[colechristensen]

I've seen this plenty of times, young people almost boasting about their diagnosis like the old upper class used to be proud of gout

Some health care professionals are becoming hesitant to talk about diagnoses because it hurts the patient when they start identifying with the diagnosis it makes the condition worse when the patient starts to act more like the diagnosed condition because that's how they're supposed to act

[Nursie]

There was an opinion piece in The Guardian a few years ago expounding the idea that 'awareness' and particularly the medicalisation of minor cases of things like anxiety and depression may be counterproductive, may lead more people to sink into these conditions rather than battle through and pull themselves out of them - https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jun/24/medica...

And it's interesting to me that we now have the UK government talking about providing mental health support to try to foster grit and self-reliance - https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/may/16/much-needed-...

[Tijdreiziger]

Whether I’m still young depends on your definition of that word, but I’m proud of my autism diagnosis, because it gave me the vocabulary to explain what I had always felt and the ability to find tools to improve my life.

I used to be dismissed as lazy, and I simply had to live with my apparent moral failure. Man, I tried so much self-improvement advice, and none of it worked.

Now I know that this is not the case, that there’s nothing wrong with me, and I found a huge community of like-minded people. Turns out there are quite a lot of self-improvement tools for autistic people, and they actually work.

(I believe many ADHDers feel the same way about their diagnosis.)

[ddingus]

Very interesting!

I am likely to have ADHD. Was never diagnosed as a youth because I never allowed it. Seriously! Growing up during the late 70's and 80's was a weird time for these things.

My mistrust in all of that came from watching friends get diagnosed then medicated. Then most of those people kind of shut down. Some presented very differently, generally not in a good way, as far as I was concerned.

A few personas I loved just got medicated away.

So... nope. Not gonna happen. I threw up a barrier that took well into maybe my late 30's to come down.

I had decided very young that I was in charge of who I was, nobody else and was fairly aware of all that during formative years. My trust was literally zero on that front, unless knowing someone would, in my eyes, be good for me.

From there, I identified with who I thought were pretty great people and the rest got the Okie Dokie, next treatment.

These days seem different for sure.

I knew damn well I was not neurotypical, a word that did not appear for many years ahead of my own struggles, and frankly that had to be OK, because I needed to be OK to exist as me. Who were others to say otherwise?

Today, seems like we live in a more permissive society than we did before. I do know my own perception is keen for having managed my own struggles. I can reach others and help. No meds needed, just real trust and the right experiences.

Sometimes meds are needed too. I feel they are used in lazy ways too often. Other means should be first.

And my beef with the meds boils down to how effective the right experiences can be.

Kid has anger management issues?

Medicate!

Or.. maybe put then into a wrestling club and see them mello right out and become a great, fairly tolerant person.

Both can work well, and both can go badly too.

It mostly boils down to how the humans in charge of debugging and empowering the young humans handle problems and the tools they use.

IMHO people reached for the meds far too often back then.

Maybe we are now too permissive, not doing enough to tease out the best in people, coping instead.

What I like most in your take is you are self aware and have others like you to build on.

I did not. Or, I did, but finding them and experiencing what you are was a lot harder, due to how less connected everyone was back then.

What I did was seek good mentors. Found them and came up OK, and capable. You appear to be getting after the same thing.

Good!

It all starts with self acceptance and awareness. From there, many who achieve those things can build on that and live a fine life.

I bet you do. Thanks for sharing a little perspective. It is high value.