The Rise of the Self-Diagnosis Culture

Social media is increasingly filled with mental health content that feels familiar. While scrolling, you might experience that a specific post catches your attention deeply. That can be related to how difficulty in focusing connects with undiagnosed ADHD or frames how interpersonal challenges are a clear diagnostic sign of Autism. In that moment, you might feel a brief sense of relief, like finally, something seems to make sense. After you like the post, similar content begins to appear more often. You see comments from others describing the same experiences, using the same language, implying a diagnosis you might never have thought of until then. But what you’ve been going through now feels explained in a convincing way. As you continue watching, reading, and searching for more information, you may begin to draw conclusions about your symptoms and eventually start diagnosing yourself with that condition. This is called self-diagnosis. It happens when a person draws their own conclusions (specifically a diagnosis) about their symptoms. However, self-diagnosis is neither a new phenomenon nor solely based on diagnosing mental health behavior. Long before social media, people turned to the internet to search for explanations for their unexplained physical and emotional symptoms. What has changed is how quickly and frequently these explanations appear. Instead of actively searching, diagnoses now find us because of algorithms, repetition, and familiarity. In this therapy sketch, we will examine self-diagnosis behavior, why it feels so compelling, and what it may be responding to beneath the surface.

What is self-diagnosing, and why is it so popular right now?

Self-diagnosing is when a person draws a conclusion about a medical or mental health condition on their own, without a formal evaluation by a healthcare professional. This usually happens by matching personal symptoms with descriptions found through social media posts, symptom lists, quizzes, or personal stories. However, this behavior existed long before the internet, as humans have always been in need of understanding a behavior, symptom, or emotion. Books, magazines, and health guides were the resources for this research, which made information less accessible. With online sources, smartphones, social media, and now AI, health information is way faster to obtain with very little effort. People no longer needed to wait for a professional’s appointment or review a physical resource. These changes in how we obtain information also affected how we receive it. Mental health information moved from a hundred-page-long book to short, engaging content designed to feel personal and relatable. Instead of reading broadly, we began encountering repeated explanations that matched our experiences. Also, contents often present symptoms in a simplified yet emotional way. Since content becomes more explanatory on an emotional level without more confusing or frustrating details, self-diagnosing becomes more inevitable and more frequent.

Why does this happen?

There is no single explanation for why we are self-diagnosing ourselves. However, here are a few common explanations in the literature:

Popularity: On social media, certain diagnoses, traits, or explanations become a trend at specific times. When a topic is everywhere, it starts to feel more relevant and more common than it actually is. People are more likely to recognize themselves in content that is frequently repeated and widely discussed. Popularity creates familiarity, and familiarity can feel like truth. When many people describe similar experiences using the same labels, those labels begin to feel convincing even when they lack context or clinical depth.
Drawing Conclusions Too Quickly: This is a cognitive bias known as “jumping to conclusions,” in which people make judgments based on limited information. Instead of gathering more data or considering alternative explanations, our brain tends to move toward a clear answer. Unfortunately, online platforms, especially social media, use this bias very often. Short videos and posts highlight specific symptoms without exploring overlap, severity, duration, or context. When someone relates to part of that description, they may assume the full diagnosis applies to them as well.
Intolerance of Uncertainty: For many people, unclear emotional or physical experiences feel distressing. Labels may reduce uncertainty as they offer control over symptoms and predictability. Without control and predictability, people may feel threatened. It is as if the thought “I don’t know what’s happening to me” shifts to “This explains everything.” Even if that explanation is incomplete, it can feel safer than ambiguity.

Instead of moving quickly toward a conclusion shaped by popularity, limited information, or the need to feel safe, here are some questions might help you reflect on your experience:

Diagnosis or Traits?

One of the first things to ask when someone is self-diagnosing is whether they are describing an actual diagnosis or just noticing a particular trait. Although these two may look similar, they reflect very different things.

Traits are common patterns in how a person thinks, feels, or behaves. For example, getting distracted easily, needing routine, or being emotionally sensitive can be traits. These patterns may appear in certain situations, change with stress or environment, and may not cause significant harm or impairment. In many cases, they are simply part of how a person functions.

