yehudisha:

both popular anti-self dx arguments and pro-self dx arguments fail in that they uphold a rhetoric that insists on the innate nature of diagnoses as natural realities instead of constructed terms created to describe a common grouping of lived experiences. 

diagnoses are not inherent realities nor are they apolitical. people can have the same lived realities but be diagnosed differently. two people, one white and one not, with the exact same developmental behaviors could be diagnosed differently, 1 diagnosed with ADHD and 1 diagnosed with an occupational behavior disorder (a more negative connotation) due to racism. two people, a man and a woman with the same or extremely similar trauma experiences and symptoms could be diagnosed differently, the man diagnosed with C-PTSD and the woman diagnosed with BPD, due to misogynist stigma and the feminized characterization of the inherently evil manipulative person with BPD versus the label of C-PTSD which while also stigmatized, is more recognized as a trauma disorder and less of a scapegoat term. 

we should support self dx because the psych system does not have some special knowledge of the “inherent” realities of our lived experiences that we do not, because of issues of resources and safety and oppression and psych abuse/hegemony, we should support it because for some people finding words to describe their experiences feels necessary and fosters solidarity with others who experiences similar symptoms/experiences. but we shouldn’t prop up self-dx arguments with statements that reinforce the idea that diagnoses / terminologies of the psych system are innate realities. “mentally ill people can be just as correct as doctors” “doctors sometimes diagnose incorrectly” etc are sometimes useful arguments to make, but fall apart in some situations bc they rely on the idea that there are inherently Right or Wrong diagnoses, innate Correct Words for any one person’s experience, when really the way we categorize and label mental illness is political, artificial and arbitrary. 

we should also support mentally ill ppl who refuse any sort of diagnosis “professional” or otherwise. and mentally ill people who are forced to rely on the psych system and couldn’t function without these diagnoses due to reliance on meds and resources (especially being mindful of these ppl’s realties when having convos about the constructed reality of the psych system and it’s terminology & making statements like “all these labels are useless”), and mentally ill people who can never figure out a label to accurately describe them, who are being hurt by the fact that doctors can’t or won’t diagnose them, etc.