I think people like rationalizing their behaviors so that they don’t seem weird. When really they are just being themselves.
Behaviors become mental illnesses when they start to affect other parts of your life. Organizing your books by color is unusual and quirky, but not a mental illness.
If you can’t leave a library because you have to organize their books by color, then it’s a mental illness.
My kid has autism. He once had a complete panic attack because we wouldn’t let him stay to organize the bottles at total win and more. He has never been diagnosed with OCD and my understanding after talking to his neurologist about it is that this was a stim for him, and not necessarily OCD behavior. There have been other instances all through his childhood like this one, and I can’t help but think that having a completely different disorder or Neurodivergence also adds to people self diagnosing because there’s way too many people who don’t know they’re neurodivergent.
I was straight up diagnosed with OCD as a child because they really didn’t want to believe a girl had autism. Throughout my life I’ve struggled with compulsions when I’m mentally struggling and had zero issues when things are otherwise calm (sometimes I’ll go years without any symptoms). I’d never thought of it as a stim, but it absolutely is a thing for me to focus on to release mental pressure/sort through inputs. That’s totally a stim.
Sorry to do the thing that this thread is about in the thread.
Don’t apologize. It’s okay to express yourself and there’s nothing wrong with relating your story.
I was diagnosed with ADD (now called ADHD inattentive type) when I was a kid and got basically no support for it because my younger brother was diagnosed with Autism at or around the same time. It turns out my sister also has ADHD (and was diagnosed as an adult), and got no support and stims are fairly common. There’s a lot of behaviors in my own life that I didn’t recognize as stims until years later. It seems a lot of us feel fell through the cracks so to speak.
I don’t have a formal ADHD diagnosis beyond a questionnaire given by a psychiatrist, and even that was a six month wait to start getting proper meds — a process that continues to be a fucking nightmare. Hospital visits give me near anxiety attacks because I don’t know if I’m going to see a decent doctor or someone who reams me out because I don’t have a “real” diagnoses.
I’m on waitlists for a formal diagnosis and specialized care, have been for years. During that time one of the ADHD institutions shut down over lack of funding. I could have skipped the line by going private and paying thousands, but I don’t have that.
I am highly certain that I have autism, for many reasons, up to and including the screener results when I got my gender-dysphoria diagnosis, but I have made an active decision against getting an official diagnosis, because it would not as of now bring me any advantages, but would for example rid me of the possibility to ever move to certain countries. So what would be the point?
The main struggles I have are in interactions with other people and that is getting a bit better these days and having a friend group that almost exclusively consists of neurodiverse folks who have learned to deal with some of my quirks and a girlfriend who has a diagnosis of both autism and ADHD helps a lot as well. Why would I then put effort in to get a confirmation for something where I kinda already know the result? It would be like taking an IQ-test (A comparison that my psych found quite fitting in fact).
Unless your parents did it for you, idk how ppl who think they have adhd even get diagnosed, I needed to get my insurance changed for the county I was living in at the time or some shit, I never went to get checked again. Had been academically disqualified at that point, somehow did 2 years at community college, got reinstated to the school, and graduated with my bachelors, took me an extra 2 years and I had straight Cs but at least I did it. Now idk if I’ll ever get diagnosed, probably should, I abuse weed and nicotine to “self medicate” helps me focus on one thing at a time.
I think you’re right in the main. And I also think that some people don’t realize they have a disorder until they see it manifest in others and realize “shit I do that too.” Sometimes they are right, sometimes not.
For some reason people just love self diagnosing with mental illness.
I think people like rationalizing their behaviors so that they don’t seem weird. When really they are just being themselves.
Behaviors become mental illnesses when they start to affect other parts of your life. Organizing your books by color is unusual and quirky, but not a mental illness.
If you can’t leave a library because you have to organize their books by color, then it’s a mental illness.
My kid has autism. He once had a complete panic attack because we wouldn’t let him stay to organize the bottles at total win and more. He has never been diagnosed with OCD and my understanding after talking to his neurologist about it is that this was a stim for him, and not necessarily OCD behavior. There have been other instances all through his childhood like this one, and I can’t help but think that having a completely different disorder or Neurodivergence also adds to people self diagnosing because there’s way too many people who don’t know they’re neurodivergent.
I was straight up diagnosed with OCD as a child because they really didn’t want to believe a girl had autism. Throughout my life I’ve struggled with compulsions when I’m mentally struggling and had zero issues when things are otherwise calm (sometimes I’ll go years without any symptoms). I’d never thought of it as a stim, but it absolutely is a thing for me to focus on to release mental pressure/sort through inputs. That’s totally a stim.
Sorry to do the thing that this thread is about in the thread.
Don’t apologize. It’s okay to express yourself and there’s nothing wrong with relating your story.
I was diagnosed with ADD (now called ADHD inattentive type) when I was a kid and got basically no support for it because my younger brother was diagnosed with Autism at or around the same time. It turns out my sister also has ADHD (and was diagnosed as an adult), and got no support and stims are fairly common. There’s a lot of behaviors in my own life that I didn’t recognize as stims until years later. It seems a lot of us
feelfell through the cracks so to speak.Huh, organization as a stim. I guess toss another one in the bucket for me.
They have officialdiagnosophobia
It’s a lack of mental health care and education.
I don’t have a formal ADHD diagnosis beyond a questionnaire given by a psychiatrist, and even that was a six month wait to start getting proper meds — a process that continues to be a fucking nightmare. Hospital visits give me near anxiety attacks because I don’t know if I’m going to see a decent doctor or someone who reams me out because I don’t have a “real” diagnoses.
I’m on waitlists for a formal diagnosis and specialized care, have been for years. During that time one of the ADHD institutions shut down over lack of funding. I could have skipped the line by going private and paying thousands, but I don’t have that.
Also in some cases simple ableism:
I am highly certain that I have autism, for many reasons, up to and including the screener results when I got my gender-dysphoria diagnosis, but I have made an active decision against getting an official diagnosis, because it would not as of now bring me any advantages, but would for example rid me of the possibility to ever move to certain countries. So what would be the point?
The main struggles I have are in interactions with other people and that is getting a bit better these days and having a friend group that almost exclusively consists of neurodiverse folks who have learned to deal with some of my quirks and a girlfriend who has a diagnosis of both autism and ADHD helps a lot as well. Why would I then put effort in to get a confirmation for something where I kinda already know the result? It would be like taking an IQ-test (A comparison that my psych found quite fitting in fact).
Unless your parents did it for you, idk how ppl who think they have adhd even get diagnosed, I needed to get my insurance changed for the county I was living in at the time or some shit, I never went to get checked again. Had been academically disqualified at that point, somehow did 2 years at community college, got reinstated to the school, and graduated with my bachelors, took me an extra 2 years and I had straight Cs but at least I did it. Now idk if I’ll ever get diagnosed, probably should, I abuse weed and nicotine to “self medicate” helps me focus on one thing at a time.
I think you’re right in the main. And I also think that some people don’t realize they have a disorder until they see it manifest in others and realize “shit I do that too.” Sometimes they are right, sometimes not.