Why can't I self diagnose?

So. Now that you know you have...what did you call it? Avoidant Personality Disorder? Whatever. Now that you know you have that, you can make sure your behavior FITS that "disorder". If you find yourself in an open frame of mind, then you can re-think things and just shut down.

If you do something well, and begin to feel proud, you can remind yourself that that doesn't fit the profile of someone with an AVOIDANT PERSONALITY DISORDER and you can go back to feeling like a failure. I mean, that's only fair. Right? You have AVOIDANT PERSONALITY DISORDER, after all. It took you a while to figure that one out and you don't want to start really LOOKING at yourself again, do you? I mean, you've pretty much mapped out your life. It's going to suck, right? Cause you have AVOIDANT PERSONALITY DISORDER!

Your entire take on this is nothing more than a psychological game called "WOODEN LEG". ("what do you expect from someone with a wooden leg?"). Eric Berne mapped out transactional analysis 50 years ago and every thing he said was spot on.

If you were dying of lack of water, and crawling across a sandy wind-smoothed desert, bathing in 95+ degree weather; then you suddenly see an oasis before you through dry weary eyes as your body shuddered in pain.

Are you seeing an oasis, or may you perhaps not be in the correct condition to actually make assumptions? Because that may not be an oasis.

There's two points to make note of here. There's the 'professional' notation, and the 'casual' notation.

The professional notation would be that someone hindered by a mental condition is in no way fit to self-diagnose because of the obvious vulnerabilities and bias behavior of said person, not to mention the fact that they may be so desperate to seek a diagnoses that they may well convince themselves the symptoms and traits may be the ones they're experiencing, although they also may well be muddled given your mindset (your judgment may well be tarnished.)

You can drastically over-diagnose or confuse certain disorders. Doctors are well versed in these things, and they offer a second opinion.

The casual notation would be that "a horse knows it is a horse, not a street car with a beast of an engine boasting massive horsepower." By that, given what you feel and what you've been through, you should know what it is you're suffering from.

Its often hard to tell what is the correct one. In any court of law, the former would be the correct. However, if you don't go to a doctor you can fall back on the latter, but it still may be incorrect. Quite frankly, you should look at my first example. Now, add a doctor who walks up besides you and says "That's not an oasis. That's an illusion. By the way, take these two gallons of water and drink up young lad, you're dehydrated and suffering from far worse."

I see your point, but I also see his/her point as well. The thing is, there are over 300 mental health disorders according to the DSM-IV. Many disorders have an overlap of symptoms. For example, a person with depression might have difficulty with concentrating or making decisions, but so might a person with ADHD. Also, while it may sound like you meet criteria for that symptom, you may be interepting it differently. For example, some sympoms of bipolar disorder are feelings of extreme happiness/excitability, rapid speech, moving from topic to topic, making irrational decisions, etc. Well if I didn't know better, if I read this I would think every 7-year-old boy who was at Disney World would be bipolar. Clearly the child does not. Your right, some things are obvious. If you fell off the garage and your arm was bent in half and bone was sticking out of your skin you would not need a medical doctor to say your arm is broken. However, would you be foolish enough to diagnose yourself for most medical conditions without seeing a doctor? HOPE NOT!

You ask a very good question.

I suggest: get a copy of the Official DSM-IV Fourth Edition, and read the "Cautionary Statement". Here's what the first paragraph says:

"The specified diagnostic criteria for each mental disorder are offered as guidelines for making diagnoses, because it has been demonstrated that the use of such criteria enhances agreement among clinicians and investigators. The proper use of these criteria requires specialized clinical training that provides both a body of knowledge and clinical skills."

In the soft-cover edition, the DSM-IV "Cautionary Statement" is on page number "xxvii".

If a person has consulted with a doctor, and if that person does not trust that doctor, then the person could get a second opinion, couldn't he? I don't see why not.

I hope that helps :o)

EDIT - In the DSM-IV, Fourth Edition, there appear to be only seven (7) diagnostic criteria for:

301.82 Avoidant Personality Disorder

Pages 664-665 in the soft-cover edition, list a total of only seven (7) diagnostic criteria.

I would go to websites that list some of the disorders and see if any of the characteristics are manifested. However, I would be careful not to jump to conclusions. For instance, we all have our ups and downs, but a person a bit too paranoid might conclude that they are bipolar, just because they feel ups and downs. It's important to note the extremism of any trait.

well wiki is not a reliable sorce! and self diagnosing is not good because if you read alot about that disorder your more likley to pickup the symptoms that you origionally didnt have! you can trick your brain into thinking you have something that you really dont have or you something that is not a serious as you thought you have! pluse someone with a digree has went to school to do his/her job in diagnossing these things and they have had years of experiance behind them! and someone may dismiss it because you make ur brain think it instead of actually having it!

To diagnose self is equivalent to a defendant representing himself in court He has a fool for a client Samething applies to the medical arena Way to involved into self to be objective

If you aint hypochondriac why bother knowing if somethings wrong?

Searching for what color could air be is hard to do. This anxiety is duly caused by your hard-headedness, you should consult an expert and have yourself diagnosed

coz self diagnosis is hard to do (especially for those who are unfamiliar with psychology, and or psychoanalysis)

You can diagnose your self on some things, I know I have, but for someone to call it a legal or professional diagnosis, it has to be diagnosed by one of those people who have a degree.

I had OCD for 10 years (it's lessoned now) and no one diagnosed it for me.

People who dismiss others who say they're not professionally diagnosed childishly assume they are just "being emo" and are looking to label themselves.