cenkrett:

I don’t want to get into this discourse at length right now, but look:

The idea that every single self-diagnosis is absolutely going to be correct and valid is just as ridiculous as the idea that every single self-diagnosis is absolutely going to be incorrect and invalid.  That’s just not how the world works.  There’s always grey area.  There are going to be some people who get it right, and there are going to be some people who get it wrong.  Hell, some doctors get it wrong.  I was misdiagnosed by licensed and well-respected psychiatrists, not once, but multiple times.

I’m not going to get into the argument of whether or not people should self-diagnose, or under what circumstances it is or isn’t appropriate, because that’s a much longer and more complicated conversation.  I am explicitly NOT stating my opinion about it in this post, because I don’t have the energy to do that topic justice at the moment; a simple yes/no answer would ignore a lot of important nuance.

All I’m saying here, and this really shouldn’t be too controversial a statement, is that these blanket statements of “every self-diagnosis is valid and correct” or “every self-diagnosis is invalid and incorrect” are both unrealistic and intellectually dishonest.  Hard binaries don’t apply to complex topics like this.  Simplistic, reductive arguments in either direction are both needlessly combative and ignorant.  The truth, being a tricky mess as it often is, is far more complicated than that.

And in the meantime, you are welcome at my blog regardless of your method of diagnosis, or even if you have none of any sort.