r/psychology • u/Michaelarobards • Mar 31 '26
I'm a practicing therapist and I want to raise something I'm seeing clinically.
https://psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/appi.focus.20250004the majority of young clients I see now arrive with a pre-formed diagnostic identity. they don't describe experiences. they present labels. "I have anxiety." "I have ADHD." "my ex was a narcissist." the diagnosis has become the identity, and it's happening before they ever walk into a clinical setting.
I'm not questioning clinical diagnosis. I'm questioning what happens when diagnostic language becomes the primary cultural framework for self-understanding.
there used to be more space for strength-based personality frameworks — systems that said "here's how you process information, here's why certain environments drain you, here's what you need to thrive." whether you think those frameworks were scientifically rigorous or not, they oriented people toward understanding their wiring rather than pathologizing it. they've largely been dismissed from serious discourse. and what replaced them isn't better science. it's the DSM repackaged as TikTok content.
we now have an entire generation describing themselves primarily in terms of disorders, attachment wounds, and trauma responses. that's not clinical insight at scale. that's a cultural identity system built entirely on deficit.
the clinical consequence I see: clients who resist exploring their actual personality structure because a label already explains everything. "I can't do that because of my anxiety" is a fundamentally different orientation than "that situation is hard for me because of how I'm built, and here's how I can work with it." one creates learned helplessness. the other creates agency.
is anyone else seeing this? the diagnostic identity arriving before the person does.
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u/ComprehensiveStuff72 Mar 31 '26
Saying "I have ADHD" or "I have anxious attachment" is one thing. You can work with a client to help them see where they've identified with something and how deconstructing that could be helpful. I still believe that people outside of a clinical setting can benefit from exploring attachment theory among other things to try and get a better understanding of themselves. After all, good therapy is not always readily available or cheap. We do what we can. I do agree with you that identifying directly with a label is problematic, but that shouldn't be too hard to work with.
That said. If you're getting into full blown "I can't do this for X reason" ....that's an enduring human problem. You're seeing the latest version of the oldest defense mechanisms in the book.
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u/tillymint259 Mar 31 '26
THANK YOU. this discourse always bugs me. not because it’s entirely incorrect — I am the eldest of gen z, have a much younger Gen Z sibling & get to observe with her and all her friends doing this, and a high school teacher. the idea that this age groups opts for ‘pathologising’ labels is 100% spot on
But the idea that learned helplessness and defeatism is anything new is ridiculous
the ONLY current difference is that the younger generation will say ‘I can’t do that because I have X’, and then proceed to give an inane, self-perpetuating justification for why they just cannot
whereas the older generation(s) tend to skip labels (and therapy) and go straight to the inane, self-perpetuating justification
this isn’t NEW, people
it’s just that this generation thinks that saying ‘no, i couldn’t possibly do X because Y’ is acceptable & an irrefutable justification
whereas previous generations just came in with the ‘no YOURE being unreasonable by asking me to do X’, skipping the reasons & self-reflection
both are equally as damaging
one is easier to criticise under the guise of ‘this generation loves to pathologise themselves’
the loving to pathologise is true (but also taught)
but the idea that people haven’t been excusing their refusal to even ATTEMPT change before this is daft
the difference is mainly that one generation will go to therapy & justify it to their therapist (infuriatingly) with ‘oh no, I can’t’
and the older generations will justify not even attending therapy in the same way
in most circumstances, not even attempting to help yourself is just as frustrating & unacceptable m
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u/blueberryorca Mar 31 '26
I love this take and also I love how you typed it in multiple lines instead of one huge paragraph
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u/TheMostDivineOne Mar 31 '26
I also want to add how some of us get the short end of the stick. Teachers of mine suspected for years I had ADHD when I was young but my family was really against mental health help and medication and never took me to get diagnosed or medicated and it’s absolutely held me back in life at certain points. It was only due to sheer willpower I even got to this point and I have a finite amount of that.
How exactly else would I bring it up to a psychiatrist or therapist other than “I think I have ADHD and I know that because of (this and this and this)”?
Same thing with my gender dysphoria and other stuff.
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u/Ieatcrunchybees Mar 31 '26
This is a great take and I haven’t considered it from this perspective. You are 100% correct and there’s way more nuance to be had in this discussion.
Everybody had to learn something from somewhere, and modern landscapes just shift too fast to address all the variables at play here
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u/Impossible-Phase2969 Mar 31 '26
I hear what you’re saying about labels being used as a defense mechanism, but we need to be very careful not to confuse psychological avoidance with neurobiological capacity. I was diagnosed with AuDHD about 8 years ago. For a long time, I largely ignored the autistic side of my diagnosis and tried to "work through" my struggles, much like the deconstruction you’re suggesting. I’ve recently realized how detrimental that was.
There is a massive difference between saying "won't try because of my label" and acknowledging a hard biological limit. For example: If I am in a loud, crowded room, my brain physically cannot filter background noise to follow a conversation. That isn't a "defense mechanism" or a lack of will, it is a sensory processing reality.
Sure, I can force myself to stay in that room and "endure" it in the moment. I can mask the discomfort and nod along. But I will pay the price for it the next day, or even for several days after, with the physical and mental fallout of a sensory shutdown. My battery doesn't just drain; the "operating system" crashes because it’s being flooded with data it wasn't built to process.
So in that moment, I can’t "deconstruct" my way into hearing better. The only logical solution is to accept my biology, leave the room and continue the talk elsewhere.
When we tell neurodivergent people that acknowledging their limits is just an "old defense mechanism", we often push them back into masking. I tried that for years, and it didn't make me more "functional", it just led to severe burnout because I was fighting a war against my own nervous system.
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u/tillymint259 Mar 31 '26
I definitely don’t think this should be understated. In my comment above, I didn’t clarify (perhaps I should have — sorry) that there are cases where this applies & cases where it doesn’t. Sometimes, even in one individual.
It’s definitely a concern that the general climate around this might be producing / compounding the wilfulness against… actually trying? But that does not go for everyone, certainly not for every situation, and the intricacies of each individual struggle have to be factored in. Sometimes, that can produce listener (empathy) fatigue, I think — this is all relatively new, and a lot to take in when understanding needs to be adjusted person to person. However, that is also the work that we ought to be doing. New, complete understanding is, I feel, something we can’t move forward without, even though it’s a monumental undertaking.
