Stop Self Diagnosing. Just...Just Stop.
Please.
FUCKING PLEASE.
If you need to find a sliding scale therapist or psychiatrist, or an open clinic, or a county health office, or a welfare diagnostician - I'll help you. I will PERSONALLY help you - it's something I do every single weekend as part of my volunteer work.
(That's on top of being a cop, on top of building toys for Creative Kink, and on top of being a full time Dad, btw. So yes, I really commit to the work, and yes, I really will help you.)
But this self diagnosis shit?
This shit has got to go. There's a reason why so many people go through years and years and YEARS of graduate education to be able to make a diagnosis of psychological or psychiatric treatment needs.
I realize self diagnosis is the latest fad. I realize having some 'mental illness' makes you seem trendy, and I realize all your celebrity favorites are "coming out as having...". I get that it makes you feel better to have a label to hang on yourself to explain all of your quirky little traits instead of having to, you know, work on them.
But those traits are (rarely) real mental health issues. They're (almost always) just odd traits you picked up that you either don't want to have to work on or you've been told you can solve with just one easy little pill a day. So you self diagnose them away.
"Oh, I'm so OCD, I always....!"
"Those bitches in High School were so horrible...I've had nightmares and PTSD for years!"
"I'm so bi-polar, you know us Virgo's..."
Fuck that.
Fuck self diagnosis.
Fuck you.
As a survivor of seven years of IPV, as a full time cop who has been shot, stabbed and attacked - as someone who lives with flashbacks and migraines and nightmares and depression and anxiety and all the other joys of CPTSD...
Fuck you for your self diagnosis. I deal with the real thing on a daily basis and still strap on the kevlar and the gun belt, to do a job to keep the streets safe and help people who have real problems. Not "I forgot my umbrella and feel so bad, I must have seasonal depression" problems.
Tens of thousands of cops do that every single day. Soldiers too. Rape victims. Survivors of IPV (intimate partner violence - keep up, people). Mental Health Crisis' sufferers. Child molestation victims. Recovering TBI patients.
(If I didn't mention your REAL, diagnosed issue - I'm not belittling it. Being treated, or having been diagnosed, or receiving medications, etc - you're fighting. You're making the effort. You're surviving. You deserve recognition. I just don't have it in me, knuckles white from reading these other people's shit, to type it all out.)
REAL mental health problems cause REAL suffering and pain every day. They aren't quirky little "ha-ha, I'm so silly" ignorance. By the very definitions used in every DSM since the 1980's, it isn't a mental health condition (a real one) unless it impairs your every day life to the point of being either afraid to function, losing functionality in your daily life, or having completely lost it already.
The difference between a real mental health diagnosis and a "quirky" issue? The real mental health issue causes pain. It causes stress, or loss, in connections with the people you love. You doubt yourself constantly, and you burn out relationships because of it.
It takes months, years or decades worth of incredibly hard work in therapy just to keep even with it. Therapy? That shit is work. It isn't laying on a couch talking about mommy - you leave with a migraine and a weeks worth of things to try to work into your daily life. Laying on a couch is a fantasy - hard and painful work is the reality.
And it's the Red Queen scenario - you keep running faster and faster just to stay even with everyone else. With a real mental health issue, you do that nearly every single day. It's not always bad. Sometimes you have good days. They'll be bitter sweet, shadowed by the knowledge that the bad ones to follow will be that much worse. Some days you'll feel like you aren't worth saving, or worth the $10 it costs to refill your prescription.
And that's if you're lucky enough to have health insurance to make it $10, instead of $150 - which is what it costs a lot of people for the same pills.
....
So.
Being "quirky" is not a mental health issue.
Having personality flaws is NOT a mental health issue.
It's a "stop being fucking lazy and work on your problems" issue.
That self diagnosis you gave yourself is NOT permission to make excuses for your own bad behavior.
Going to a therapist, or a psychiatrist, or an LCSW, and getting a diagnosis, and treatment, and counseling? Those will tell you if you have a real mental health issue.
Everything else is a smack in the face to people who are actually suffering on a daily business.
Grow the fuck up.
FUCKING PLEASE.
