comment: >
  
  You’re being deliberately obtuse. OP is completely correct. Most of the people these days who say “I’m ADHD” or “I’m autistic” or “I’m neurodivergent” are absolutely not diagnosed as such and are doing it to seem unique or get attention or as some excuse for why they did x y or z.
context: The diagnosis process for a lot of psychiatric conditions are surveys and questionaires. You can go to a psychiatrist and ask if you're anxious and they'll give you multiple choice questions and diagnose off of that. Or you can just google the form yourself and self diagnose. A lot of psychiatric disorders are about how we feel and think. Not about sending off some blood sample to a lab and getting a positive result come back.
  
  Overall I think the self diagnosing is a bigger problem with todays youth wanting to be victimized or have an excuse for their actions and weirdness instead of just being straight up with it. For such an “accepting” generation people should really just own up to who they really or without craving attention or an excuse for it
  
  What you're describing are all neuroses that could indicate some deeper psychiatric condition. Whether a person has a mental health condition or not, thinking of ourselves as weak victims is never helpful in any context, yet it's something we all feel from time to time.
  I'm a disability support worker, so when someone tells me they've got a self diagnosed condition, it's not offensive to me or any disabled person I know, it doesn't come across like they're invalidating anyone else's condition. However I do think everyone should talk to a doctor about any condition they feel they might have. >
  
  Piggybacking off of this: You’ve spent your whole entire life inside your own brain. A therapist will spend a period of hours with you and give you a diagnosis. Who do you think knows your personal reality better than yourself? >
  
  Yeah exactly, especially with conditions such as anxiety, depression, ADHD, PTSD, and many other psychiatric conditions. These are things people know they have even before they get a diagnosis. The diagnosis stage is more about treatment and management.
  People might be unaware of how severe or mild their condition is, some people think they have only mild PTSD despite constant nightmares and suicidal ideation. Some people will think they have severe ADHD because they can't concentrate for long times on things that don't interest them. It's good to get some perspective from experts but ultimately people know when they are struggling to focus or to struggling to stop stressing all the time or struggling to not be miserable. Struggling with our thoughts and feelings is evidence enough to self diagnose. >
  
  I was recently diagnosed with ADHD as a woman so I find this viewpoint interesting.
  Firstly, autism is not a mental illness. An autistic person may have mental illness in conjunction with autism, but autism alone lies under the neurodivergent umbrella. Neurodivergency can include autism, ADHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia and other similar conditions.
  Why women are often underdiagnosed
  These are serious disabilities that can really impede a person's life, especially if they struggle to find help and acceptance in their community. A lot of women start their journey towards diagnosis later in life due to a number of factors such as:
  
  Poor diagnostic tools and inexperienced professionals
  A misunderstanding that autism and ADHD are more common in boys
  Advanced masking techniques to cover their 'traits'
  
  Why women are often diagnosed later in life.
  The process for many women and men who are diagnosed later in life often includes a level of burnout or breakdown. After a while everything becomes too much, the mask begins to slip and your traits go into overdrive.
  Why does self-diagnosing seem to be on the rise?
  A common way of finding out you could possibly be neurodivergent is through media and people who are aware of these traits appear.
  In the past few years, I have seen an increasing awareness of neurodivergence in women pop up in the media. This is useful for people like myself who had no idea wtf was wrong with them for a very long time. For me, a GP actually suggested I seek a diagnosis due to some struggles I was going through.
  As someone who went through this process self-diagnosing is commonly the first step as an adult. You might be directed to a questionnaire and are asked to evaluate yourself and your experiences thinking back to your childhood. If there's some merit in your experiences than you move to the next step which involves seeking a professional. Waitlists are often months to years long so many people live in limbo for a long time.
  Methods of living with ADHD can help everyone. And everyone experiences ADHD traits from time to time. Given a large amount of stress we have all suffered collectively, I don't doubt there are a lot of people with increased mental health issues that mirror neurodivergent traits. Some mental illnesses can get very severe and alter your brain chemistry and behaviour.
  My takeaway from this is that the mental health systems set up to assist these people are a much larger issue and cause for serious concern than self-diagnosing.
  Apologies for the spelling and grammar errors. Grammarly and Reddit don't play nice. >
  
