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Old 03-31-2012, 02:34 PM   #27
Solumina
 
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Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Cali
Posts: 8,030
One thing that I think is helpful for people to remember is that a large number of psychological disorders are essentially extreme versions of pretty normal stuff, which is why self diagnosing is both exceedingly prevalent and pretty silly (although if you are seriously concerned that something is wrong it is absolutely okay to go to a therapist and say "I think I have ____" and they will use that as a starting point, just actually go to a psychologist or other specialist in the field and not a GP as it really is outside their scope of practice). For example: just about everyone who reads the criteria for OCD think that they have it because most of the behaviors are extremely common, like constantly worrying if you remembered to lock the door, having a certain way of doing things, or whatever and they don't have a good way to gauge whether or not their own habits are beyond the normal range because they only have their own experiences to go on, a psychologist does have the knowledge base to determine if something really is cause for concern.

Also remember that not all psychological disorders are something to worry about, many of them just mean that you do not operate like a normal person but that doesn't mean that the way you function is wrong, bad, or inferior.
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