shrineart:

annamaetion:

lastoneout:

the-worlds-gone-madd:

abcsofadhd:

riffyboi:

abcsofadhd:

Same same for ADHD.

You do need a diagnosis though. You can’t just determine that yourself. What’s the point of saying you’ve got disorders like ADD and such if you aren’t diagnosed and can’t get the proper treatment. Anyone can say “I’m depressed”. Anyone can declare that identity, but what’s the point if you aren’t getting help?

True, a diagnosis should be what people aim to get but there are a variety of reasons people aren’t able to get a diagnosis (location/finance/parents). And even after a diagnosis, people might be be able to afford medication and therapy, which are quite costly. 

I understand what you’re saying, but I would say more like that if you are using self diagnosing to feel special (which people do for some odd reason, mental health problems are not something to be desired), then that isn’t correct. 

To be honest, I post very ADHD specific help posts that if someone follows me, chances are they are diagnosed with ADHD or aren’t diagnosed with it but suspect they have it. And for some, just following these blogs and reading up on it could be the most help they can get.

also transgender people literally lose every right to transition they have or they need a permission from a parent or significant other to do it if they’re diagnosed with autism.

transitioning being a life saving process for many trans folk, I’d rather self diagnose if it literally meant not dying

Yeah never in my life did anyone suggest that I might have ADHD even though I was exibiting very clear symptoms. Even medical professionals and my therapists never brought it up or considered it. It wasn’t until I found resources and symptom lists and articles about self diagnosis that it clicked for me that I probably had it, and once I brought it up to my doctor she had me take a test and I got officially diagnosed. Had I not found those resources and self help sites I likely never would have been diagnosed or able to get the help I needed.

So yes, ‘official’ diagnoses can be helpful and something to desire, but self dx stuff is vaild as hell and can help people figure out what’s wrong with them when docotors have fallen short. Not to mention that there are a lot of things that change in your life when you get diagnosed, so for some people its safer or more beneficial to keep it to yourself. It sucks, but it’s true.

Not to mention that medication and therapy can only do so much. More than half of managing a mental illnesses is personal work. Hell some people don’t even want or need meds. So if you think you have it and start to work on it on your own that’s just as vaild and important a step as seeing a doctor would be. Not to shame on people who do need meds and to see doctors, but that’s not a feasible reality for every person, and that’s ok.

I was diagnosed with ADD/ADHD (they couldn’t settle on one or the other, I was distraught at the time, surely I couldn’t be both!) but I was diagnosed comparably late in life to where they usually try to diagnose kids at (I was eleven).

How did I manage so long without a diagnosis? I was labeled a ‘day dreamer’ (ironically, I’ve also since been diagnosed as a maladaptive daydreamer) or I was just ‘easily distracted’ or ‘the artsy kid’.

I didn’t need a doctors diagnosis to know I couldn’t focus like my peers, they all saw it plainly enough that my mind wasn’t fully present at school at any given time.

But having it diagnosed was nice; “look this medical professional who went to school and studied forever says I have reasons for being like I am! It’s my brain chemistry, it’s different!”

Sure took them long enough though, and I have absolutely no problem believing that there are people out there being dismissed as ‘weird’ or ‘quiet’ or ‘daydreaming’ considered just lacking self-discipline, when they actually have something in their brain as a cause.

I suspect that I have Inattentive type ADD and my last two psyches have basically been like “Welllllllll…I meaaaaaan….we COULD get you tested but what’s the point? You’re functional.”

Me over here like “I KNOW I CAN DO MY WORK BETTER THAN THIS AND I WOULD ALSO LIKE PEACE OF MIND THAT THERE’S A REASON I AM LIKE THIS.”

Also “Oh well you knoooow with kiiiiids we can check with the school and see how well they do and with their parents. You work freelance so we can’t ask your work…”

Me: *dissociating* There…there are tests…for this….I know there are because people I know WITH this have had them. Just for the love of god listen…to me…your patient???