Mental illnesses, like depression and anxiety, and neurological disorders, like Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) and autism, are all things that are diagnosed by a medical professional. No different than physical illnesses, like cancer or Multiple Sclerosis. But lately, there is a surge in people self-diagnosing.

I’ll admit I found it weird and off-putting. Sometimes it would even make me really mad. My immediate suspicion any time I saw it was that the person just wanted another excuse to self-victimize, gain privilege points, or excuse their own bad behaviour. And, let’s be honest, some people definitely are, because not everyone is a good person–you can usually tell by how many times they jump into a Twitter argument with, “as someone who has (insert diagnosis here),” and then proceed to type some terribly condescending opinion.

But, like a normal person with the ability to grow and learn, I’ve changed my mind. And here’s why:

Not everyone has access to a diagnosis. It’s unfortunate, and I wish it weren’t the case, but it’s true. For an example, let’s look at an adult ADHD diagnosis. First off, allow me to disclose that I am not a doctor. If I was, I wouldn’t be writing articles for minimum wage. So, I’m not 100 per cent sure how it works. I only know what I’ve heard and experienced, and that points to the process of receiving a diagnosis as being costly (in the thousands of dollars by some accounts) and/or time consuming. Coupled with our province’s shortage of doctors, it’s clear that being diagnosed with ADHD as an adult is a privilege.

But while disorders like that do need to be diagnosed to receive treatment, people can generally recognize symptoms in themselves. After all, if you’re going to a doctor as an adult to ask for an evaluation for any kind of illness or disorder, you obviously have some notion that you may, in fact, have it. If you’re 25 years old, and you realize you’ve never been able to focus on your work, or meet deadlines, or stay organized, despite your best efforts, yeah, maybe you’ve got ADHD. If you do have that suspicion, there are definitely things that can help you that don’t require a diagnosis, per se. Things like accommodations at work or school to help you succeed, or access to support groups to talk about your problems with people who understand what you’re going through. If you want to access those types of support systems without being diagnosed by a doctor (or even just tweet about your experiences to a sympathetic audience), I say go for it.

Life can really suck. And if diagnosing yourself with autism or ADHD or anxiety can make life just a little bit easier, then I’m happy for you. Do whatever you need to do.

Will some people take advantage? Absolutely. Will some people weaponize their self-diagnosis and use it to be an a*shole? Obviously. But I just don’t really care anymore. It doesn’t really affect me, or anyone else for that matter. Some people might argue that they’re taking up space in communities they don’t truly belong to, but let’s be real: most of this is happening online, and the cesspool formally known as Twitter is not running out of space…unfortunately. There is room for everyone and gatekeeping is bad.

When it comes to issues like this, I would much rather that everyone gets help who asks for it, (even if some are going to abuse it) than only helping those with an official diagnosis, letting some people fall through the cracks who really do need it.