  I think it's two things. One, people have identity crises, especially teenagers. We all know that type of person who tries on identities like hats. That's pretty embarrassing. You usually grow out of that.
  Two, from personal experience, giving yourself a label or a diagnosis makes it feel more contained and easy to communicate. It's easier to tell someone that you have X and have them understand what you're going through rather than telling them you have these vague symptoms resembling what you imagine X is like. In that respect, it is pretty understandable, possibly good, and not embarrassing. There's something that is sort of reassuring if you can finally get a word to put on what you're experiencing.
  People often sympathize with the diagnosis but not with the symptoms. Tell people at work you're autistic and they will sympathize with you and possibly not attack you. Tell them you do not understand social cues and they will probably just make fun of you. >
  
  I understand the desire to put a label with a disease, and this is not necessarily bad, but the diagnosis needs to be correct. If you want to tell others that you are autistic or depressed; you must actually be those things. A person can almost never correctly assertion their disease, only their symptoms. People might better understand you if you say your autistic, but you may incorrectly understand and describe yourself. If one wishes to put a name with symptoms, they should find a doctor to pick the label >
  
  for sure but unfortunately our medical system is a joke and even if you are experiencing very severe symptoms it can be nearly impossible to see a professional or take months on a waiting list.
  Even then a professional may be reluctant to slap a label on you for fear of what the consequences of that might be. I saw someone for a very long time who resisted any sort of actual diagnosis because the truth is that what I was experiencing didn't fit neatly into any of the boxes and pretty much belonged in this vague "other" category which isn't particularly helpful. Not to mention that misdiagnosis happens all the time even by professionals. 
  I just think it is sort of understandable because I think a lot of stuff is kind of a spectrum anyway and just different levels of severity. Things can be really confusing and hard to nail down and thus communicate in a way that causes someone else to be understanding rather than judgemental. >
  
  Are you under the impression this is a new phenomenon?  Because it's definitely not.
  People - especially young people! - crave identity.  The world is a confusing place, knowing who you are makes it a little easier.  Sometimes it's self-diagnosing mental illness or learning disabilities, or exploring sexual identity, or cliques, or subcultures.  There's nothing embarrassing about it, it just is what it is. >
  
  It’s ok to want to express individuality but not to the extent of totally destroying the definition of a real thing and making it hard for actual mentally Ill ppl to get a diagnosis. Why can’t people just accept that they’re different rather then giving themselves a label? >
  
  people on TikTok claiming to have disorders that they don't doesn't affect the precision of psychiatrists diagnosing actual patients. There's no TikTok-said section in the DSM. Why do you think that it does? >
  
  It just encourages more people to get diagnosed possibly skewing the meaning of the mental illness >
  
  Skewing it towards statistical accuracy? If people are actually diagnosed at higher rates, we have a better Guage of population-level mental illness, neurodivergency, etc. Better data is more usable, so that research actually means something actionable, ASIDE from the identity boost for young people. >
  
  I think what OP is driving at, but utterly failing to explain, is that they think that the fakers will be accommodated by the psychiatric system and diagnosed on the basis of fake symptoms. my sense is that isn't a problem but I don't have data. >
  
  Definitely explained it a little better then I could lol >
  
  Where do you see evidence of that? Any articles about fakers? How about a statistic? If not, it’s just a fear you seem to have. >
  
  I think the salient line here is this one:
  
  Neurologists were able to quickly determine that the subjects were not 
  suffering from Tourette's, but psychogenic tics driven by anxiety. >
  
  Women are not born with less autism, but are much less likely to be diagnosed as children than boys. This is partly because boys generally have similar symptoms and behaviors. 
  So of course more women are self diagnosing autism, since their diagnoses were missed as children on a much higher rate. >
  
  Alright, I'm diagnosed OCD, PTSD, chronic depression. Diagnosed by a professional so I think I have some grounds to talk about this.
  First, let's tackle your women comment about autism. You see, I understand where you're coming from, but you lack the nuance of recognizing that mental illness, and illness in general, is heavily under-diagnosed in women. The medical culture is heavily favored towards men and is rampant with mysogyny, and that's not just me saying it as I've had medical professionals blatantly tell me it's a problem in the field when questioned about it. I've also had some tell me that it's just because women whine a lot, so yanno make of that statement what you will.
  Now that we've covered that let me address the self-diagnosing issue. So, do you want to know what my therapist thinks of self-diagnosing? Well, when I asked them about it they said that self-diagnosing is an important first step to seeking help. Psychiatrist said the same thing. It's normal, expected even, for people to self-diagnose their issues then seek help for them. You can't exactly just peer into someone's brain, no, that person has to tell you what they think is wrong and why they think it is. 
  What you actually have a problem with is not self-diagnosis, but with people not seeking or not being able to get medical assistance and assuming they're right. You have a problem with people using these issues for attention, which I do too, but once again self-diagnosing is not the problem. Finally, you have a problem with the medical system that forces people into the position of trying to figure out their mental illnesses, but having no ability to get help for them. >
  