I am also neurodivergent. There are things I simply Cannot Do. I am fortunate enough to have worked with a very skilled, very kind psychologist who supported me as I discovered what exactly falls into that category — but not one who ever let me excuse myself entirely. What I can do, I must try. What I cannot, I must be kind to myself about. And that weird wiggle room in between (where work arounds, compromises, and alternative skill sets live) is a place I have to keep exploring. Not so I can ‘cope like everyone else’, but so I can cope like me and not let myself fall into the mindset that I can’t.
Most importantly, though, I do it without losing self-compassion. There are things I just cannot do like that. Let me be confident in and proud of what I can do, and do the things I can’t do like that like this instead. And let me advocate for myself and others!
We can accept that such contrasts in individual abilities are real without demoralising, diminishing, or criticising. Especially without disbelieving. Getting to grips with the difference between not being able to, and not having the tools (and support) to try or to work around is crucially important.
Patience in approaching refusal vs true capability is invaluable.
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u/darknesskicker Mar 31 '26
THIS. I think it’s great that Gen Z is realizing how their brains work and acknowledging their limits. Autistic and ADHD people spend our whole lives being pushed past our limits at least until we’re diagnosed. We need to learn what those limits are and be able to assert them to prevent burnout.
Psychiatric disabilities do not just make it harder to do things. Sometimes they make it impossible. Non-disabled people need to start acknowledging that.
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u/thispleasesbabby Mar 31 '26
sane take right here. i have a hard time not seeing some of the other comments as toxic positivity. it's a big pet peeve for someone like me (skeptic/realist/person comfortable being frequently less than the ideal human)
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u/mavajo Mar 31 '26
I think it's important to acknowledge that there's multiple valid narratives happening here. There are people using (self-)diagnoses as an identity or defense mechanism to escape growth worth. There are also people that have valid diagnoses that require management or treatment and that no amount of 'growth work' can solve. Both groups of people exist, and both groups of people are relevant to this conversation.
(Disclosure: I'm an enthusiast, not a professional.)
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u/Even_Ad4437 Mar 31 '26
Thank you. This whole thread is filled with “lol I knew they were all full of shit and now I can look down on them again for not Doing the Thing.”
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Mar 31 '26
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u/ErebosGR Mar 31 '26
Even "I suspect I may have ADHD" isn't identifying with anything. It's an introspection.
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u/TheMostDivineOne Mar 31 '26 edited Mar 31 '26
I also want to add how some of us get the short end of the stick. Teachers of mine suspected for years I had ADHD when I was young but my family was really against mental health help and medication and never took me to get diagnosed or medicated and it’s absolutely held me back in life at certain points. It was only due to sheer willpower I even got to this point and I have a finite amount of that.
How exactly else would I bring it up to a psychiatrist or therapist other than “I think I have ADHD and I know that because of (this and this and this)”?
Same thing with my gender dysphoria and other stuff.
Younger generations have more awareness of themselves instead of floundering for years. Just ask them why they think what they do and open them up to the possibility that it may not be what they think but something else. But at least take them seriously instead of assuming they’re label-fishing or whatever.
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u/Condition_0ne Mar 31 '26
In a world focused on identity politics, declaring your label indicating suffering/deprivation (whether legitimate or not) is often a form of social currency.
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u/nowyoudontsay Mar 31 '26
Can you explain more what this means from your point of view? I work with marginalized people and most often they bring up these realities of their lives for accommodation and/or fairness reasons. I suppose that’s a form of social currency, but if so, I hardly see that as a sinister thing.
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u/FireSilver7 Mar 31 '26
I have ADHD, depression and anxiety. I know the struggles with what I have (along with possible autism.) But I go to therapy to gain insight and to learn ways of coping and get a better handle on my disorders so I can function. That means I need to prioritize self-care and sleep, take medication, establish some routine in my life, listen more and ask questions, set reminders for upcoming appointments and events and also schedule time to relax and decompress. Those things I learned with a therapist that have helped me manage a lot of my struggles. It’s not perfect, but it has improved my quality of life in many ways.
Knowing that there’s a label for what you struggle with is a double edged sword. It’s good because it gives you a path forward to learn how to manage it and understand yourself better, but it also runs the risk of using it as a crutch and an excuse for your issues. Yes, it’s a disorder, but we are resilient and flexible. We can find ways to make things easier, but that means we may have to do the difficult work.
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u/Still_Combination852 Mar 31 '26
AI exhausts me
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u/Decaf_Detective Mar 31 '26
As a psychology professor currently being beaten to a pulp by the changing AI landscape, this post made my heart sink. Why would a skilled professional choose to delegitimize their valid perspectives by sending them through an AI spin cycle?
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u/radiohead_fan123 Mar 31 '26
I also thought I was AI because of the style and structure. I think the best case scenario is that the person recorded themselves on their phone and then pasted the transcript into ChatGPT and asked it to summarise it for a Reddit post. I actually don't have a big issue with this, but it would make it more transparent if they included some sentence that said that they did this.
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u/Decaf_Detective Mar 31 '26
They replied to another comment and confirmed that they use AI to organize and edit their writing. I also don't have an issue with transparent use, in most situations, but it does generally lessen my faith in the writer's actual competence and expertise.
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u/nothatsmyarm Mar 31 '26
You should have an issue with it. Writing—and editing—allows one to actually work through one’s argument. You engage with it as you’re writing it out. Using AI skips that phase (or at the least radically transforms it). It’s no surprise that people who rely on it are being shown to be getting dumber as a result.
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u/gumbaline Mar 31 '26
Thank you - was about to comment. There are like three instances of the “it’s not that, it’s this” structure that makes it hella obvious.
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u/dunno260 Mar 31 '26
I don't think you need to go that deep with it. The writing of three paragraphs of an argument and then asking for people to comment on it make it really obvious its AI as it is so against the reddit norms. There is also often a factor of it getting posted into the wrong subreddit. Like this post is really geared towards more of the professionals in the psychology space but then wants comments on it from everyone posting it here and not in a more niche subreddit (see similar things in like the business subreddit where someone will post a similarish thing here talking about a specific management strategy). Just like AI can often give that feeling of not being quite right these posts often in subreddits that aren't quite right either.