If you need to find a sliding scale therapist or psychiatrist, or an open clinic, or a county health office, or a welfare diagnostician - I'll help you. I will PERSONALLY help you - it's something I do every single weekend as part of my volunteer work.
(That's on top of being a cop, on top of building toys for Creative Kink, and on top of being a full time Dad, btw. So yes, I really commit to the work, and yes, I really will help you.)
But this self diagnosis shit?
This shit has got to go. There's a reason why so many people go through years and years and YEARS of graduate education to be able to make a diagnosis of psychological or psychiatric treatment needs.
I realize self diagnosis is the latest fad. I realize having some 'mental illness' makes you seem trendy, and I realize all your celebrity favorites are "coming out as having...". I get that it makes you feel better to have a label to hang on yourself to explain all of your quirky little traits instead of having to, you know, work on them.
But those traits are (rarely) real mental health issues. They're (almost always) just odd traits you picked up that you either don't want to have to work on or you've been told you can solve with just one easy little pill a day. So you self diagnose them away.
"Oh, I'm so OCD, I always....!"
"Those bitches in High School were so horrible...I've had nightmares and PTSD for years!"
"I'm so bi-polar, you know us Virgo's..."
Fuck that.
Fuck self diagnosis.
Fuck you.
As a survivor of seven years of IPV, as a full time cop who has been shot, stabbed and attacked - as someone who lives with flashbacks and migraines and nightmares and depression and anxiety and all the other joys of CPTSD...
Fuck you for your self diagnosis. I deal with the real thing on a daily basis and still strap on the kevlar and the gun belt, to do a job to keep the streets safe and help people who have real problems. Not "I forgot my umbrella and feel so bad, I must have seasonal depression" problems.
Tens of thousands of cops do that every single day. Soldiers too. Rape victims. Survivors of IPV (intimate partner violence - keep up, people). Mental Health Crisis' sufferers. Child molestation victims. Recovering TBI patients.
(If I didn't mention your REAL, diagnosed issue - I'm not belittling it. Being treated, or having been diagnosed, or receiving medications, etc - you're fighting. You're making the effort. You're surviving. You deserve recognition. I just don't have it in me, knuckles white from reading these other people's shit, to type it all out.)
REAL mental health problems cause REAL suffering and pain every day. They aren't quirky little "ha-ha, I'm so silly" ignorance. By the very definitions used in every DSM since the 1980's, it isn't a mental health condition (a real one) unless it impairs your every day life to the point of being either afraid to function, losing functionality in your daily life, or having completely lost it already.
The difference between a real mental health diagnosis and a "quirky" issue? The real mental health issue causes pain. It causes stress, or loss, in connections with the people you love. You doubt yourself constantly, and you burn out relationships because of it.
It takes months, years or decades worth of incredibly hard work in therapy just to keep even with it. Therapy? That shit is work. It isn't laying on a couch talking about mommy - you leave with a migraine and a weeks worth of things to try to work into your daily life. Laying on a couch is a fantasy - hard and painful work is the reality.
And it's the Red Queen scenario - you keep running faster and faster just to stay even with everyone else. With a real mental health issue, you do that nearly every single day. It's not always bad. Sometimes you have good days. They'll be bitter sweet, shadowed by the knowledge that the bad ones to follow will be that much worse. Some days you'll feel like you aren't worth saving, or worth the $10 it costs to refill your prescription.
And that's if you're lucky enough to have health insurance to make it $10, instead of $150 - which is what it costs a lot of people for the same pills.
....
So.
Being "quirky" is not a mental health issue.
Having personality flaws is NOT a mental health issue.
It's a "stop being fucking lazy and work on your problems" issue.
That self diagnosis you gave yourself is NOT permission to make excuses for your own bad behavior.
Going to a therapist, or a psychiatrist, or an LCSW, and getting a diagnosis, and treatment, and counseling? Those will tell you if you have a real mental health issue.
Everything else is a smack in the face to people who are actually suffering on a daily business.
Grow the fuck up.
Comments
Post a Comment
Thank you for your comment! It will be moderated and, if not SPAM, will be posted within the next 12 hours (sooner if possible - sorry, I do work a vanilla job). Yes, that includes disagreeing ones - I welcome disagreements as much as anything.