Dr. Katzenstein continues:
Welcome to Emotional Wellness Daily, a project of SIMHA, the Sephardic Initiative for Mental Health Awareness.
As we have a daily WhatsApp about mental health, it is important for us to realize that one cannot and should not diagnose oneself based on a WhatsApp message, Instagram quote, or TikTok video.
This phenomenon is proliferating throughout society; folks are self-diagnosing medical issues, and certainly mental health issues with less than reputable sources.
If you are experiencing a significant amount of psychological distress, or if you're functioning in everyday life is currently impaired, it is vital that you seek professional help for it.
Do not do what most people do nowadays, unfortunately, which is Google something in order to discern exactly what they are struggling with. In the age of technology, it seems like we've all become experts on things that we're not really experts on.
I was at a doctor recently and he had a great sign behind his desk, which said, “Your Google search is not a replacement for my many years in medical school.” This is particularly true for mental health, where we don't have blood tests, or MRIs to tell us exactly what we’re struggling with. One needs to find a professional who is equipped to recognize different signs, but also the subtleties and nuances that you may be unaware of yourself.
As a matter of fact, the way I explain this to my clients is, the only person in this world that you cannot observe is yourself. We think we know ourselves better than anybody else, and there's some truth to that, to an extent, but there's also a part of us that we cannot see, that’s impossible for us to see, and only somebody objective can see it.
And when talking about something as serious as mental health, it is vital; not just recommended or encouraged, but absolutely vital to seek a professional opinion. For a multitude of reasons people often don't seek treatment or help when they're struggling emotionally or mentally. Some of the factors are lack of awareness or education, social stigma, high cost, and limited access or options. They feel a sense of Where do I even turn to? I don't even know if I have an issue.
And to answer ‘Where do I turn to,’ people seem to be comfortable with just looking on the internet and deciding, “Oh okay, this is what I have,” and then they talk about it as if this is a professional diagnosis,
“Oh, I'm OCD…. I'm ADHD….”
Not only are we short-changing ourselves by not seeking out professional help, but we're also minimizing the struggle that people who actually do have some of these mental health issues experience on a daily basis.