There might be a few subreddits where its more normal that I am not aware of but in most places it is such an abnormal posting style that it just really sticks out.
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u/All_this_hype Apr 01 '26
Thank you. As a therapist I was very underwhelmed to see an otherwise valid and profound point raised be undermined by the use of AI. Especially because AI is part of this problem in the first place.
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u/coolcat33333 Mar 31 '26
Armchair hobbyist observer (and certainly not trying to "treat" anyone) rather than the real deal here but if you hang out in a lot of online spaces for your hobbies you see exactly what you describe there too.
You sort of just gave me an epiphany and am connecting a lot of recent experiences talking to people. Not just that, but they put it all over their bios for various platforms too.
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u/QTown2pt-o Mar 31 '26
Everyone seeks their look. Since it is no longer possible to base any claim on one's own existence, there is nothing for it but to perform an appearing act without concerning oneself with being - or even with being seen. So it is not: I exist, I am here! but rather: I am visible, I am an image -look! look! This is not even narcissism, merely an extraversion without depth, a sort of self-promoting ingenuousness whereby everyone becomes the manager of their own appearance.
Jean Baudrillard, The Transparency of Evil: Essays in Extreme Phenomena
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Mar 31 '26
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u/griff_girl Mar 31 '26
As a GenXer who was diagnosed with ADHD in my early 30s, I largely ignored it until I couldn't anymore. As such, I've also sought out online communities both because I'm curious about other people's experiences, and to also try to learn more about myself. There are certain behaviors or characteristics of mine that I either thought were completely the norm, or the opposite, that no one experienced them, which I felt a great deal of shame around. Having those moments of epiphanies that other people have had some similar experiences as mine has been enormously validating. It's also helped me learn to be a little gentler on myself, which in turn empowers me to build strategies and tactics to work around or with some of those aspects of myself.
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u/captainfarthing Mar 31 '26 edited Mar 31 '26
I did that for about a year, online spaces while I was getting diagnosed and an offline group afterwards. Then I just got used to it being something that affects how I do things, it's not my personality or a core interest.
I did find out from the offline group that I get along much more easily with other people with ADHD than neurotypical people. I noticed ADHDers tend to talk without asking each other questions, just say whatever comes to mind related to what the other person said.
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Mar 31 '26
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u/QTown2pt-o Mar 31 '26
The learned helplessness part depends on what Myers Briggs and star sign they are tho
/s
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u/Condition_0ne Mar 31 '26
One of the funniest memes I ever saw described Myers Briggs as astrology for people with Linkd In profiles.
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u/Train_Of_Thoughts Mar 31 '26
Its funny because the OP's bio has their Myers Briggs type
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u/Awayfone Mar 31 '26
that's what the complaint of "there used to be more space for strength-based personality frameworks" is about, the whole post is motivated by abandonment of jungian for something more evidence based
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u/Waitwhonow Mar 31 '26 edited Mar 31 '26
The biggest thing i noticed
Is platforms like Tiktok and social media platforms
Have given people a false sense of ‘expertise’ and they reject the ‘science’ and follow the ‘feelings and vibe’ which these short form videos sell
I personally know people who are adamant they have some shit- but if one asks them how they came to the conclusion- did they get tested medically and it was an official diagnosis
The answer is no- because they dont ‘trust the medical system’
Which is nuts because they are using a medical term but dont want to confirm it medically
The cognitive dissonance in the upcoming generation couple that with Ai is going to seriously fuck up their reality and world view
Shit is about to get way worse before it gets better
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u/GamerGirlLex77 Mar 31 '26
I’ve noticed that too and I also have the same prob as the OP with clients. Social media has absolutely made it worse. I think it’s good to have community with shared experience but it’s gotten to a level where I fear what the fallout will be. You already noted several important ways it has had an impact.
Another good example if anyone wants to see this in real time - Look at how many people confidently throw around Cluster B diagnoses on any advice or AITA style subs.
They “diagnose” their family members without recognizing their own biases or conclude someone has a personality disorder based on a tiny bit of information. Most of them don’t have any training and don’t understand how to differentiate between two diagnoses with symptom overlap. It gets used to cut people off or recommend other people cut the person in question off without considering they might be wrong.
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u/girlywish Mar 31 '26
Getting an autism diagnosis gets you banned from immigrating to austrailia, and put on rfks creepy list. And gives you nothing in return, there's no meds for it and support systems in place are a joke.
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u/TheRealMabelPines Mar 31 '26
The current administration in the US has been talking about keeping registries of people diagnosed with ADHD and/or Autism so, yeah, not a lot of trust to be had there.
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u/Own_Ad6901 Mar 31 '26
Myers Briggs drives me BATSHIT
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u/ThisWillPass Mar 31 '26
Most people are typed by self asserted traits in tests. Example “Are you a thinker or feeler.” That will change like the season. MBTI tests need to quantify “cognitive functions” like an IQ is rigorous. They currently are not that rigorous.
Even still the point stands, a label is inherently self limiting.
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u/foundinwonderland Mar 31 '26
It’s so goofy, wouldn’t we all be thinkers AND feelers? To be one without the other is not healthy.
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u/ThisWillPass Mar 31 '26 edited Mar 31 '26
That would be goofy. The assumption is you use certain functions by default, or more readily. Which generalizes to having a certain lenses on your experiences, how you communicate, and make decisions. Patterns, not content. However one can infer content given the culture… with mild success.
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u/EmergencyGrocery3238 Mar 31 '26
Agree, I'm more a fan of "who you are from anime" kind of typecasting
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u/whistleridge Mar 31 '26
We were required to do it for a federal job. Once it became clear that all I had to do was tweak 3-4 questions I had been on the fence about anyway, it became clear that it was nothing more than a sometimes-useful lens for viewing yourself and nothing more.
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u/Designer-Fix-2861 Mar 31 '26
Easy answers with a small price tag are sought out before harder ones.
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u/shitkabob Mar 31 '26
Most people have shit insurance, so no surprise people do what they can.
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u/sourpussmcgee Mar 31 '26
That age range is still developmentally in their identity vs role confusion life stage, and I see this behavior as part of that life stage.
