Can You Diagnose Yourself with a Mental Illness?

Here's what's happening on the HealthyPlace site this week:

• Can You Diagnose Yourself with a Mental Illness?
• From the HealthyPlace Mental Health Blogs
• Video: Bipolar and Hypersexuality: Sex and My Emotions
• Most Popular HealthyPlace Articles Shared by Facebook Fans
• Mental Health Quote

Can You Diagnose Yourself with a Mental Illness?

Is it wise to try to diagnose yourself with a mental illness?

When you know that something isn’t right with how you’re experiencing life, you just might do what so many others do: identify your mental illness symptoms and try to pinpoint what’s causing them. Searching for information about what you’re experiencing is very empowering and can equip you with tools you need to start healing, but without an official mental illness diagnosis, you might not receive the treatment you need.

The ability to know your symptoms and learn more about them is a strength that will help you overcome your mental health challenges. However, mental illness is difficult to diagnose, so for safety and accuracy, it’s wise to take all of the information you’re gathering about the illness and yourself and share it with a mental health professional or medical doctor.

It’s okay to strike a balance between going at your diagnosis alone and putting your fate entirely in someone’s hands. Go ahead and read information and personal accounts, take online psychological tests and self-assessments, and use all of this information to communicate with your doctor or mental health professional. Being well-informed will help you arrive at an accurate diagnosis so you can treat it the right way.

Related Information about Mental Illness Diagnosis

• The Good and Bad of Mental Health Self-Diagnosis
• Destigmatizing Self-Diagnosis of Mental Illness
• After the Mental Illness Diagnosis: Getting on with Life!
• Adult Symptoms of Mental Health Disorders
• Mental Illness Diagnosis Tests

Your Thoughts

Today's Question: Did you ever use online information to diagnose yourself with a mental illness? How helpful and accurate did it turn out to be? We invite you to participate by sharing your thoughts, knowledge, and experiences on the HealthyPlace Facebook page and on the HealthyPlace Google+ page.

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From the HealthyPlace Mental Health Blogs

On all our blogs, your comments and observations are welcomed.

• Journaling About Bipolar 2 Disorder: It's an Outlet for Me
• Schizophrenia and Relationships: What You Need to Know
• The Struggles of Dating with Depression
• When Verbal Abuse Is Disguised as a Joke
• The Stigma of Parenting a Child with Mental Illness
• Complex PTSD, Dissociation, and Reclaiming Lost Memories
• The Stigma of Taking Mental Health Sick Days at Work
• Three Reasons People Self-Injure
• Dealing with Depression Triggers in Blog Posts
• Trying New Organization Strategies for Adults With ADHD
• Caring for an Addict While Still Taking Care of Yourself
• I’m Bored: Effects of Schizoaffective Disorder with Anxiety
• Hate Talking on the Phone? Phone Anxiety Facts
• How Teachers Shape Student Mental Health

Feel free to share your thoughts and comments at the bottom of any blog post. And visit the mental health blogs homepage for the latest posts.

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From HealthyPlace YouTube Channel

Bipolar and Hypersexuality: Sex and My Emotions

Today I’m talking about hypersexuality and bipolar disorder and how I’m affected by hypersexuality. Many of the uninitiated view hypersexuality as wanting to just have a lot of sex with anyone. One of the biggest indicators that my mental health was declining before my bipolar breakdown in college relates to my hypersexual behavior. It has little to do with the number of sexual partners and more to do with my emotions regarding sex. There was a coldness about me, and I treated sex more as an object rather than an action with meaning behind it. In this video, I share my personal experience with hypersexual behavior before treatment for bipolar 2 disorder.

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Most Popular HealthyPlace Articles Shared by Facebook Fans

Here are the top 3 mental health articles HealthyPlace Facebook fans are recommending you read:

1. Marriage and Mental Illness: Take a Vacation Alone Together
2. Self-Stigma Affects Mental Health Advocates Too
3. Maintain Your Social Network for Health and Happiness

If you're not already, I hope you'll join us/like us on Facebook too. There are a lot of wonderful, supportive people there.

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Mental Health Quote

"Living with anxiety is like being followed by a voice. It knows all your insecurities and uses them against you. It gets to the point when it's the loudest voice in the room. The only one you can hear. ."

Read more anxiety quotes.

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That's it for now. If you know of anyone who can benefit from this newsletter or the HealthyPlace.com site, I hope you'll pass this onto them. You can also share the newsletter on any social network (like facebook, stumbleupon, or google+) you belong to by clicking the links below. For updates throughout the week, circle HealthyPlace on Google+, follow HealthyPlace on Twitter or become a fan of HealthyPlace on Facebook. Also, check out HealthyPlace on Pinterest and share your mental health pins on our Share Your Mental Health Experiences board.

back to: HealthyPlace.com Mental-Health Newsletter Index