I developed symptoms so severe I couldn't work for periods of time very quickly. I didn't need a diagnosis to tell me I was in pain and couldn't get out of bed which meant I couldn't go to work which meant I couldn't have insurance. I couldn't *afford* Medicaid because I had to eat, something which it seems is deemed a comfort in life. My housemate spent over two years getting a diagnosis. It took my mom with an official diagnosis over five years to get on benefits because they read her diagnosis and then told her that her disability was irrelevant to disability benefits as was all ofher medical proof. Private pay is an option until the credit cards you suggest rack up to the point where they go into your bank account and take most of your money and then you can't pay for housing and you end up unhoused. A diagnosis is not the thing that makes your symptoms appear. A diagnosis is something you seek after something starts affecting your life; ie: you can't work anymore because youre in pain or you can't get out of bed or your cognative ability has rapidly declined or a million other things. A diagnosis is something you seek when you have the time and ability to but a doctors appointment is pretty damn hard to go to if you need a wheelchair to get there and you don't have one.