Growing up, I knew how to research. Researching stuff was my jam, and I built that skill through years of new hyperfixations and special interests. So, when I started to notice some psychiatric concerns and neurodevelopmental differences between me and my peers, I got to the bottom of it.
Even after a few trips to the child psychiatric ward during a few incidents in my teen years, I always ended up being blown away by how little the psych professionals seemed to know about diagnoses and treatment options. On top of that, because I had some background knowledge from my own research, it seemed to make psych professionals more dismissive of my concerns. Automatically, if you have done research that leads you to a diagnosis you think fits, you’re angling for a diagnosis just cause you want one and not cause you need the help. I have written a few of the particularly frustrating incidents below. Most incidents are from Johns Hopkins.
- When my social anxiety and sensory issues were particularly debilitating, I brought up whether or not a psychiatric service dog would even be an option for me. To which the psych team looked at each other in confusion and then asked me, “What’s a service dog? You mean like a seeing eye dog for blind people?”
- I brought up that I likely have Autism to the psychiatrist(?) assigned to me. She interviewed my parents and decided I didn’t fit the childhood criteria enough to fit the diagnosis, without interviewing me at all. Then, she tried to diagnose me with OCPD, and when I said I didn’t have those symptoms, she visibly deflated as if I had disappointed her
- A different psychiatrist told me that even if I did have Autism, there wouldn’t be a point in him giving me a diagnosis because I’d be too high functioning for it to matter
- I brought up to the therapist that I wanted to pursue a psych eval. She said, “What do you think they’ll find?” and I said, “depression”, then she actually laughed at me. I did get diagnosed with severe depression, obviously, so I’m not sure what her problem was
I’m not sure what the rules are for becoming a psych professional, but this track record is rough, and not nearly the worst I’ve seen. Please do better.
Unruly Bodies 
yea, I don’t know if the guidelines for becoming a psych professional have always been too relaxed or some people just don’t care about their jobs or the people they are helping. Like when I was pursuing a psych evaluation and the psychologist did not diagnose me as autistic even though he gave me no autism specific testing and based on one single portion of the the three tests he did give me. When I had brought it up, he got super passive aggressive and was saying he didn’t understand why I was pursuing this as there is no medication for autism and I should just go to therapy to discuss my symptoms. Needless to say, I will not be going back there but it still so discouraging having experiences like this with psych professionals. The whole interaction almost stopped me from pursuing further testing for autism because it made me feel like I was in the wrong for even bringing it up.
It’s so frustrating that your self-advocacy was shot down again and again. I was repeatedly told by disability support services growing up to tell them what I needed, to learn to advocate for myself even though I didn’t know what I needed. But there are so many stories like yours where someone does advocate for themselves and it’s treated like a red flag or scoffed at. We’re supposed to somehow know exactly what we need but also pretend to know nothing about our disorders, bodies, or minds. You cannot win.
While I am not the researching expert that you are I’ve heard a decent amount of symptoms of certain disorders and, at times, I’ve thought that maybe I could have them. However, with the exception of some online quizzes, I never end up doing anything about it. I think experiences like the ones you outline here make people, myself included, afraid to address their problems because they assume that psych professionals and literal doctors will turn them away. As a psych major myself, I hope to contribute to undoing whatever has caused this system to form.
Ahh yah the psych system strikes again! I’m so sorry that your self advocacy wasn’t taken seriously. Especially on the third instance. So many people and professionals underestimate what a diagnosis can do for people.