doing research and recognizing symptoms within yourself to suspect you may have a condition is valid and people do it all the time especially because not everyone has the resources to see a professional, its a problem when you blatantly self diagnose and say you HAVE a disorder

only a professional can truly determine an official diagnosis, but that doesn’t invalidate the fact that we all struggle in one way or another with mental illness, some to less or stronger degrees, its just exhausting and disrespectful as fuck to hear someone say they have adhd

because they tap their pencil or talk a lot, or to say they have ocd because they’re tidy and like to be organized, or for someone to say they’re bipolar because they’re moody, its 100% okay to do research on a disorder that you feel the symptoms describe your experiences but

dont mock my mi’s and genuinely HORRIFYING and traumatizing struggles, its okay to suspect because ultimately thats what gets us to realize our issues to cope and get better, but please dont fully self diagnose, and as someone who struggles with four mi’s that is all i will say

tw // eating disorders
panic attacks, being anxious, having depressive episodes, disassociative episodes, most ed’s and things like that are usually self diagnosable but blatantly saying you have a full on disorder just doesnt sit right with me tbh

going on webmd or mayo clinic and identifying with most of the symptoms listed and just saying “i have ___!” for example is wrong, but saying “i’ve done my research and i think i may have ___” is completely and 100% valid and encouraged

its important to remember that not everyone has access to professional help whether it be for financial reasons, lack of resources, because their caregivers wont take them to the doctor etc. so do what you can to take care of yourself without disrespecting others!