  I think I did it >
  
  Sadly no lol, it was not done properly. Do you need a link to the rules? >
  
  I already read them i think I’ll figure it out in a bit sorry for the hold up >
  
  Because everyone else is being aggressive: you have to comment with ∆ or !delta and then explain how your view has been changed >
  
  This delta has been rejected. You can't award OP a delta.
  Allowing this would wrongly suggest that you can post here with the aim of convincing others.
  If you were explaining when/how to award a delta, please use a reddit quote for the symbol next time.
  ^Delta System Explained ^| ^Deltaboards >
  
  What gives you the authority or knowledge to know this is the problem? >
  
  You don’t think it’s a problem that a lot of  young ppl are willing to go to the extent of saying they are mentally Ill either for attention or to excuse their weirdness? Just accept that your different. It’s not wrong to believe you’re different without a label >
  
  You did not even try to answer my question. >
  
  I’m sorry I was confused on what you meant >
  
  If you are mad at people for self diagnosing themselves because they don't have the knowledge or authority to do so.... what gives you the knowledge or authority to diagnosis this as the problem behavior... basically are you just a kid that is annoyed, or is there some actual studies out there that is claiming this is a problem. >
  
  If you don’t think that people consistently seeking attention for mental illness or craving a label so badly to justify themselves rather then being themselves. That just shows what your views are >
  
  Dont you think we should leave the diagnosing to the professionals? >
  
  I mean yeah >
  
  Would you agree that you are diagnosing these people by saying that they are only seeking attention and do not have a real mental illness? >
  
  I’m assuming >
  
  There may be some truth to people wanting to be different, however with mental illnesses being more accepted in today's society, many people are a lot more comfortable with being neurodivergent. Additionally, self diagnosis is common because the alternative is spending upwards to $1000-$2000 for a clinical diagnosis. >
  
  I know costs suck, but self diagnosis can be much more harmful. A web.md page that tells you your depressed when you may actually be bipolar can lead to really messed up results. I would even go as far as to say that no diagnosis at all is preferable to an uninformed one >
  
  Well.
  ​
  
  It’s really weird how so many people crave being different so bad 
  
  So you already know why they're doing what they're doing in addition the fact that you know that they're not Autistic? If your claim is that they can't know and only a doctor can, what makes you more qualified? You start out your argument admitting that you have a bias.
  
  they’re “neurodivergent.
  
  Neurodivergent is an umbrella that covers both Autism and ADHD, which sometimes get mistaken for each other. So if you're upset that they're self-diagnosing, this term should be more welcome than "Autistic" because it's more generalized.
  
  nd when you ask them how they know they’ll say “oh I have this weird tick when I uh laugh when someone says something funny “ or “I have a hyper fixation on this topic so I must be autistic
  
  How else should they communicate it to you? The list of aspects of Autism, especially for how it presents in women, sounds a lot like this. You're not a doctor, they don't have to prove anything to you by going down the entire list of every possible part of their daily experience that might be on the spectrum.
  
  Women statistically are born with autism on a far lesser scale than men.
  
  Nope. Women are diagnosed less often than men because the original diagnostic criteria for Autism was for Autism as it presents in males. It presents differently for females and is harder to diagnose, especially at younger ages. 
  
  Overall I think the self diagnosing is a bigger problem with todays youth wanting to be victimized
  
  Todays youth want to be victimized? Why would anyone want to be victimized? Something tells me you're missing the mark with this terminology.
  
  or have an excuse for their actions and weirdness instead of just being straight up with it. 
  
  So if someone is Autistic and that makes them weird, you'd rather them just be forced to not get to have a name for it, and get the therapeutic treatment that would help them?
  
  For such an “accepting” generation people should really just own up to who they really [are] without craving attention or an excuse for it
  
  Some people are autistic. If they find out and it makes them feel good, that doesn't mean they're craving attention. And if they are craving attention, it's because they're normal people and everyone does. 
  If someone thinks they're autistic but it turns out they're actually not, chances are they suspected it for a reason. They might have ADHD, a personality disorder, a mental health issue, or simply a slightly different way of experiencing the world that feels unique to them and there's nothing wrong with that. 
  You seem to think that other people do things for you. People generally don't. They do things for themselves. This is especially true of people on the Autism Spectrum who may not be able to easily use other people's experiences to reference when constructing their view of the world, and can only use their own. Your interpretation wherein they do it to evoke a response from you says more about you than it does about them.