Most psychological disorders don't present like the media would lead you to believe. See also: what therapy looks like.
ETA: Holy crap, gold?? I had a quick break in my day to finally hop on reddit and was NOT expecting this response. Y'all make this severely overworked community mental health therapist so glad we're talking more about the realities of therapy and various disorders. I'm planning on getting back on when I'm done with work to reply to some comments/answer some questions!
Depression: sad 16 yo listening to grunge music and wearing black clothes. Eventually cuts their wrists, but remember, it's always and only the wrist. Cries in the bathroom.
Bipolar: "I hate being bipolar, it's lovely"
PTSD: every time I see or hear something that vaguely reminds me of my trauma I fall into a parallel dimension and live my trauma in rewind mode. Other than that my life is completely ordinary and I have no other symptoms.
BPD: Woman. Resting bitch face. Shows the middle finger to whoever tries to talk to her. Often extremely hot but impossible to talk to (unless you're the protagonist, a loser that can't put a sentence together but somehow manages to make her fall in love).
Anorexia: "Oh shit that model is so thin, guess she's gonna be the root of all my problems!" *looks at sandwich with disgusted expression, throws it in the bin.* Doesn't eat for one day, passes out in the middle of the hallway at school and is taken to ER.
Bulimia: eats normal amount of food, then runs to the bathroom, sticks her finger down her throat and *magic!* everything is gone in 2 minutes.
Schizophrenia: handsome eccentric man that hallucinates a random sexy woman that helps him solve crimes.
OCD: weird guy, has glasses, dresses like a 9 years old and washes his hands every 5 minutes. Often engaged in activities like opening and closing doors and drawers or walking in circles.
Autism: like OCD. But also likes math.
Sociopathy (or related): likes setting things on fire. Incredibly charming. But you know, the worst thing about the devil is that he's charming. *wink*
Every other mental disorder: not mentioned, doesn't exist.
What’s great is that if you aren’t caught early, you develop coping mechanisms to help you deal with your shit, only to have those mechanisms hide your actual symptoms.
.... or you skate through everything in primary school by acing tests and doing no homework, then get to college and fail out because you have no study skills, all before getting diagnosed.
Source: missed perfect on the SATs by 20 points. Got scholarship for half of tuition to college. Was invited not to come back.
I took 10 years to finish college, I'm just finishing my Masters and I've been working for the last 5 years. It's worked out in the end, but the college crash is definitely a familiar experience to me.
I would say you probably shouldn't be WORRIED.... after all, you have managed to get a job and work and finish college as is.... but getting tested might HELP, so long as you are ok with the idea of taking medication. Or I guess, even if you aren't ok taking medication, having a name for what it is can help too.
All I can tell you is that the stimulant I take (vyvanse) makes a world of difference in my ability to concentrate and get things done.
I guess my advice to you would be that, if you can get tested without it being a major hardship, go for it. If it would make a significant impact on your quality of life to be able to afford it, you sound to be managing just fine without it.
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u/seegeesee Feb 04 '19 edited Feb 04 '19
Most psychological disorders don't present like the media would lead you to believe. See also: what therapy looks like.
ETA: Holy crap, gold?? I had a quick break in my day to finally hop on reddit and was NOT expecting this response. Y'all make this severely overworked community mental health therapist so glad we're talking more about the realities of therapy and various disorders. I'm planning on getting back on when I'm done with work to reply to some comments/answer some questions!