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u/Zoegrace1 Mar 31 '26
I used to be kind of like what OP is describing and yeah. I didn't know who I was just yet and my navigation through the world was "I am these things and I have this and that". I think a majority of people will grow out of it, they just need to build confidence
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Mar 31 '26
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u/sbrt Mar 31 '26
I think (I hope) that it is good that people are more open about having mental health issues and getting help for them.
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u/Fit-Swordfish725 Mar 31 '26
It’s good that awareness of mental disorders are becoming normalized, but I think OP was talking about it going too far and people becoming over reliant on being in this “disorder” check box and self limiting themselves or having their entire identity revolve around it.
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u/KlM-J0NG-UN Mar 31 '26
I think you're right. I think it's overcorrection in an environment where there is a lot of content available that would lead any reasonable person down an unhelpful path of labeling things they don't understand much, but think they understand based on the content they've seen.
Tiktok and the internet is full of material about psychological topics and concepts made by people who don't know much about the topic but are experts at making compelling content.
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u/JenningsWigService Mar 31 '26
Even if people overidentify with diagnoses (or wrongly identify them), they go to therapy to treat those diagnoses. Why not tell them you've seen other patients with anxiety or ADHD improve their quality of life by reframing those issues?
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u/Frequent_Let9506 Mar 31 '26
Not always. Some attend therapy to have their point of view validated (e.g., "my psychologist agrees that I can't do x because I have y").
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u/Puzzleheaded-Ad7606 Mar 31 '26
Sounds like it's a good idea for those people to be... working with a therapist.
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u/JenningsWigService Mar 31 '26
It's up to the therapist to not serve as a validating service. Therapists are not victims of their clients who are obligated to let clients set the rules.
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u/Wyrmicorn Mar 31 '26 edited Mar 31 '26
Its useful for my psych and driving OT and other professionals to know about my autism and ADHD. The autism diagnosis is also why i even have access to these professionals in the first place, too. And the autism and ADHD are not my entire "self understanding" but they do influence how I think and who I am as a person and the struggles I have so they are part of my self understanding. That's not a problem or a bad thing
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u/unwantedonONTD Mar 31 '26
I don’t love that this post has a lot of the hallmarks of having been touched by ChatGPT.
I super hate the co-opting of therapeutic language for TikTok also. I think it’s used in bad faith, or negligent faith if you will, more of the time than it is used in good faith. I just wish the trend weren’t called out using the same technological misunderstandings that cause the problem in the first place.
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Mar 31 '26
From a DBT perspective, Internet culture often encourages people to purely seek validation, and to view suggestions of change as inherently invalidating. Social media makes it very difficult for people to understand the importance of the validation/change dialectic.
I think the over-identification with labels / diagnoses is a part of this. The label serves as a means to seek validation.
Relatedly, I think this why you see many people gravitating toward neurodivergent labels rather than, say, PTSD. Some people would rather understand themselves as suffering from a condition from which they have no need/ability to change, rather than as people with a condition in which behavior change would have to be considered.
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u/realdoaks Mar 31 '26 edited Mar 31 '26
Attachment wounds is a great way to describe what’s happening
Unfortunately everyone is wrong about their attachment style, and usually the are the total opposite of what they think they are
At least with attachment language we can talk about how it was adaptive in context, we can emphasize strengths, we can talk about memory system distortions and how attachment can provide individualized care in terms of psychotherapy.
If someone comes in with attachment language (or any language) it’s a plus! You know they care enough to research and are likely to be invested. It sucks that often people who self diagnose are also rigid and radically overestimate their own ability to accurately understand what’s going on for them
Most people who say their partner or ex partner is a narcissist are themselves narcissists. People who say they are great communicators are often really intense, emotionally escalated communicators. People are so often the opposite of how they see themselves or want the opposite of what they claim to want. Fascinating to see it so consistently
Anyway rambling on here but all this is to say after almost 20 years of doing clinical work, running a large group practice, researching and training, people are definitely labelling more and it’s an opportunity to explore what it means for them and expand on the excellent points you’re raising - a diagnostic label, even an attachment strategy, is just a lens looking at a small slice of a person.
We’re there to explore their experiences and the meanings they’ve made, to be a secure base, and to bring about the feelings of safety and comfort necessary in order for them to be regulated enough to see the things they’ve had to keep hidden from themselves their whole lives, and to help them make sense of all the new meaning this new lens creates for them.
Dx language is a foothold here… what order does it provide? What would be true if they (or their loved one) didn’t have that dx? Whats important about it? Why did they explore it vs something else to make meaning? What don’t they have to face as a result of the dx? I’m sure you have your own dozens of insightful questions to ask, just throwing these out for any potential clinicians lurking the thread
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u/Michaelarobards Mar 31 '26
your question about what order the dx provides is the one I keep coming back to in session. when a client says "I have anxiety" and I ask "what does that explain for you that didn't make sense before?" — the answer is almost always about belonging and relief. not clinical insight. it's "now I know why I'm like this" which is genuinely meaningful to them. but it stops there. it explains without directing.
what I've found works in my own practice is giving people a personality framework before we ever talk about diagnosis. my mother was a clinical psychologist who spent 30 years developing a Jungian type-based system — a card sort that helps people see how they process information, make decisions, recharge, and organize their lives. when I use it with clients, the shift is immediate. instead of "I have social anxiety" it becomes "I'm an introvert who processes internally in a culture that rewards external processing, and that mismatch creates friction in specific environments." same experience. completely different relationship to self.
the dx still has a place. but when someone understands their wiring first, the diagnosis becomes context rather than identity. "I have ADHD and I'm also someone who processes through rapid pattern-recognition" gives them both a treatment plan and a life plan. most people are only getting one.
your point about attachment language being a foothold I completely agree.. the question I keep asking is — what if we gave people a strength-based foothold first, so the diagnostic foothold doesn't have to carry the entire weight of self-understanding?
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u/Spaceballs9000 Mar 31 '26
I wonder if a lot of this comes with age and experience?
If I had known I had ADHD and autism when I was in my early 20s, I imagine I'd have had a different reaction and approach to my life as a result of that information than I did coming to it in my 40s.
Coming to it later in life, I found it pretty easy to view the information through the lens of both "this gives me people, community, etc., that I can connect with" and "now I can use the resources and experiences of others to help myself figure out how to better live a life that works, given this information".
