Mental illness / Self Diagnosis

[What's Her Face]

It is painfully clear their growth can only go so far if they keep themselves from being exposed to the real world. Depending on how deep-seated their delusional pit is, they run the risk of a classic self-fulfilling prophecy.

All I can take from those raging DX-shoppers posts is they play-pretend to disguise their maladjusted sheltering from a young age.

I mean, I can see why they continue to run with these ideas of "just fester in your illness and don't do anything to help yourself uwu" because when they do get to a point where they begin to see who they are, they're not gonna like it. They're gonna be horrified, they're gonna be ashamed, but the only way to get better and manage mental illnesses and disorder symptoms is taking an active step and working on it. This is really hard to do, so I can see why these lazy shits would rather bitch about it online to an audience who'll validate all of their self-destructive thoughts and behaviors rather than doing the work that comes with being a functioning member of society.

 

[RIck Sanchez]

I'd say the answer is obvious if you have to ask...

 

[urgeō]

Maintaining an image tied to a real-life profile is the worst career move they can possibly make. Mental illness is a stigma and generally translates as a risk-factor to most industries.

Not very keen on prospects, are they.

 

[What's Her Face]

Yeah, it's dumb as shit to post about it on a public forum and then attach selfies, as well as every single fleeting thought that's ever flown into your head. I have a dead blog from when I was 19, and for whatever stupid fucking reason I decided to just keyboard smash in a new password and then log out, so three years later I can't log into that account and I wish I could delete it because Jesus. Christ. I hope no one who didn't know me then ever finds it. It's awful. It's so self-entitled and whiny, there's a post where I was whining about how my mom was telling me to look for jobs to apply to and I made a post bitching about it and then saying something like "I'm so tired I'll just do it later". Granted, it was while I was in a terrible mental state, but it's truly so cringe-worthy. I'm really embarrassed about it, but then again I like to think that feeling that much shame over my old Tumblr life is a sign of improvement? Kiwi Farms would tear that blog to shreds. Yikes. And I'm not even one of those self-dxing fucks.

 

[Sparkle Sloth]

@Doc Smith ... they are going to lose a ton of important relationships in their lives because people can only be pushed so far.

(Also, off-topic, but am I power leveling a lot? I'm not sure how to add spoilers because I know I've posted some text-walls.)

Yes, unfortunately in the real world, people don't coddle. I don't really understand how the adult!tumblrites function outside the internet. It seems like they would either be unable to leave... then again, no matter if they do or don't, they get a thread on them usually.

(And yes, fairly. I don't know if there's a particular button for spoiler, I just write it in bbcode; like the quote)

edit:
Cry-typing is one of my favourite tumblrite traits. It's almost satisfying when you end up being the "cause" of it, too. Cry-type posts with perfectly formed tags with everything trigger-warned. Ah. My tumblr aesthetic.

 

[What's Her Face]

Yes, unfortunately in the real world, people don't coddle. I don't really understand how the adult!tumblrites function outside the internet. It seems like they would either be unable to leave... then again, no matter if they do or don't, they get a thread on them usually.

Having been an adult Tumblrite (I was 21 when I left), I think I can safely say that none of them function properly outside of the internet. Like, you'll find that a lot of the Tumblr mental illness-fetishisizing population who are over the age of eighteen have either dropped out of college or are going to be dropping out. That's what happened with me: I got too caught up in my Tumblr life, so I wasn't doing any of my schoolwork. The culture of "it's okay to be mentally ill!!!" made the depression and anxiety even worse, and I also think that my misuse of Tumblr also played a role in my eventual (professional) diagnosis of borderline personality disorder. Only within the last few months since deleting have I found myself back to a place where I feel normal enough to have a job, but after dropping out of school, I didn't work for a really long time, and the jobs I did have didn't last that long-- when I even went in. Because most of the time I was crying on Tumblr about how shitty my life was and how mentally ill I was. And I know I keep spewing bits of pieces of my ***life story*** on here, but I feel like I have a fair amount of personal insight into the clusterfuck that is Tumblr's mental illness obsession.

Are some of these people genuinely mentally ill? Yes, absolutely. And some are faking it for oppression points. But what everyone in this portion of Tumblr has in common is the complete lack of self-awareness and total denial that the life that they're leading isn't a life at all. Like I said earlier, there's a big emphasis on maintaining an image of mental instability, and with that comes everyone's refusal to advocate for their own well-being. It's easier to bitch on the internet than to get off your ass and seek treatment. I feel bad for these guys, but then again... I have very little sympathy for them, because they're not doing jack shit to help themselves.

edit: arrrghhhhh, sorry I know I've been power leveling the shit out of this thread.

