Self-Diagnosis

One of the most interesting things about the writing and communication on the Patients Like Me website is the amount of self-diagnosis vs. diagnosis that goes on when referring to the self. People fill in heir conditions and condition histories, sure - when they were diagnosed with this or that, etc. But what's more interesting is when they fill in the diseases they THINK they have or know they have without ever being diagnosed.

There's definitely room for some question here because you never know - it could be that they don't remember when they were diagnosed, or they don't actually think they have it but they want to have search results for patients that have it (maybe a family member has Rheumatoid Arthritis but they don't, or Type 2 Diabetes). This suggests that people have really taken officialese and their health into their own hands, just like the public has taken music and journalism into their own hands. Here's an example of someone who diagnosed themselves with Bipolar Type II as well as a slew of other issues that are undiagnosed by a doctor: