Psych Majors: Do you 'diagnose' your friends?

Question

If yes:
Either voluntary or involuntarily and why, please

I'm not a psych major myself, I'm only a high school senior who has taken a psychology class and I have had other experiences in dealing with psychology that I would rather not mention... but I find myself thinking about my friends and wondering why they act like they do, or about other people in my school who act out.

Just wondering what your thoughts were from an educated perspective, oh and people who have degrees in psychology definetly count too.

I never tell my friends my suspicions or whatever about them... I keep everything to myself, I just have a curious, analytical personality... which is definetly more of a curse than a gift.

Answer 1

the first thing any abnormal psych professor will tell you is that we all have symptoms of mental illness...however, it only becomes a mental illness if the symptoms interfere in your daily functioning. what that means is, for example, we are all sad at times, but that doesnt mean we are all depressed. the symptoms need to interfere in your ability to eat, sleep, go to work, interact with others, etc before it becomes depression. so be careful about diagnosing others.

Answer 2

When I first started taking psych courses in college I thought I had every disorder I was hearing about! "Medical Student Syndrome is a true somatoform disorder that refers to a student (typically a med/psych student) reads about different illnesses/disorders and believes that they have them. That phase passes quickly and you begin to learn about psych, not diagnose people.

I never did diagnose my friends, but sometimes Ill think things like "that is very OCD behavior" or "If I didn't know him I would think he is..."
But I never take these thoughts to heart, it is more for humor purposes. Though I do not diagnose my friends, I am the person that they go to for their problems and I know I am a good person to talk to. Psychology is not really about helping "crazy" people or diagnosing mental disorders... how I look at it is that it is helping people by looking at a situation or problem from different perspectives "outside the box", and then find the most logical solution.

The problem about being the person that everyone talks to is that when I need advice, it is difficult to find someone who can give me just as sound and truthful advice. Ironically, I found that person to be one of my professors from college.

MY last note- I did graduate with a psych degree with a minor is sociology. I highly recommend that route if you are going to peruse psychology. Psych looks at the individual and how the mind and a persons behavior is is influenced by the self and if motivations for beahiors are in their control... sociology examines how people are effected by forces that are beyond their control. A fascinating compliment to each other.

Answer 3

Nope, it's unethical to truthfully diagnose. Most of the time, abnormality is a debatable topic, therefore it's difficult to diagnose. In fact, ' true diagnosing' can only be legitimately done by a licensed psychologist/pyschiatrst. Obviously, you would know that from your class.

Understandably now, you meant 'diagnosing' in a social sense. But this can also cause discomfort as well as the concept of the 'experimenter's effect', where your subjects, or friends, are constantly being watched and modifying their behaviors.

There are several trains of thought. First, don't even think about it. Secondly, you can make cautious suggestions to modify behavior.

Just don't make your educational life and personal life so intertwined based on one class. After all, it's only psychology. And hey, if you choose to go study it, all power to ye

Answer 4

It's called a psych student's "medical student syndrome." It's been done a lot here on these forums. And YES, I tend to do it too, though I always bear in mind that I could be wrong and there are cases that aren't as dire or as simple as the books might show.

There's some wisdom in keeping your observations to yourself because they might be right, in which case someone could get angry with you for making them face a reality they're not ready to face, or you could be wrong, in which case people would just be angry at you or think you're silly.

There's nothing wrong with forming theories about people that can be potentially used for someone's benefit (his/her own or yours!). Just keep in mind to take note of your own biases (like confirmation bias, the tendency to seek and pay attention to information that only supports your beliefs) and base your opinions on real behaviors. I always make it a point of educating myself first about a subject before I blurt something about it. The job of real psychological diagnosis belongs to a qualified psychologist.

Answer 5

See yet another psychiatrist. putting you on the anti-depressant to the point you're a zombie is a fashion to maintain you on a mind freeze so that you at the prompt are not operating your self up. that's not an fairly undesirable ingredient in any respect.

Answer 6

no, because there are big differences between a personal therapeutic relationship and a friendship. Just look at the legal/ethical issues about dual relationships. when one is trained to be a health care provider they have the ability to provide corrective experiences and also if not careful the ability to manipulate, and cause great harm. that is why dual relationships (friendships with clients, outside the therapeutic relationship) are punishable by law

Answer 7

I have a psych degree and YES, I definitely diagnose my friends/family. And when they annoy me I share their diagnosis with them LOL