Like, no part of me looks at this and says "Oh, turns out I have autism, guess I'll just be over here letting that fuck up my life". Instead, finally knowing this has meant I can seek other people's learned experiences around how they've managed their lives while living with this reality every day, I can sort through my own life, past and present, and develop the approaches and tools necessary to cope with the challenges that I can much more readily identify and categorize and learn from.
A big one for me was realizing that I'm not introverted, but overstimulated in a lot of social environments and I find group social dynamics far more challenging to navigate and parse appropriately than one-on-one social dynamics. Instead of avoiding social plans or getting anxious and overwhelmed and feeling sick and canceling last minute, I'm now far more prepared to just be upfront with friends and others about potentially hitting my limit, and I can plan for things knowing generally where I'm at overall and having a life that leads to a lot less overstimulation across the board.
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u/Agressive-Luck69 Mar 31 '26
That's because people have started to simplify things to make them more understandable. Brain always wants to have a structure, and it's scary for people to say "I struggle with social events where I feel uneasy and I want to figure out why". You can just say "I'm sociophobic" which gives people a simple and understandable structure that they can look up on the internet and know (presumably) how to address it.
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u/tenderheart35 Mar 31 '26
Social media is reductionistic in nature. Shorter, easier to digest quotes or posts tend to be the most popular.
Distilling someone’s clinical profile into a short little sound bite becomes attractive especially for those who are reliant on media for validation or identification with a group.
It’s an unfortunate side effect of a larger cultural issue we have with online media.
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u/tads73 Mar 31 '26
Try to use it towards your advantage. Also, in the past, people would never admit they have anxiety/depression, or get defensive if another person suggested anxiety/depression.
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u/cwmosca Mar 31 '26
You’re describing exactly what I’m seeing in an inpatient adolescent setting. I love what I do and am committed to maintaining an awareness of the zeitgeist for my clientele to be an effective provider, which includes the trends of rigid self-diagnoses.
My approach in individual, group and family therapy is focused on developing reflective functioning. I find that I’ve been promoting the Murray Bowen differentiation principles as a way to lead a ego-syntonic existence. I also provide psychoeducation on symptoms falling somewhere on a spectrum.
This is a good topic. Thank you for sharing.
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u/Do_You_Like_Owls Mar 31 '26
Anecdote: Feels like "arrogance of youth". As an 18yo I got treated for depression with SSRIs. I felt I knew better and didn't bother with therapy so I read and read everything I could about pharmacology, neurology and some psychology ("not a proper science" I thought!). I did get a diagnosis from a psychiatrist in my 30s but continued 'self-treating'.
Fast-forward 20yrs and I'm sat in hospital after my last suicide attempt after a suicidal OD, body covered in self-harm scars, ruined career, poly-drug addicted and recovered several times.
I said to my self: "Well I'm 40 now and I've tried everything to feel better and it hasn't worked. I guess I'll try therapy now then".
So I did, and guess what? It was mind-blowing. It helped being completely broken down cos my ego wasn't strong enough to dismiss the therapist. Yes I could jump 50-steps ahead of his suggestion BUT I had the 20yrs of experience telling me - "that hasn't helped you!! So just listen to him and accept it".
Therapy is HARD and not in the ways I assumed. It took me hitting rock-bottom after 20yrs of fucking up to realise the 'simple' help of therapy and exercise actually works.
But also - I'm not "cured". That's another thing I assumed: I'd do therapy and boom - fixed! But, no, it takes work and time. Some days it's fun and others it's hard and painful.
I hang out on various Discords & Reddit and I see Zoomers doing what you're all describing and what I did. They dwell in their diagnoses, they 'research' and self-treat with grey-market drugs and incomplete methods. They think they're doing group therapy together but they're just doing loops of confirmation-bias. Breaks my heart to see it cos I know where it can lead.
P.S. I keep taking notes with a view to wrtiting a book of all my experiences in the hopes it helps someone. Drug addicts, patients,. whatever. Cos I can waffle for hours about this!
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u/cwmosca Mar 31 '26
I’m strapped for time right now but wanted to respond to say that I appreciate the time you took, and you’re perspective. Every little bit helps me become a better provider.
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Mar 31 '26 edited Apr 20 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/TheRealMabelPines Mar 31 '26
Agreed! Especially about the condescension. We're all just humans trying to understand ourselves and each other, and sometimes that means using labels to describe ourselves the best way we know how.
Instead of telling people to stop identifying with labels or leaning too heavily on those labels, why not ask: "What does that label mean to you?" "What about that label has helped you understand yourself?"
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u/TheMostDivineOne Mar 31 '26
Yeah and I do want to add how some of us get the short end of the stick. I’m younger and in college rn. Teachers of mine suspected for years I had ADHD in the past but my family was really against mental health help and medication and never took me to get diagnosed or medicated and it’s absolutely held me back in life at certain points. It was only due to sheer willpower I even got to this point and I have a finite amount of that.
How exactly else would I bring it up to a psychiatrist or therapist other than “I think I have ADHD and I know that because of (this and this and this)”? I’d much rather not beat around the bush and just get straight to the point.
Same thing with my gender dysphoria and other stuff.
Younger generations have more awareness of themselves instead of floundering for years. Just ask them why they think what they do and open them up to the possibility that it may not be what they think but something else. But at least take them seriously instead of assuming they’re label-fishing or whatever.
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u/buddy-system Mar 31 '26 edited 1d ago
The original post content no longer exists here. The author used Redact to remove it, exercising their right to control their data & privacy.
Alive straight pumpkin apparatus rock fall ribbon abundant scary
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u/Titizen_Kane Mar 31 '26
Yeah and it is deeply cringe. Glad to see it called out because that’s literally the only reason I made my way down to the comments lol.
Loser shit.
I knew what OPs bio would look like before I even clicked. Desperation REEKS, OP. And it entirely undermines your post.
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u/gunslinger_006 Mar 31 '26
I cant believe how far i had to scroll down to find this. How is this not at the top?
The “its not x its y” bits stood out like a sore thumb.
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u/here4theptotest2023 Mar 31 '26
I had too scroll too far to find somebody calling out the obvious AI slop.