A diagnosis, on the other hand, goes beyond having certain traits. It involves the intensity, duration, and impact of these patterns on daily life. Diagnoses are not based on isolated behaviors, but on how persistent and limiting these patterns are across time and different areas of functioning.

In social media, this distinction often becomes unclear. Traits that many people experience are presented as clear diagnostic signs. As a result, normal variations in attention, mood, or behavior may begin to feel like evidence of a disorder. What was meant to describe a tendency can slowly be interpreted as a diagnosis.

Self-Diagnosing or Self-Labeling?

During this process, it can be difficult to distinguish whether a person is self-diagnosing or self-labeling. Eventhough these two seem similar, they have considerable differences. Self-diagnosing is often driven by a need to understand symptoms and make sense of confusing experiences. It usually begins as a question and leaves room for exploration.

Self-labeling, on the other hand, is more about identity. That diagnosis (whether it was made by the person themselves or a professional) starts to define how a person sees themselves. When this happens, the label starts to organize how experiences are interpreted. Emotions, behaviors, and difficulties are filtered through that diagnosis. What was meant to explain distress can begin to define it. Eventually, the label becomes a shortcut for understanding every experience, leaving little room for change.

Self-diagnosing might feel safe, but does it?

For some people, making sense of what they are experiencing can bring temporary relief. Naming a pattern or symptom may reduce uncertainty and create a feeling of clarity. However, for many others, this sense of relief does not last, as they begin to search for symptoms consistent with the diagnosis. They may begin monitoring their body and emotions more closely. Small sensations or mood changes feel more noticeable. They may start searching for health-related information online repeatedly to check their symptoms, which is called cyberchondria. Cybercondria is when you start searching for health-related information from online platforms to reduce anxiety, but it ends up getting more and more anxious about it. Cyberchondria works like a loop. Anxiety triggers the search. The search increases awareness of bodily sensations. That heightened awareness then fuels more anxiety, leading to even more searching. Over time, this pattern can strengthen anxious thinking styles, such as catastrophizing, reassurance-seeking, and difficulty tolerating uncertainty.

What to do?

It can be difficult to make sense of what we see on social media while also trying to understand what is happening in our own bodies and minds. Online content is everywhere, and it’s not always easy to separate information from interpretation. Here are some steps that you can take to:

Discovering content on social media that speaks to you can be a helpful step, but it doesn’t mean you have (or don’t have) a particular diagnosis. Think of the information you gather online as a starting point, and share it openly with your healthcare provider.
If you don’t currently have a health provider, consider reaching out to set up a connection with a primary care doctor or therapist, if it suits your needs.
Discuss your concerns and symptoms with your provider, and ask any questions necessary to ensure you feel secure.
If your provider isn’t making you feel heard or if you don’t feel comfortable sharing your concerns with your provider, it’s always okay to seek a second opinion.
If you are doing your own searching for information, make sure to only use reputable sources such as the American Psychological Association (APA) or peer-reviewed journal articles.

References:

Ryan, A., & Wilson, S. (2008). Internet healthcare: Do self-diagnosis sites do more harm than good? Expert Opinion on Drug Safety, 7(3), 227–229.
Thoits, P. A. (2016). Self-labeling processes in mental illness: The role of emotional deviance. Social Psychology Quarterly, 79(1), 23–45.
Starcevic, V., & Berle, D. (2013). Cyberchondria: Towards a better understanding of excessive health-related Internet use. Expert Review of Neurotherapeutics, 13(2), 205–213.
Armstrong, S., Osuch, E., Wammes, M., Chevalier, O., Kieffer, S., Meddaoui, M., & Rice, L. (2025). Self-diagnosis in the age of social media: A pilot study of youth entering mental health treatment for mood and anxiety disorders. Acta Psychologica, 256, 105015.
Phillips, L. (2022, March). Self-diagnosis in a digital world. Counseling Today. American Counseling Association. Retrieved from https://www.counseling.org/publications/counseling-today-magazine/article-archive/article/legacy/self-diagnosis-in-a-digital-world

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