 

[What's Her Face]

Hiding your power level means WE DON'T CARE ABOUT WHAT MENTAL DISORDERS YOU HAVE. This is not a contest so you can carry the flag for True and Honest mentally ill people. Seriously. When this starts up, it derails the entire thread into talking about their brain problems. A lot of us here have brain problems. This should not be a surprise. But these stories are a dime a dozen and not as interesting as the cows themselves.

Ah shit, my bad. I didn't read the forum rules before posting, although I think I've got all of my criticisms about Tumblr's mental health fetish out of my system.

 

[Erica]

From wtfsocialjustice, felt it was relevant to the thread.

 

[Da Pickle Monsta]

What is this "uwu" business?

 

[Sinner]

What is this "uwu" business?

A way for Tumblr-kins to be kawaii. It's an emoticon used to show shyness or to end sentences to show how "cute" you are. Think ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°).

 

[Sparkle Sloth]

A way for Tumblr-kins to be kawaii. It's an emoticon used to show shyness or to end sentences to show how "cute" you are. Think ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°).

Basically. Somehow the ugliest personalities think they're the cutest thing since puppies. It's like the devolved form of the "Friendly Reminder" emoticon (◡‿◡✿) almost like putting "lol" at the end of a statement to make it read more passive-aggressively.

Also from wtfsocialjustice on a related note:

 

[Da Pickle Monsta]

[Trigger warning! Keywords: idiots, SJWs, try-hards, overly sensitive people]

I'm just going to trigger warning every thing now.

Also, I didn't spoiler this.

 

[Cameron Van Buren]

Basically. Somehow the ugliest personalities think they're the cutest thing since puppies. It's like the devolved form of the "Friendly Reminder" emoticon (◡‿◡✿) almost like putting "lol" at the end of a statement to make it read more passive-aggressively.

Also from wtfsocialjustice on a related note:

What can you even say. I understand tagging gifs with flashing colors and stuff for people prone to epileptic seizures but... I'm not going to bother. What's the point

*editted because autocorrect

 

[Meowthkip]

Ah shit, my bad. I didn't read the forum rules before posting, although I think I've got all of my criticisms about Tumblr's mental health fetish out of my system.

That is why you should read the forum rules before posting, ya dingus.

 

[GS 281]

I am actually less concerned about self-diagnosis as I am general diagnosis. Diagnosis of mental illness is generally done through psychometric testing and measurement using scales that have been accepted by psychologists to have a certain degree of validity in measuring for the construction of the condition. Observation is also a major means by which there is diagnosis. The understanding of psychological conditions is frequently changing and generally the science around it is rife with errors. Putting diagnosis of conditions that are completely constructed and not based on some form of physical measurement and prescribing solutions that sometimes have efficacy and sometimes do not just makes me think that in general it is all just a gigantic circle jerk to get pills and to have people feel sorry for you. When there is some form of neurological proof of some problem, then I can accept that but most of these people who are cutters or who fake suicide attempts are just doing it because they want the attention and so people will "take it easy" on them and not expect much from them.

 

[Holdek]

I am actually less concerned about self-diagnosis as I am general diagnosis. Diagnosis of mental illness is generally done through psychometric testing and measurement using scales that have been accepted by psychologists to have a certain degree of validity in measuring for the construction of the condition. Observation is also a major means by which there is diagnosis. The understanding of psychological conditions is frequently changing and generally the science around it is rife with errors. Putting diagnosis of conditions that are completely constructed and not based on some form of physical measurement and prescribing solutions that sometimes have efficacy and sometimes do not just makes me think that in general it is all just a gigantic circle jerk to get pills and to have people feel sorry for you. When there is some form of neurological proof of some problem, then I can accept that but most of these people who are cutters or who fake suicide attempts are just doing it because they want the attention and so people will "take it easy" on them and not expect much from them.

You can do brain scans to detect things like depression and schizophrenia but I suppose it's much more cost-effective not to do one on every patient when a psychometric test can be used with a decent degree of accuracy that's increased over time. Still, though, this psychiatrist gave a good TED talk on that very issue and notes that they are the only doctors that don't routinely directly evaluate the organ that's malfunctioning. Apparently there's also a degree of hostility between psychologists, psychiatrists, and neurologists over who gets to do what.

 

[GS 281]

You can do brain scans to detect things like depression and schizophrenia but I suppose it's much more cost-effective not to do one on every patient when a psychometric test can be used with a decent degree of accuracy that's increased over time. Still, though, this psychiatrist gave a good TED talk on that very issue and notes that they are the only doctors that don't routinely physically evaluate patients. Apparently there's also a degree of hostility between psychologists, psychiatrists, and neurologists over who gets to do what.