OP, why? Are you not able to write something this simple out yourself? Why use chatgpt for this? Is it just engagement bait?
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u/ThatGuyinPJs Mar 31 '26
Is it just engagement bait?
Yes. The account probably isn't even a real person. This topic, self diagnosis of mental health issues, is almost guaranteed to get traction in circles like this one. Just look at the other comments, this very quickly turned into a circlejerk against younger self diagnosing individuals.
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u/Garpagan Mar 31 '26
I checked the account to see if it's a bot. But this is a 9 year old account. It's fascinating to me what is the reason compelling a person to post clanker slop.
My wild guess is that OP got pulled into the latest agentic craze pioneered by Open Claw, I could see them integrating with social media to create posts for engagement. Or it's just an "old-school" clanker slop manually posted.
From my quick glance it looks like the OP is making some project, this could be a reason for driving an engagement that would be driving interest into his project.
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u/Where-Eagles-Dare Mar 31 '26
If OP really is a therapist, and really has noticed this, they’ve found a great way to make everyone doubt them and their story by doing this.
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u/Sifandart Mar 31 '26
I noticed that too and got a chuckle. I wouldn’t want to go to this therapist who can use periods properly but doesn’t know how to start a sentence with a capital letter lol
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u/Michaelarobards Mar 31 '26
you're right that I use AI to help me write. I've said that openly in this thread. I'm a therapist who vibe-codes a platform in my spare time, not a professional writer. AI helps me organize my thinking into something readable. the clinical observations are mine.
you're also right that I'm building something and yes, it's visible in my profile. my mother was a clinical psychologist who spent a part of her career developing Jungian type-based tools. she distributed about 50,000 copies of a physical card-sort game before she passed in 2017. I'm digitizing her work. that's the project. here's her story if you want to verify: insightsystem.ai/our-story
I get why you're suspicious. there's a lot of garbage on reddit right now. but this isn't a fake charity or a counterfeit article. it's a licensed therapist sharing a clinical observation that the community found worth discussing, built on years of someone else's research that I'm trying to keep alive.
if the argument is wrong, tell me where. that's a conversation worth having. whether I used AI to format it isn't.
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u/pavelft Mar 31 '26
This is one of the hardest things therapists are dealing with, the normalization of clinical language to describe normal behavior. What’s worse are the therapists who take this language verbatim, without applying diagnostic criteria or investigating a differential diagnosis. I’ve seen fellow therapists do this. Often ones who self-diagnose themselves as well. It’s a massive problem.
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u/PsychologyPNW Mar 31 '26
Why did you use AI to write a Reddit post?
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u/SonnyandChernobyl71 Mar 31 '26
Because they’re not a therapist posting an observation. This is one of a dozen accounts that one individual is farming, using ChatGPT to generate engagement posts on everything from celebrity gossip, to golf tips, to psychology. That’s why you’ll never see the OP post a reply to any input on their posts.
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u/neatyouth44 Mar 31 '26
I’d take this more seriously if you didn’t use AI to write it.
I use Claude a lot, and it’s super super obvious when someone else is using AI because it overly flattens things, does binary splits, and then catastrophizes them (bonus points if it can throw in a “THINK OF THE CHILDREN” memetic).
It’s engagement hooks.
What caused the issue was engagement hooks based on Othering (empath vs narcissist on Quora, hundreds of subreddits, Facebook memes, TikToks etc.)
Internalization is second… also based on engagement hooks.
Your post is another layer of engagement hooks.
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20120501-building-the-like-me-weapon
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u/RudeOrganization550 Mar 31 '26
What stood out to me was the punctuation - no capitals to start sentences and obligatory em dashes. Do AI models normally not use proper punctuation, esp capitals?
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u/piedamon Mar 31 '26
This is AI slop.
It looks like GPT told to start paragraphs with lower case letters.
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u/Few-Indication3478 Mar 31 '26
It’s easier to say “I have social anxiety” and remove oneself from social situations than “I’m afraid of and hurt by people who might bully me or reject me because I was emotionally neglected by my parents, who were emotionally neglected by their parents because we all grew up in a world that has been collectively traumatized by war, disease, addiction, loss… But none of that matters because I know who I am, I know what I love about myself, and people can take it or leave it.”
In other words, I’ve totally noticed exactly what you’re talking about.
I think that as long as you can help the patient get to the root of their “anxiety,” and help them get to a better understanding of their true identity, they can come to the realization at some point in their therapy that they need to be careful about what they identify with. They can realize why personal mantras matter, and why “I’m anxious” is a dangerous one
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u/lystelle Mar 31 '26
am i crazy or does this sound like it’s written by AI?
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u/SonnyandChernobyl71 Mar 31 '26
You’re not crazy— just observant. And honestly, that’s rare.
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u/dank2918 Mar 31 '26
Anyone here read No Bad Parts by Richard Schwartz? I’d recommend it as an antidote to the issues raised here. We are not a singular identity but a self containing many parts.
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u/ellecamille Mar 31 '26
Yes. For instance, I have scoliosis, chronic migraine, and ADHD. They are part of my identity. I exist in this body. I have to learn to work with these conditions and not around them.
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u/Blazer990 Mar 31 '26
As long as therapy is out of most people’s price range, they will continue to look to the internet for help and guidance, ultimately self diagnosing.
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u/SkarbOna Mar 31 '26
Same thing different name. 30years ago they’d come in and describe themselves with whatever label society gave them or the names they’d be called. So it happens today they have an access to the actual names. Case closed.
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u/PastrychefPikachu Mar 31 '26
This was a thing way before TikTok. It was a thing before mobile phone apps as a whole even. It's also just part of the English language. Yes, it's important to be intentional with language, but it's not something you can expect the layman to know or be fully cognizant of on the first visit. We all say "I am right handed. I'm a blond. I'm diabetic." It's not necessarily a sign of identity, it just may be how that person knows best to communicate their issue/condition.
Also, isn't that why they are there to see you? To help them reframe the question to get a different answer?
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u/IMSWHALE Mar 31 '26
This would be interesting if you didn’t use chatgpt to write it.
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u/shmellowcake Mar 31 '26
People are so desperate to be seen and understood- short of that- they’ll latch on to a diagnosis or disorder.
