MANILA, Philippines — Social media used to be just a space to share updates with friends. Now, people are using it as an authority for medical advice and psychological diagnoses.

With the pandemic putting a spotlight on mental health, information on the topic is now everywhere. Today, everyone has access to different resources on mental health, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

But in a country where access to professional help remains limited, many of today’s youth are turning to the easier, cheaper alternative: self-diagnosing using social media.

What is a professional diagnosis?

Dr. Dinah Nadera, a psychiatrist practicing public mental health and head of the mental health flagship of the Ateneo School of Medicine and Public Health, shared that a “diagnosis” is a medical term —something that only licensed doctors can provide.

Generally, getting a diagnosis starts with a lot of history-taking and self-administered questionnaires for screening. “Many times, [by the] first encounter, you’re able to diagnose. But don’t be surprised if on the second or third encounter…new information comes up. And then, the diagnosis also evolves,” Nadera told Rappler.

In clinical practice, a diagnosis is often based on a patient’s history over time, leading to a lengthy process that can lead to changing results.

In her experience, many patients who come to her for a consultation have an idea about their condition based on what they’ve read and seen online.

“Young people who are more politically liberal. They are more open and accepting of disabilities, so that actually increases the possibility of a self-diagnosis,” she shared, adding that the pandemic contributed to this global awareness.

While this increased literacy has led more people to seek professional health, there are still those who are hindered by different factors, whether due to the stigma associated with mental health issues or the lack of social support.

As a result, they turn to self-diagnosing and self-managing. For Nadera, self-management is not always appropriate management.

Doing your own research

Belle*, 21 years old, was in her second year of college when she started showing symptoms that made her concerned about her mental health.

“It really became harder during a certain time in college… [like] it really felt incapacitating, the emotions I was feeling. Like, I couldn’t shake it off,” she told Rappler.

One night, unable to control her crying, she started to realize that her intense emotions might be more than going through a rough patch. This was when she started to pay more attention to her mental health.

Unfortunately, she did not have the facilities to seek professional help. “Nahihiya din ako sa bayad like kada consult…. I didn’t have my own money, and I didn’t want to burden my parents,” she shared.

(I’m also on the fence about the cost per consultation. I didn’t have my own money, and I didn’t want to burden my parents.)

Nadera offers a rate of P500 for every consultation. While cheaper than others, the waiting time for a slot can take months, and these only cater to people within UP Diliman.

She said that consultations in private practice can range from P1,500 to P5,000, and even more for additional psychological tests.

In Belle’s case, due to financial constraints, she turned to free resources: doing her own research.

“I even used AI and stuff. I talked to like ChatGPT a lot. And then I would tell ChatGPT or Gemini my symptoms,” she shared. Social media platforms like Twitter and TikTok also opened her up to other people’s experiences, allowing her to relate them to her own and learn the terminology she could research.

From what her research showed, she started to get the idea that she may have bipolar and borderline personality disorder. “I kind of just made an educated guess that I may have it. I wasn’t completely sure, but at least I knew what I may have had.”

Steps of self-treatment

Belle knew that while her “self-diagnosis” may not be completely accurate, she could use it as a starting point for coping with her overwhelming emotions. That meant practicing being more mindful, trying to keep her emotions as leveled as possible, and doing guided meditation.

While these techniques were helpful at times, she still couldn’t avoid feelings of helplessness. Having an idea of what her condition may be did not stop her from having a difficult school year and summer, one that she described as a really low point of her life.

More than not being properly treated for it, Nadera shared that relying on your own research may also lead to a misdiagnosis. “The bad thing about self-diagnosis is if you are too self-aware or you have too high of mental health literacy, the ordinary psychological distress might be overinterpreted as a mental disorder,” she said.

Apart from this, people who self-diagnose might focus solely on the symptoms they are currently experiencing, failing to take into account their life history and past events that could contribute to these emotions.

However, while Nadera believes that self-diagnosing alone is not ideal, asking for the patient’s input when doing a consultation remains important.

“For me, professionals need to be open and non-judgmental if a person comes with a self-diagnosis,” she said, emphasizing the need to take this into account and correct wrong information whenever possible.

Ultimately, she believes that the online resources on mental health should lead people to become aware of the common symptoms of a mental health condition and recognize if they are experiencing it.

“And because you experience these common presentations of a mental health condition, that should prompt you to get assessed,” Nadera said.

The path to a professional

It was in her third year of college when Belle learned about the Philippine General Hospital’s (PGH) free psychiatric consultations and had the chance to see a professional. When she reached out in August, she was told that she could get an appointment by October.

Despite the months-long wait, it brought her a sense of relief. “I started feeling that this is not something I needed to solve on my own anymore,” Belle said.

After four hours at PGH of waiting, interviewing, and testing, her doctor gave her a preliminary diagnosis that she had been waiting over a year for — it was plausible that she had bipolar and borderline personality disorder.

“Iba talaga ‘yung kapag sinabi talaga sa ’yo ng doktor kaysa (It’s really a different feeling when your doctor tells you compared to) when you do your own self-research. I feel like I just opened an entire chapter of my life that I didn’t expect there would be,” Belle said.

Upon her doctor’s advice, she is taking lithium, which is helping her stabilize her moods. She finds them helpful in dealing with her emotions so far, and shared the sense of security she gets in being treated by a medical doctor.

While seeking professional help after self-researching remains ideal, Nadera recognized the barriers that hinder this. “Matagal ang pila sa isang mental health professional (There’s a long line for a mental health professional),” she said.

As such, while access to a formal diagnosis may be a long wait, she emphasized the need for individuals to navigate reliable resources for coping that can help address the issues that bother or disable them.

While the unfortunate reality is that a diagnosis is not always accessible, access to information and reliable resources for coping can be useful in attempting to deal with one’s symptoms. — Rappler.com

Alyana Fabella is a Rappler intern studying Bachelor of Arts in Communication at the Ateneo de Manila University.