This 100%, and bringing it full-circle to the topic of this thread, there seems to be a crisis here where people are both saying they want to live in a world with no labels, however they have created more labels than ever and will ordain themselves with labels. It is a crisis of description where there is a lack of evidence to conform conditions to one pre-defined construct.

 

[Flamesoul the Diabolical]

In my opinion, it would definitely help tumblrites to sit down with someone irl that they're close with, and ask that person to list what things they did that hurt others. A way to identify their ~problematic~ (I hate that word because of tumblr) behaviors and discuss how to improve their attitude towards others.
It will hurt a lot to hear how shitty they'd been in the past and how many people they hurt, but if they're determined enough to get better, it will all be worth it in the end.
They're so self-centered that they're in denial of ever being wrong and think that everyone is out to get them, and they're the only one fighting the good fight. Sad but true.

 

[Tokitae]

I've talked to a couple of people who think self-diagnosis is a legit thing and the main takeaways I had from it were:

• What if doctors fuck it up? Doctors aren't always right.
• What if doctors fuck it up ON PURPOSE? Doctors are evil.

To which you merely need to say:

• What if you fuck it up? You aren't always right
• What if you fuck it up ON PURPOSE? You know, for attention and shit.

This is probably the biggest issue I have with tumblr at the end of the day. It's pretty much the same thing to me as those people who go into support chat rooms and pretend to have cancer or some other awful illness so they can get pity and support; it's pathetic and insensitive. I suppose that unlike those communities, tumblr can't exactly be torn apart by the "shocking" revelation that someone lied about their diagnosis since practically everyone is straight up bragging about doing so at this point. At least there's that.

 

[norrington]

I've talked to a couple of people who think self-diagnosis is a legit thing and the main takeaways I had from it were:

• What if doctors fuck it up? Doctors aren't always right.
• What if doctors fuck it up ON PURPOSE? Doctors are evil.

To which you merely need to say:

• What if you fuck it up? You aren't always right
• What if you fuck it up ON PURPOSE? You know, for attention and shit.

This is probably the biggest issue I have with tumblr at the end of the day. It's pretty much the same thing to me as those people who go into support chat rooms and pretend to have cancer or some other awful illness so they can get pity and support; it's pathetic and insensitive.

One of the biggest issues I have with it all is the recent craze in the BPD self-dx in particular, which has resulted in an upswing of "BPD" tumblrinas crying "oppression + ableism" when they find articles/books written for people in relationships with someone with BPD, since those books would dare to suggest it might be a difficult situation for both individuals (i.e. the BullshitPD snowflake and the NTscum partner).

That and the fact that they find every relatable text post with like 500k notes on it and declare it a symptom of their disorder and that anyone who reblogs it is like... Appropriating neurodivergent culture or something. And the points about toxic self-care advice that circulate and lead people (especially younger kids who don't know better) down the wrong path are also very disturbing aspects of this whole thing.

I always kind of assume the people claiming 4+ disorders/disabilities-of-the-week are full of shit, while the ones who don't say shit about themselves or whether they're "neuroatypical" or not are the ones who are most likely to have some real shit going on with them.

You can do brain scans to detect things like depression and schizophrenia but I suppose it's much more cost-effective not to do one on every patient when a psychometric test can be used with a decent degree of accuracy that's increased over time. Still, though, this psychiatrist gave a good TED talk on that very issue and notes that they are the only doctors that don't routinely directly evaluate the organ that's malfunctioning. Apparently there's also a degree of hostility between psychologists, psychiatrists, and neurologists over who gets to do what.

In line with this stuff + that vid, I've also known a few therapists and doctors to be largely against giving professional diagnoses, precisely because it creates this vibe of I-can't-change and pity-me toxic shit. They'll do it for insurance purposes/prescription/disability services issues, but other than that, they don't give a shit.

OP's comment about reading a couple webMD pages is pretty on point too, I think. On top of that, personality disorder dx by a professional is a last-ditch nothing-else-fits response after medical screenings/bloodwork/depression+anxiety treatment/etc.

Most (serious, non-tumblr) self-dx resources advise weeks to months of serious researching, elimination of other possibilities, requesting longtime friends/family members/loved ones for their opinions, etc. Even then, self-dx should be used to find better resources for yourself (e.g. lots of DBT-related resources online, useful for someone with Borderline PD), not to use it for oppression points and hide behind your need for 'community support' and 'finding people who understand me' and excusing shitty behavior.

EDIT: grammatical correction