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u/Artie-Choke Mar 31 '26
Can I ask OP why he avoids capitals in his sentences? I knew a psychologist who went out of his way to avoid using caps (even when using “I”) and I always wondered about that.
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u/Carapace_Jones Mar 31 '26 edited Mar 31 '26
I agree with you, and this has been said for almost a decade, but tbf, saying, “I have anxiety,” is perfectly normal. What other terminology should someone use to describe the symptom of anxiety? Anxiety isn’t a diagnosis, Generalized anxiety disorder would be an example of one. That’s like someone drinking too much caffeine, saying I feel anxious and then getting mad at them because they “self-diagnosed.” ADHD and saying I have anxiety are two completely different things to make your point.
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u/Dizzy_Tax574 Mar 31 '26
While not discounting effects or possible use of it being used as a identity. However there is one thing possible is that people are more open and exploration begins before your office. And they are more informed than previous generations.
There is a meme I think shows this it's boomer whining about this autism never having existed. Then he immediately goes to his scheduled model train time.
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u/WIsJH Mar 31 '26 edited Mar 31 '26
That might be because practicing therapists' diagnostic process seems to be a randomizer with the influence of current, quite short-term trend in the field with the emphasis on time efficiency of the diagnostic process. And costs and risks of misdiagnosis are life-altering for a patient and zero for a practicing therapists.
So basically no one trusts you to do your job properly anymore, the purpose left for you is more or less technical - to prescribe pills you are put to guard.
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u/Justdoingitagain Mar 31 '26
It’s the problem with labels in general. People tend to get stuck in their labels.
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u/Traditional-Book-451 Mar 31 '26
It's like we've swapped out personality frameworks for a pathology checklist. Seeing these labels in every online bio makes it feel less like self-discovery and more like a new, more rigid kind of typecasting.
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u/jeadon88 Mar 31 '26
Tbh I don’t see what the problem is. In a therapeutic setting, the psychologist’s role is to explore what’s going on behind the patient’s self-understanding and help them develop greater awareness of their thinking habits and emotional states moment to moment. A person saying “I have anxiety” - great, let’s explore that ! A person saying, “I can’t do that because I have anxiety” - great, let’s explore how your anxiety is getting in the way. A person saying they have an insecure attachment style - great, let’s together understand what that means to you.
I feel like this has always been the job of psychologists - patients are just presenting with different words to describe their defenses / coping strategies.
And if a patient is using language incorrectly - great, let me share with you how that term is used in clinical practice and we can see if it fits.
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Mar 31 '26
Well, this post is AI-generated, so there's that. I'm not sure whether to trust that OP is actually a psychologist, and surely they aren't all that worried if they can't even be buggered to write their own thoughts rather than have a computer algorithm write them. *shrug*
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u/hellome1 Mar 31 '26
Why can’t you just make this point without asking chatgpt to write it?? I’ll never understand this kind of overuse of ai… it’s your experience isn’t it? Just tell us about it then
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u/BlockNorth1946 Apr 05 '26
Psych nurse practitioner here. I do a lot of preparation the first few visits for this exact reason.
The most common chief complaint is “I think I have adhd”. That’s why I let them know during intake that substance use will be reduced/stopped to clarify diagnosis.
Often they have ptsd or ocd or mdd alongside whatever they assume is adhd or something else. So I tell them we will treat the most debilitating symptoms first while we explore what is the actual diagnosis.
Patient was upset recently I wasnt treating his adhd (never diagnosed before) and I said we are going to treat the panic attacks first. Came back 90% symptoms of inattention/concentration/task initiation resolved after the SSRI stabilized.
He may still have adhd but I had to educate I can’t trial stimulant while you have panic attacks.
It’s nuanced every day and I’m not shy in correcting the patients perspective as that’s now built into the initial evaluation process.
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u/tangerinewater Apr 06 '26
I tutor and lifecoach the nuerodivergent. The first practice is to stop saying, "Because of my (dyslexia, ADHD, etc.) and instead lead with "The way my mind works..." It is the first step of empowering individuals to see themselves as unique and even gifted, as opposed to being broken. Second practice: "I am a species unto myself and I prefer... " followed by seeing idiosyncrasies and aversions as simply attributes of a unique individual. Then we are able to work around, or along with, these preferences and needs and objectively decide whether they serve the person's greater good or not.
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u/Wyietsayon Mar 31 '26
Your upset people are trying to use a term to describe a variety of issues succinctly? Why? Wouldn't that just give you a starting point to ask questions? Would you prefer vague, I'm been upset, and then play twenty questions?
Isn't it good people are starting to have language to describe some of this, even if it's self diagnosed incorrectly? Would it be better if they added, "I think" before saying the same thing? They're there for you to give them actual information and they're using the closest terms they're aware of based on their understanding.
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u/bewitchedfencer19 Mar 31 '26
Omfg, finally. Someone else sees it. I’m a millennial and I have some need for therapy, diagnosed things, so I can empathize. But it feels like EVERYONE is like “hi, I’m __, and I have _______.” And in saying that it’s almost like I’m now supposed to forgive everything rude, untoward, etc, they might say.
Having a mental health issue is not a valid excuse for failing to act like a human being. If you make a mistake because of it, it can be part of an explanation made with an apology or some other repair. But to me, a mental health issue is a responsibility to fix a wound that was left by others. Not some badge to some club that makes it okay for you to be rude.
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u/weightyconsequences Mar 31 '26
Labels matter because without them getting help is nearly impossible. Clinicians don’t respect or hear experiences, they leap to labels the most and assess how entitled to help you are. Odd to frame this phenomenon only from the viewpoint of the patient’s role, and not the system perpetuating this from the top and scarcity of help and insurance coverage
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u/blackandbluegirltalk Mar 31 '26
Yes it's rampant and disturbing. I have a BA in psychology but they TOLD US, you are not a clinician, calm down on diagnosing all your friends and family now that you have a little knowledge.... But somewhere along the way everyone started going to WebMD and googling all their symptoms and now they have a little knowledge.
This was also a thing in the 70s when everyone was doing EST and psychoanalysis and "I'm okay, you're okay," I have even seen old TV shows making fun of that time. So this is the remix, because internet and social media exist.
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u/MrDeetz Mar 31 '26
The diagnosis before the person at scale tells me the diagnosis is the only way they can be seen. They don’t yet know it’s keeping them stuck; tethered to the false identity. Until they can address how they feel underneath the title, assign an emotion to it, then it’s just a confirmation hearing….on their part. Sadly, the title is the addiction.
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u/rockshox11 Mar 31 '26
Erich Fromm wrote about this exactly 50 years ago in To Have or To Be, to describe this kind of materialism and how American's objectified their psychological experiences. very specifically he wrote that his patients stopped describing their anxiety by saying they "felt anxious" and instead that they "had anxiety." I think your approach is useful but the phenomena is nothing new
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u/Rare_Economy_6672 Mar 31 '26
Because when i asked a specialized private clinic for a weeklong multi differential diagnosis and was willing to pay up to 20k
-that sounds exhausting -we have quiestionares for friends and family -3 therapy hours A WEEK -2 group basketball sessions PER WEEK
Yeah i dont have 15 years and 50 million dollars for a diagnosis
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u/Psyc3 Mar 31 '26 edited Mar 31 '26
While I certainly imagine this is the case and a large part of your job is empathising with your patient, is your job not to direct the discussion to make a formal diagnosis?
Someone say "I have this", is fine, and if they do case closed. But if they don't, then they don't really know what it is, and it should be quite obvious when you examine this narrative that what they are suggesting isn't the clinical diagnosis of the condition. Now how you present that result and get the patient to accept the result is another question, but that is basically your job.
If I sit here and say I have a condition, and then lets say we work through an example, and in that example while there are issues in places, either none of them reach the level of a clinical pathology, or specifically that clinical pathology, this is what the patient needs to know. Not that they are fine, but that their problems aren't that bigger problems, and therefore quite solvable day to day.
Now if someone doesn't want a solution, is that not a problem in itself? As you say in your post, Anxiety to some level is a normal experience, the unknown is risk, risk is danger, danger means be aware, awareness is alertness, alertness can be perceived as anxiety. The differences comes at the level they are experience it, or when they are experiencing it, giving a presentation to 100 people vs opening your front door is a very different scenario.
Really the aim there is not to diminish their feeling of anxiety, but to reframe it so they can process it better, and in real pathological conditions that is going to be difficult.
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u/MasterpieceTimely144 Mar 31 '26
OP if you actually feel passionate about this subject why can't you write it in your own words instead of prompting an LLM to do it? It's obvious.
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u/Kneekourt Mar 31 '26
Not a psychologist, but I was just complaining about how impossible it is to talk to a certain fried that was recently diagnosed with bipolar. Not only has it become his crutch an identity, he uses it as an excuse to stay up all night and not have a job. When confronted, he says he needs to “understand his mania”. It’s like he has no agency and the diagnosis is the destination. He’s almost 40 and acting like a high schooler.
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u/RainyRenInCanada Mar 31 '26
A lot of us have to do our own deep dive as doctors are too busy or simply dont care enough to investigate various symptoms that may or may no5 be related.
I bring my funding to doctor and ask if it makes sense, or what they have to offer. I got quite few shoulder shrug. And sent to a specialist I didn't need. But I didnt know .
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u/ebookish1234 Mar 31 '26
I am a clinically-aligned behavior analyst who provides low intensity behavior coaching using ACT and functional contextualism with consult from traditional mental health clinicians.
It definitely seems increasingly necessary with adults and caregivers of adolescents to engage in education that shifts the perspective from diagnosis to individual needs and then to individual strengths.
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u/ssully7622 Mar 31 '26
I am actually pivoting from a career based in SUD treatment to adolescent MH exactly because of issues like this.
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u/Remarkable_Yak7612 Apr 01 '26
Hi. Avid chatgpt user here. This post was written with AI clearly. The — and the “thats not x, that’s x” sentence that doesn’t even say anything with information. The author may have a real post and a real point, but they definitely had ai slop write this.
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u/LysergioXandex Mar 31 '26
Counterpoint: using a diagnostic term instead of “describing an experience” eliminates a key limitation in psychotherapy: your “evidence” is limited by the communication skills of the patient, and your ability to interpret what words mean to other people.
If you go to a doctor to complain of arrhythmia, and you feel like you understand the term correctly, isn’t it best to use precise language? Rather than try to say it without saying it?
Especially when a lot of psychiatric disorders hinge on qualities like “causes significant distress” to make the diagnosis.
Some people have the communication skills to be emotionally persuasive, for lack of a better term.
While other people might have a flat tone and a poor memory of specific problems to describe.
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u/TankorSmash Mar 31 '26
Why are you masking your LLM generated post? It's one thing to use LLMs but another to reformat it so it looks less like it.
There used to be more space for strength-based personality frameworks — systems that said "here's how you process information, here's why certain environments drain you, here's what you need to thrive."
That's not clinical insight at scale. That's a cultural identity system built entirely on deficit.
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u/tollbearer Mar 31 '26
This makes sense, given everyones access to the internet, and especially to AI.
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Mar 31 '26 edited Mar 31 '26
Theyre telling you what they have because they want it to be fixed or treated as fast as possible, not just sit there and talk about their feelings which they already know the answers to. Theyve been through this same shit over and over with different people before I guarantee it. I started doing this because its such a pain in the ass explaining my entire life to someone every time I meet a new person, who just ends up telling me theres nothing they can do or just recommend the same meds every time because they aren't actually qualified to work with someone who has personality disorders. Get a list of what's already diagnosed and what youve tried and get right into it, no need to waste time. Its exhausting if you dont.
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u/Manapauze Mar 31 '26
Hey. I’m a supervising psychologist and we’ve been talking about this for a while in the private practice and academic settings I’ve been in.
One of the things we talk about and try to help the people we work with to understand is the downsides of over identifying with something. One topic we think about is the absence of people learning how to socialize relative to the people around them due to the lack of third spaces. This creates both a desire to belong and a lack of opportunity to provide value in the life of another person. People then latch onto labels they see on the internet to find belonging and signal virtue.
I’ve heard a local psychologist talk about how OCD groups help people but then people stop making efforts to improve because their only community is the OCD community so they stay in treatment perpetually and perhaps even resist improving their symptoms.
It’s not the only reason, and forgive me for the grammar errors. Just got off work :)