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you don’t diagnose yourself with or without cancer and hope for the best !
take care
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Maybe someone could. By reading up on it. But what about all the people who have no insight into their disease (no offense meant to anyone)? They couldn’t diagnose themselves when to them, nothing is wrong.
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Some conditions can present the same symptoms as schizophrenia, but they are caused by poisoning, tumours, etc. Unless you have access to a hospital lab and diagnostic equipment (MRI, X-ray, ultrasound, etc.), you have no way of accurately diagnosing these problems.
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I don’t know. It’s difficult for doctors to diagnose us. There are many overlapping, similar mental illnesses. Diagnosing ourselves accurately would be quite a task.
But when you need meds a pro will not go by your self diagnosis.
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If people self diagnosed for an illness they think they have doctors/p docs would be out of a job. That’s why they are who they are and we are the patients.
I think it is hard to dx yourself with sz. Lack of insight is a huge problem. But when meds work you can look back and see what has been going on. Maybe you get some clues about that it might be sz.
I agree here comatose. If someone thought they had it they might not look it up if they are unsure what they have, if they don’t think there ill. Only when medicated ( and not everyone does) do you know your " unwell" to an extent. But everybody is diffrent I guess.
I’m a very highly trained technician. At my last ‘real’ tech job, I was responsible for 20,000 users spread across 5 continents. After stepping back and moving to the country I spent 7 years running a computer repair biz. In all my time as a tech at lower and higher levels, I constantly dealt with users who had self-diagnosed their computer issues. The number of times a user was actually correct about the issue they were experiencing was so small that it could be considered statistically insignificant. The number of facepalms I inflicted on myself after talking to users was statistically significant indeed.
I would wager that private citizens who are self-diagnosing would not be any more accurate than computer users. Doctors who, by the way, are trained more intensively and to a much higher level than a technician like me would be, are probably better at diagnosing problems in that field.
My 2 cents.
10-96
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I had sort of self-diagnosed myself as psychotic during my first psychosis. After several months of hallucination and delusion I found out that my interpretation of the voices as human agents with telepathic powers wasn’t going to relieve the stress it was causing. I wrote some stuff down and they would have to be pretty terrible human beings on that interpretation. I chose that such shouldn’t be possible and that to interpret them as symptoms of some disease was much less stressful. I stuck to that belief for a few months hoping that conceiving of it in this way would in itself dissolve the problem, but it only lowered the salience of the voices, didnt make them go away. So I went to the GP and told about my complaints, saying that it must be some psychotic disease, that being my preferred interpretation. He agreed and sent me to a psychiatrist who diagnosed me as sz after a few weeks. I am very thankful to have been able to find this interpretation myself, for since I wanted it myself, I have no problems at all with the stigma of the diagnosis.
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It is very difficult to self diagnose - My current psychiatrist is a certified genius - many degrees, distinctions and awards - she did a lot of research on severe mental illnesses - she is having a very difficult time knowing exactly what I have - imagine this! If trained qualified psychiatrists are finding it difficult to diagnose me - I surely would not be able to accurately diagnose myself. Self diagnosing is not a good idea. I would leave the diagnosing up to the professionals
Through out high school, I knew something was ‘wrong’ or different but I just tried to hide the whole thing.
Teachers set up meetings to tell my parents to get me evaluated.
But you still tend to hide everything, its a secret you know.
Ok well now everyone knows, so what. I was still able to eventually complete my goals with major detours.
But I would still tend to keep things secret because no one HAS to know.
And if they find out and then don’t like you, well you are better off without those people anyway.
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The sicker you get, the less you are able to tell that that there is anything to diagnose.
I did actually read about it way back when so I could to prove to myself that I did not have it.
Then later to ‘prove them wrong,’
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That’s correct. Its like the longer your left unmedicated the harder it is to treat. If you can get medicated quick or they work you can begin to get better.
when I forst went psychotic I didn’t have a clue I was schizophrenic. I didn’t know anything about schizophrenia.
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That’s the thing. People don’t see or think there ill. Until medicine kicks in and things get better
I saw a video a while back: someone went to psychiatrists around the city presenting the same set of symptoms. Each psychiatrist diagnosed him with a different mental disorder, ranging from ADHD to depression to bipolar. My first psychiatric visit, I was diagnosed with depression. My second psychiatric visit, I was diagnosed as bipolar. And finally, my last two psychiatrists — schizophrenia and schizoaffective, respectively.
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I don’t know my current dx. I was dx’d with schizophreniform in hospital. My pdoc has talked about bipolar because I have depressions little now and then. But I’m not psychotic while depressed.
I get extreme sleeping problems 3-4 times every year. When I stop sleeping the voices get bad. I also get paranoid and have strange thoughts that ppl hear my thoughts or hear the music I’m playing in my car.
I would Go to an early psychosis treatment center for an evaluation. They are almost always free, as is the treatment - because they are affiliated with universities and research using the most modern treatments.
http://forum.schizophrenia.com/t/early-psychosis-treatment-centers-how-to-get-great-help/12743