#most things I’ve self dxed ended up being confirmed by a professional

[butchspace]

I’m just OCD posting now.

I’ve seen some push among people with OCD to never let anyone use the words “obsessed” or “compulsive” outside of the context of OCD, and I have two issues with that. (Granted not a lot, but this does go along with the many people who completely discount self-diagnosis of OCD, too.)

1. Those words are much much older than the name of the disorder itself.

2. Why are we making hard and fast rules in a community famously filled with people who obsess over morality? The main issue I see with this would be essentially disallowing (mostly by shame and backlash, but when you have OCD this can feel like physical force) undiagnosed people from articulating their experiences. (Not to mention the many professionally diagnosed rubber stamped OCDers who experience obsessions about whether or not they are faking their OCD.) Diagnosis is a huge hurdle for poor and rural people and people of color. So few practitioners even have the tools to make an informed diagnosis, and most are prohibitively expensive and do not take insurance. Going through the YBOCS can take up to three sessions in a lot of cases. That’s $600 out of your pocket even if you have insurance that will pay a superbill (cuz that’s reimbursement only).

I understand the reaction with the gross misuse of the term OCD to gate keep it as hard as we can, but that really does nothing for us.

I don’t think this is the biggest point to make about self-diagnosis, but OCD is a fairly easy disorder to understand with good sources. Most people wondering if they have OCD are going to do very thorough and extensive research as they chase the relief of “knowing what’s wrong.” Hell, I am professionally diagnosed and I still engage in that.

#ocd tag #actually ocd #self diagnosis #most things I’ve self dxed ended up being confirmed by a professional #that’s the power of OCD #I will not be satisfied without certainty!!