self-diagnosis

[deicruxified]

just curious... do you self-diagnose a lot?

[Zilal]

I always try to, in the hopes that I can save a doctor's bill, and I'm never right.

[Colette]

Nope. Very bad idea, and usually wrong.

The net is the worst place to self-diagnose off, too. It's OK for general supporting information such as giving you an idea of when you need to seek professional advice, or once you have a condition diagnosed, but not a substitute for qualified professional advice, imo.

[OmegaPsi]

I've always disliked self-diagnosis, for some reason it seems like a form of hyperchondria to me. [Is it irony stating how one type of action constitute as a medical condition in this type of post?] Now I don't have a problem with disagreeing with the doctor on his/her diagnosis, esp. 'common' psychological diseases such as ADD...for some reason I always have a feeling that doctors misdiagnose simple personality differences as a disease.

[Agile]

One point for common sense and instinct, here. Self-diagnosis is a bad idea, in the general sense. But if you are capable of intelligent reasoning, you should be able to come to a logical conclusion, and/or at least narrow down a problem to a short list. There is no harm in deciding for yourself and then having an expert second or (yet another) third your opinion. Furthermore I'd reccomend it while not telling them before, what your opinion is. And finally, I would trust an expert opinion only a little more than I'd trust my own.

[ssfanatic]

I always try to, in the hopes that I can save a doctor's bill, and I'm never right.
Agreed. I have no wish to pursue a medical career, but if it saves a few dollars, i can play dress up ;)

[Rick]

Agreed. I have no wish to pursue a medical career, but if it saves a few dollars, i can play dress up ;)

If the INTJ Forum has a contest, this quote from ssfanatic has my vote for one of the best.

I'm cynical. Always question your doctor's diagnosis. It's a business.

[deicruxified]

I'm cynical. Always question your doctor's diagnosis. It's a business.
sometimes one of the reasons why i never go right away to the doctor. if i do, i always ask for a 3rd... 4th opinion.

[Tenacious B]

I do that frequently, and resources like wikipedia and webmd just fuel the fire.

Luckily my sister is a doctor so I always have an opinion I can trust (whether I want it or not!;D)

[Katie]

Yes - and, when I end up at the doctor being "informed" from web research, we all have a good laugh first (knowing the information may / may not be on the right track).

[thegnat]

(((shudders)))

Self-diagnosis is a very bad idea. Sure, I might try to see what I have. I might try to venture a guess, but I know that a doctor will only have the ability to diagnose correctly based on sound knowledge. Ideally of course haha. Of course it's good to question opinion and get more than one. But when weighing the two opinions, if yours and the doctor's are distinctly different, yours is probably more wrong. They went to med school. You didn't.

[PillowSoup]

I've become what has to be a hypochondriac from excessive reading on the internet as well as reading my physiology books out of boredom.
It's bad.

[lordrrr]

I usually am afraid I have something, but I'd never be 100 percent sure until I've clarified it with a doctor.

[thaddeus6th]

People typically attribute symptoms to themselves whenever you give them a list. Rather amusingly, I once gave my mother the checklist for psychopathology. I think she said I had all but two:p

[Tinmaiden]

Too subjective; diagnoses need to be as objective as possible. I think that INTJs need everything explained, so self-diagnostics can seem appealing...

I suppose it's one thing to self-diagnose something like a cold or an ingrown toenail, but bipolar disorder and Asperger syndrome would be where I'd start to chalk in a line.

[Caramel]

I do self-diagnose small things, but not as an excuse to not see a doctor, but as a way to not waste his and my own time. Some people run to the doctor for every sneeze, I'd rather wait it out a week. If I'm still not better after a given time period, then its probably more 'serious' and time to go see a doctor.

Like the time when I had RSI, I stayed away from the computer first and then went to see a doctor. When I had a sinus infection, I took painkillers and used a anti-bacterial nose spray first, and then went to see a doctor.

Calculation of chance is important for 'self diagnosis', aswell as being honest. What symptons do I have? How bad are they? Have I ever had something like this before? What did I do to get sick?

If you have a list of symptons, and three diseases fit those, then the likely cause is the one A) most common and B) with the best outcome. People somehow think its always the special disease with the worst outcome. Then there is the 'me too' syndrome, someone actually is seriously ill..and everyone else suddenly thinks they have the same. Don't fall for those traps.

[Dystopia]

I have had so many different diagnoses from doctors, and contradictory ones, that it is obvious to me that psychology/psychiatry are not an exact science. Look up the DSM IV and ICD10 manuals on the internet for the exact definitions, and you're likely to get a better answer than any of them can give. After all, you've been with your mind for xx years, they try and diagnose you with 10 minutes, in a hurry for their next coffee break.

It seems to me that there are so many personality disorders and mental illnesses out there that everyone has one. So perhaps being completely "normal" is the most rare disorder of all.

I've heard it said that the INTJ personality is similar to the "schizotypal" and "schizoid" personality disorders. I wonder what people's opinions are. If this subject is mentioned on another thread, please be polite when telling me not to duplicate. Seriously, if I had searched this subject by "Googling" every possible synonym of the subject matter, I'd never get around to posting at all.

In the end, I don't judge myself by their definitions, I judge them by mine. I'm sure you all agree.

I am James, and new to this forum. Pleased to meet you all.

[acyckowski]

I think self-diagnosis is a good starting point, and often saves me the bother of paying a doctor to tell me the obvious. For instance, I have a "self-diagnosed" milk allergy. Now, I could go to a doctor, get bloodwork done, spend extra time and money to find out if it's an allergy or mild lactose intolerance. Or, instead, I could just stick to skim-milk and stay away from ice cream.

