Does everybody get diagnosed anymore?

[EveHarrington]

Twitter is huge.

You were specifically looking for PTSD stuff, so I’m guessing you typed a ptsd related term into the search function?

Why would you be surprised that you got hits with people talking about their ptsd? Isn’t that directly related to what you were searching for?

I mean wouldn’t it be the same if you searched for “citrus fruits” and then were shocked at how many people talked about loving oranges?

 

[Gs172003]

Twitter is huge.

You were specifically looking for PTSD stuff, so I’m guessing you typed a ptsd related term into the search function?

Why would you be surprised that you got hits with people talking about their ptsd? Isn’t that directly related to what you were searching for?

I mean wouldn’t it be the same if you searched for “citrus fruits” and then were shocked at how many people talked about loving oranges?

I just simply typed PTSD. I got very few resources but alot of people shouting it from the rooftops.

 

[Ronin]

Mind you speak English though, & were looking for English resources.

Try other languages & areas (even where it is taken as a diagnostic category) & you get different results, much less people talking about it. It is maybe over diagnosed.... but that is *the States* typical. Not everywhere else, even globally.

 

[Gs172003]

Mind you speak English though, & were looking for English resources.

Try other languages & areas (even where it is taken as a diagnostic category) & you get different results, much less people talking about it. It is maybe over diagnosed.... but that is *the States* typical. Not everywhere else, even globally.

Yeah I guess I should say "here". I don't know what it's like elsewhere.

 

[EveHarrington]

I just simply typed PTSD. I got very few resources but alot of people shouting it from the rooftops.

I don’t think Twitter is the place for finding resources. It’s mainly a place where people talk about themselves and their opinions.

 

[Gs172003]

I don’t think Twitter is the place for finding resources. It’s mainly a place where people talk about themselves and their opinions.

Probably not. I'm fairly new to it.

 

[siniang]

Lotta Christians in churches*

Meaning if you’re looking for PTSD resources? You’ll find most people in/around those resources also have PTSD or are associated with people who do.

* It’s a ‘bad science’ reference for how to conduct studies/surveys that’s taught in pretty much every research 101 ever. Whether scientific or political or mathematic. If you’re trying to figure out how many people in population are Christian? It’s a good idea NOT to collect your data in churches. Because it will skew your results. (According to our data? 99.9% of the world is Christian! Ummm. No. No it isn’t.) That’s where the vaccine/autism scare came from. The researchers included a school for autistic kids. Which massively skewed the results; the entire study was failed in the peer review process because of that, but the media had already jumped on it. If they’d been studying toothpaste? The results would have read that toothpaste causes autism.

Scientifically, this. Also, observation bias. If you're interested in a topic, you're more likely to consciously notice references on said topic, while subconsciously ignoring everything else, making it appear more prevalent.

Seriously over diagnosed. ;)

Bold statement.

Self-diagnosis aside, you're implying that some people who fit the symptoms do have PTSD, while others, even with the symptoms, actually don't?

Going back in time with the very old and very original, veteran-related, diagnostic criteria, I wonder how many here in the forum would not have been diagnosed...I'd be careful with such statements, really.

Did anyone consider that instead of over-diagnosis it could be an increasing awareness of mental health problems and decreasing stigma, and more people actually seeking treatment (and getting diagnosed as a result) than in the past?

 

[Gs172003]

"Did anyone consider that instead of over-diagnosis it could be an increasing awareness of mental health problems and decreasing stigma, and more people actually seeking treatment (and getting diagnosed as a result) than in the past"

I have wondered that too. PTSD hasn't been around that long as a diagnosis. Maybe we are just learning more about it?

Sorry my phone is aggravating and I can't figure out how to only qoute one part of your statement @siniang.

 

[lostforgottensoul]

I believe it is certianly over diagnosed and a lot more are self diagnosing (that don't fit the criteria) but also there seems to be more trauma occuring today. I don't know about globally or even things like the generations before me but it seems that there are more 20 somethings coming out of abusive childhoods then when I was a 20 something. Or, it could be more are talking about it as the stigmas lessen too.

 

[TheTwinlessTwin]

Bold statement.

Self-diagnosis aside, you're implying that some people who fit the symptoms do have PTSD, while others, even with the symptoms, actually don't?

That seems a bit rude seeing as how you yourself are implying so much from a friendly opinion of "I think it is overdiagnosed ?" and then calling it bold because of what you attached to their words? You are making it bold.

Believe it or not some people will show symptoms of PTSD and not have PTSD. Acute Stress Disorder is exactly the same except for duration and magnitude. How about substance abuse? Bipolar disorder? The difficulty of differential diagnosis and self-diagnosis are the reasons why many of us have the opinion of it being overdiagnosed.

The ICD says anything must occur in two separate settings. The DSM also specifys that it must not be more readily attributed to another organic disease or better classified as another mental disorder. It also has to be bad enough to impair the individual.

 

[Justmehere]

I went on Twitter And was looking for more resources.

People tweet about themselves. This is true for all of Twitter. Because it’s Twitter. There are over 500 million tweets a day. Put in the search term “diabetes” and one will get responses of people stating they have diabetes.

Does that mean diabetes is over diagnosed? I don’t know how one would go from one to the other. It’s like looking for a hundred needles in a haystack, the search engine finds them, then lamenting the search engine found what you asked it to find. I wouldn’t draw any big conclusions based on 1 twitter search finding what you requested out of 500 over million tweets a day.

Maybe try looking elsewhere for resources.

 

[Ronin]

Maybe try looking elsewhere for resources.

That, or take what is useful out of Twitter, too.

As with every social media also plenty professionals & organizations on the platform / something that can come handy, not just personal notes.