over several long difficult months, they’d always seem to kind of just pass. Recently I’ve begun my worse flare up in the last few years and now that I’m older I seemed professional help which led to my diagnosis. This all sounds great of course but I can’t actually afford therapy right now so I kinda just have the diagnosis but not the support so now that I realize these phases are actually this incurable mental illness I just feel like I’ve lost all hope that I’ll ever be happy and I feel like I basically obsess about obsessing at this point and it just sucks. Has anyone else had this or a similar experience?
I've never been diagnosed with OCD, but have thought for a long time that I do have it. I've tried to bring it up in therapy but have been shot down as "OCD tendencies". Luckily I'm with a new therapist and am planning to bring it up again. Especially after reading a lot of your posts, I'm really resonating with them. Especially my anxieties and obsessions with my health. God forbid I feel any weird pain or ache, I instantly think I'm dying. Sometimes I get a weird pain in my head and think it's a stroke or aneurysm. Ill go as far as the perform the stroke FAST test. This happens multiple times a day. I also have HUGE anxieties about death and my mortality. If I think about it too much, I get this deep cold pit in my stomach and spiral. Even talking about it causes me sooo much distress. I'm just worried I'll be dismissed or told I'm just self diagnosing because I related to a post online. But if any of this sounds accurate, please let me know. I'd love to be reassured of my obsessions rather than just dismissed as being anxious.
It started when I became an adult, and started receiving my mental health diagnosis. I hyper fixated on each and every action I did and how it could be related to my diagnosis’s. It then lead to fixation to my physical health — making appointments and seeing every specialist I can to rule out every possibility. I currently have been suffering with obstructive sleep. I woke up the past few days with severe pain from the lack of sleep whilst believing I was oversleeping. Luckily my fit watch tracks my sleep cycle and it turns out I am not receiving any sleep. I had an extreme panic attack — bursting into tears on the phone with my mom wondering what this case might be. She told me it could be sleep apnea and that a simple sleep study could figure this out. However, knowing my family history I made appointments to every specialist I can to make sure it is nothing serious. The unknown of health can be scary to me. Watching my mother suffer with her physical health chronically since I was a child lead me to be very conscious and aware of how my body is functioning. This morning was one of the worst moments of physical pain. I should just take one step at a time with the sleep doctor instead of taking measures to see every specialist that could pertain with this issue. However, that is very hard to me. I don’t want to ever wake up in the pain I was this morning. Does anyone else suffer with health-related OCD? And if so, how do you find a sense of ease during moments like I expressed?
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