How can you deal with young people’s self-diagnoses?

Self-diagnoses: the advantages and disadvantages

Self-diagnoses via social media have advantages and disadvantages. Research shows that young people sometimes find videos about self-diagnosis helpful because they feel less alone in the problems they experience. They can also find tips on how to deal with problems and are more likely to seek help. But young people can also be triggered unnecessarily or become insecure because of such videos. This is especially the case when they think they recognize problems and consequently begin to identify with a disorder.

What can you do as a professional when young people self-diagnose?

1 Be curious without judging

It can be quite a challenge to talk to a young person who has given themselves a self-diagnosis. Especially if you think that the self-diagnosis is incorrect. This can disrupt the therapeutic relationship and sometimes even make guidance or treatment more difficult.

It is best to take both the young person and the self-diagnosis seriously. It is important to be curious and not to prejudge the young person. For example, ask why the young person thinks that they have a particular mental disorder. Which symptoms do they recognize in themselves? Why is it important to this young person to put this label on it? You can use this information to understand what is going on in the young person’s life and which symptoms are most disruptive for them.

This does not mean that you accept the self-diagnosis, but that you do accept the young person, as well as their symptoms and their reasons for applying a label. Research among professionals also shows that therapy is better received as a result. It also creates space for the young person to learn to understand and discuss their symptoms with the professional in a well-considered way.

2 Help them find a balance

Young people often do not want to or cannot stop using social media altogether. But they are often open to learning how to use social media in ways that benefit their mental health. It is therefore important for them to find a balance in dealing with self-diagnosis videos, and to learn which videos are helpful and which are not. Research shows that it can take a long time before young people are able to recognize helpful videos.

It helps if someone watches along with them, such as a parent or professional. You can then discuss together what you see: Is the information correct? Who made it? How does the young person feel after watching this video? Why does this video create such a feeling, while another video causes a different feeling? In this way, you can discover together at which moments which videos are helpful or, on the contrary, not helpful.

You can also discuss together how a young person can become more resilient to misinformation. For example, by checking information with an adult or with reliable sources on the internet, such as injebol.nl.

Here too, it is important to be curious and not to judge. This ensures that young people do not feel that you disapprove of them or of their use of social media.