My mother's older sister (#1 of 6 girls) was diagnosed after several years of misdiagnosis with a neurological disorder similar to "water on the brain." (I forget the exact name). She was nearly an invalid before she was properly diagnosed. Once she got a proper diagnosis, she got a shunt put in her cranium and she was back to normal in a few months.

Three years later, my mother started exhibiting the same symptoms as her older sister: the doctors continued to ignore my Mom's observations because the disorder "didn't run in families." She was just "getting old." Fortunately, my Dad persisted until they found an M.D. with some common sense, who in fact found out that it was the same disorder, and identical surgery resulted in an identical recovery.

So, when sister #3 started showing the same symptoms, she didn't fool around with doctors' assurances that it couldn't be what she thought it was, blah blah blah. She immediately found a doctor who would test her for what she thought it was, and....well, you guessed it. Same disorder that didn't run in families found its way into sister #3.

Needless to say, sisters 4-6 aren't going to put up with that kind of foolishness if they start going through the same thing.

And, frankly, I'd rather ask an experienced nurse or P.A. what they think, first.

[vad1981]

Needless to say, sisters 4-6 aren't going to put up with that kind of foolishness if they start going through the same thing.

And, frankly, I'd rather ask an experienced nurse or P.A. what they think, first.

You should seriously publish this somewhere, I'm sure there are neurologists out there that would be interested in this I have a title for you "Familial Adult Onset Hydrocephalus"

[acyckowski]

You should seriously publish this somewhere, I'm sure there are neurologists out there that would be interested in this I have a title for you "Familial Adult Onset Hydrocephalus"

Nope. They won't want to hear it, and I don't have the credentials to back it up. The AMA says it's not familial, so that's all there is to it.

My sister-in-law, an M.D. who has witnessed this all, still swears that it's not familial, because the literature says so. Yeah, right. That's probably why I'm not so confident in the competence of doctors....give me an experienced nurse or PA any day.

When my turn comes, I'm just going to shop around doctors until I find one with some common sense left.

[vad1981]

Nope. They won't want to hear it, and I don't have the credentials to back it up. The AMA says it's not familial, so that's all there is to it.

My sister-in-law, an M.D. who has witnessed this all, still swears that it's not familial, because the literature says so. Yeah, right. That's probably why I'm not so confident in the competence of doctors....give me an experienced nurse or PA any day.

When my turn comes, I'm just going to shop around doctors until I find one with some common sense left.

Dude...if you do a google.com and do a search for it...it does exist.

Also regarding being against doctors...well thats just your experience, you're entitled to your opinion. For example I'm against traffic cops, i've never had a pleasant experience with them...

And I'm all for masseuses...

[PRBori]

I self-diagnosed myself quite often and do the same for family members simply because a long time ago my wish was to be a surgeon and I actually was so into it that I have read and still do a lot of medical books gear towards medical students.

Honestly I don't always trust doctors. My brother had some issues once and the doctors where unable to tell for more than two weeks, in a day I ask him to tell me his symptoms, description and I show him pictures then gave him a list of 3 and told him to tell the dictors that I said he had one of them...he did and it was the one I had in mind after two weeks of not knowing he was given the right treatment.

I did the same with my daughter and myselfm the doctor mis-diagnosed her and I knew she had Bronquitis for I used to get those almost every yearm therefore I took her to a different doctor who diagnosed her correctly and gave her the medications need it to treat bronquitis...

Those I'm pretty good of course it requires quite a bit of reading, questioning, and investigation but I'm pretty good...Medicine books rock....outside of IT of course...

[Vivid]

I never self diagnose and frown upon doing it. Mental health workers have seen dozens of people and went to school for many years. They are highly knowledgeable, usually well-paid and have perspective. Even though they can slip up, I trust their education and experience. Although it's not so much a matter of trust, since you can ask them questions and they will give factual reasoning as to why they suspect someone does or doesn't have whatever disorder.

[searcher]

Yup...I've read lots of med books. Oh, and one of my friends is forever in hospital for something or other.

Of course, if it's something that is supposed to be bad then I get it checked. To do otherwise is plain stupid.

self diagnosis - not particularly harmful
self treatment/medication - NOT GOOD.

[Linza]

Never trust your doctor, and never trust yourself. Pit your opinion against your doctor's in a fight to the death, and when you're in the back of the EMS truck surrounded by paramedics with defibrulator paddles, poised inches from sending high voltage directly into your chest, you know that avoiding treatment for that arterial blockage was the worst of all possible ideas, regardless of who came up with it.

I kid.

I only self diagnose when I've had the exact same injury many times before (my ribs don't like to stay put, I get allergy attacks every couple of years, and when a joint or appendage stops taking weight, it's time to get more information. Everything else needs someone who knows what they're doing. But make sure your doctor is competant-- by paying medical professionals a lot, our society is attracting people who are only in it for the money; sometimes that's not a good enough motivation for people to do their jobs properly. So yeah. Ask questions. Talk to former patients. If any of their former patients are deceased or crippled, you may want to consider switching physicians. Just sayin'.

However... my ESFJ mother likes to self diagnose, and she's always wrong. I suppose that provided a nice data set of what doesn't work. :irked:

[Roy G Biv]

I have self diagnosed food sensitives (confirmed by the ELISA IgG test), hypothyroidism (confirmed by free T3 and free T4 results, as well as positive results for thyroid antibodies), adrenal insufficiency (confirmed by saliva and serum tests), and insulin resistance (missed in the fasting insulin and glucose serum tests, but confirmed in a 2-hour glucose tolerance test).

My doctor thought I was normal until I insisted on those tests. She was surprised. I was not. I knew I was right.

One thing I don't ever do is self treat. I get my hormone replacement therapy legally.

I am under the care of two excellent doctors, but I still have to be an assertive and strong self advocate to get the care I need.