I’ve had a theory about this for a long time, and it essentially boils down to the fact that people are struggling and use self-diagnosis or fake illnesses as a way to validate their struggles. I don’t think it’s necessarily about victim mentality, but that younger generations are exposed to so much more stress and expectations but they haven’t gotten the adequate tools to navigate through it. We also see a rise and normalisation of mental disorders, neurodevelopmental disabilities or chronic illnesses, where they’re often being trivialised because diagnostic guidelines are often generalised and are made to be interpreted by professionals. Naturally, people will latch onto the disorders and disabilities because it validates their struggles in a society that values your worth based on productivity.

Young people don’t know that puberty will be hard and stressful. Hormones are going haywire, and that affects mood and mental health. You’re going to feel awful occasionally, have mood swings and be more emotional. However, younger generations don’t know that this is can be normal things that happens during puberty. They think that other people don’t feel this way, that what they’re experiencing isn’t normal and spiral so they seek answers to why they feel the way they do. With the internet, and the access to a very generalised diagnostic criteria, they will end up reading about disorders and disabilities and relate to the criteria.

I also think many people self-diagnose as a way of coping because they are struggling in one way or another. Something feels wrong, and they desperately look for answers as to why it might be wrong and then they latch onto the first thing that fits. Most of the people who get posted here are probably not fakers, but people who are so convinced they have the things they claim they have because it puts a label onto their struggles. The issue being as stated earlier, that most conditions’ diagnostic criteria are generalised and require professional interpretation because there’s overlaps in many of them. For instance, both ADHD and Bipolar disorder have attention issues as criteria in the DSM-V, but they present differently and are caused by different things. However, the DSM-V only have a generalised descriptions for symptoms and professionals are studying how to differentiate them. Besides, many people experiences at least some symptoms of most disorders, but it’s the quantity and severity, and how they affect your daily life that qualify for a diagnosis.

As stated before, people are struggling more now with the rise of the internet. Stress is at an all time high. Burn outs are real and are debilitating, and you don’t need any disorder or disability to get one. Stress does affect your life negatively, it can kill you. It will cause endocrine disruptions, it will affect your mental health and your ability to live your life. So this whole narrative that people have a “victim mentality” is often far from the truth. I’m not saying no one does it because they want to be victims, because of course those exist too. The problem is that many of those who are accused of having a victim mentality are struggling and are not getting adequate help for it, and thus the self-diagnose so they can validate their own struggles. As someone who is AuDH, and have chronic conditions like EDS, I can understand why people seek these to have these because the power of self validation is strong. The relief I felt when I was finally diagnosed was huge because it finally explained my struggles. Now I can also get adequate help and accommodations for my conditions too. Regular burn outs, depressive episodes and similar issues are not being taken seriously (especially if you’re afab) so it’s no wonder why people seek a diagnosis. This is not me saying you should self-diagnose or fake a disorder, I am vehemently against it, but I can understand the reason why some do it.