It’s amazing how many uncredentialed medical experts there are on Facebook! They’re out there identifying people with “undiagnosed autism spectrum”, “undiagnosed narcissism”, ”undiagnosed ADHD”, and other such conditions.  To be clear, I’m not talking about people who hold themselves out as therapists, I’m talking about the average person who says something like “I’ll bet so-and-so is on the spectrum” or “you can tell so-and-so has undiagnosed ADHD”. And I’ll bet they think they aren’t doing anybody any harm when they do that, but boy are they wrong! If they say it where the object of their uninformed medical opinion can see it, it will almost certainly cause the person they’re talking about to feel badly. And as they’re saying it on social media that means other people who know the object of their diagnosis may start to look at that person differently. There is a reason why it’s against the law to practice medicine without a medical license; I would find it supremely funny to see a few of those people get arrested for doing so.
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10 comments
K Shawn Gibson
Not only that but it always amazes me how they have a cousin, nephew or best friend’s kid who have the exact diagnosis they are talking about so they, of course, have first hand knowledge that far outweighs what the experts say. 🙄🙄
Michael Oak
They all look like they have mitochondrial issues if you ask me #powerhouseofthecell
Timothy Mulligan
People who suffer from mood disorders, and who have studied the distortions in thinking that are involved in them, ARE, in my opinion, sometimes able to recognize it in others.
George Cunningham
Thank you. I am so tired of the rush by people to try and claim every jackass out there with no social skills must be autistic. No, he isn’t on the spectrum, he is just a dick. (Not a diagnosis)
Jessica Knudson
It can also be harmful in general, because the more common it becomes, the more people are apt to brush off diagnoses that are thrown about, and not take them as seriously when they are true diagnoses. It also adds to stereotypes and misinformation.
Christian Hazell
Well, when society lowers their standards for what decorum and class used to be and start allowing corrupt and silly and immature behaviors and actions, this is what it evolves into…and sadly it’s accelerating in the wrong direction, the trend of stupidity. It’s going to get worse.
Wendy Rae
I’m just going to say that someone on here said I might be autistic. Next time I went to my scheduled 6 month appointment, I asked my provider if she thought I was autistic. She said “nope”.
Beth Wightman
It’s also highly illegal to diagnose, recommend any treatment if you don’t have a medical license.
Rell Bo Ren
Former teacher including sped….so many mistakes being made right now. Best advice I could give new parents is to read to the child every day. Starting at 0. It doesn’t matter if you are reading a recipe. It all builds .
Nancy Yee
As a licensed mental health clinician, I could not agree more with you. Some of the stuff is downright shocking and unethical. It seems it’s very in-vogue to say people are “on the spectrum” or “ are bipolar.” There is so much that goes into diagnosis and treatment. A lot of what I see in socials is maddening.
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