TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Psychologists raise red flag over rising self-diagnosed depression
Psychologists have raised concerns over self-diagnoses of depression, urging people to seek help and a proper diagnosis from a professional.
Change Size
According to Tara de Thouar, a clinical psychologist from Sanatorium Dharmawangsa, a psychiatric hospital in South Jakarta, turning to the internet to learn more about one’s health or illness was normal, but making a self-diagnosis and believing in that diagnosis was another thing.
(Shutterstock/Marekuliasz)
A
fter resigning from a toxic workplace last year, Emilia (not her real name) found herself in one of the lowest points of her life; she was jobless, broke and lonely.
For months she isolated herself in her stuffy bedroom in a rooming house in West Jakarta. She turned off her smartphone to limit contact with other people.
The only time she left her room was to pick up the food she had ordered from a delivery person.
“I am not suicidal, but I do feel sad, tired and pathetic all the time. I cry a lot, I blame myself a lot for everything that happened to me. It is frustrating,” the 34-years-old told The Jakarta Post recently.
Emilia knew something was wrong and that what was happening to her was not healthy. So, like most people, she reached out to the one source that she believed would give her the answer: the internet.
“I Googled my condition and I found a quiz to score my mental health. It said I suffer from depression,” Emilia said.
The self-diagnosis made her feeling even sadder and weaker.
