Oh god. Can we not do this? "Think you may have"?
Truth is, we all have symptoms of serious mental illnesses. Anyone fits into the description of schizophrenia at least a little. But there's a very fine line between having something like that and just having all the symptoms. As it is, a lot of people get diagnosed, or just have problems that cant all be put into one diagnosis. We dont need more people diagnosing themselves.
Take Asperger's. I've lost count of how many escapists have said they have it. Yet, by some statistics, about 2-3 per 1000 actually get diagnosed with Aspergers every year. (It's also, as someone pointed out already, the most common wrongly given diagnosis in the USA) I find it very hard to believe that so many are on the escapist. Now, I am sure that some of our fellow escapists actually have Aspergers, and I do not wish to upset them. I know that Asperger's is a terrifying thing, and has a huge impact on one's life. It is rather the people self-diagnosing themselves that I am speaking to: DONT.
Most of us have problems with social interactions at some point in our lives. But it might just be shyness. It might just be that you have poor self-confidence, like I had when I was terrified of speaking to anyone in high school. It doesnt mean you have Aspergers.
Same thing goes for disliking changes in routine, or knowing a whole lot about a certain subject. You might just be interested in it.
This is just an example. Bipolar disorder is also far too uncommon to be found in every other escapist. The only thing I can think of that seems a lot of people here might suffer from is depression. Because it's incredibly common. But still, "I feel depressed" is often the actual problem, not "I suffer from major depression".
Im going to sound like a hypocrite now, but Im going to use myself as an example for mental illnesses and diagnoses, because it's a pretty good example of how difficlut it is to diagnose someone. I have been diagnosed with OCD. Now, the most common case of OCD is actually being obsessed with something. Washing your hands, having things in a certain order, etc. I dont have any big problems with any of those; I have a problem with thoughts. (To be fair, I do variations of that thing you do, OP, but it's about my body, how I move and things like that. Sometimes, I feel ill when I think of large projects, numbers or something like that. Im not completely sure what it is that triggers it. But I dont count this to my OCD. As you can see, tons of people here do little things like that. It doesnt mean youre sick.) At one time, I was certain people could read my mind, and so I always thought something nice about someone whenever I saw them.
Mind you, it's developed and gotten a bit better. Now, I just have certain thought patterns regarding certain things. It's hard to explain, but it basically forces me to have periods of depression and mania. Sounds familiar? Yes, that's the definition of Bipolar Disorder, or, in my case, Cyclothymia. My psychiatrist agreed that I have the same problems someone with Cyclothymia has, but still could only diagnose me with OCD. This is the kind of problem that diagnoses always bring with them: I might act like a cyclothymiac, but it's my OCD that's making me? See, I cant understand it either.
Now, Im not saying it's interesting to discuss or think about mental illnesses and ourselves. I myself am fascinated by it, too. But we shouldnt apply diagnoses to ourselves like this thread almost encourages us to do. As I said, we all have symptoms of everything, basically.
I want to end this by just saying to everyone that you are strong. You can overcome your problems. And we all have problems, mental disorders or not. But to you who suffer from illnesses worse than mine or worse than most others, I feel for you, and I love you, and I wish you the best.
