In this day and age, when doctors are expensive and Google has an answer to every question, the temptation for people to draw their own conclusions about their mental health is strong.

And redditor throwRAdzc said his brother’s girlfriend gave in to it. In a post on the subreddit ‘Relationship Advice,’ the man explained that he and his wife recently discovered the woman impersonating their 3-year-old daughter.

Turns out, she’s convinced she has dissociative identity disorder (DID), and that the little girl is one of her alter egos.

This man just learned his brother’s girlfriend believes her alter ego is his 3-year-old daughter

Image credits: Demkat (not the actual photo)

And he doesn’t know what to make of it

Image credits: SHVETS production (not the actual photo)

He and his wife no longer allow the woman around their family

Image credits: Alena Darmel (not the actual photo)

Image credits: throwRAdzc

As his post went viral, the man issued an update on the situation

Image credits: SHVETS production (not the actual photo)

Image credits: throwRAdzc (not the actual photo)

And later, another one that sounds really creepy

Image credits: Skitterphoto (not the actual photo)

Image credits: throwRAdzc

Self-diagnosing with a mental illness is dangerous

Dissociative identity disorder is, indeed, associated with overwhelming experiences, traumatic events, and/or abuse that occurred in childhood.

Symptoms of DID (criteria for diagnosis) include:

• The existence of two or more distinct identities (or personality states). The distinct identities are accompanied by changes in behavior, memory, and thinking. The signs and symptoms may be observed by others or reported by the individual;
• Ongoing gaps in memory about everyday events, personal information, and/or past traumatic events;
• The symptoms cause significant distress or problems in social, occupational, or other areas of functioning.

However, just ticking a few boxes isn’t enough to say you have the disorder, thinks Srini Pillay, M.D., who has completed 17 years of nationally funded brain imaging research and is a member of the by-invitation-only Group for Advancement of Psychiatry, an American professional organization of psychiatrists dedicated to shaping psychiatric thinking, public programs, and clinical practice in mental health.

“When you self-diagnose, you are essentially assuming that you know the subtleties that diagnosis constitutes. This can be very dangerous, as people who assume that they can surmise what is going on with themselves may miss the nuances of diagnosis,” Pillay writes.

For example, people with mood swings often think that they have manic-depressive illness or bipolar disorder, but mood swings are a symptom that can be a part of many different clinical scenarios, with borderline personality disorder and major depression being two examples of other diagnoses. And professionals see more than you.

“The clinician can help you discern whether you swing from normal to down or down to up, and by considering how long the mood swings last, the clinician can make the appropriate diagnosis,” Pillay explains.

“One of the greatest dangers of self-diagnosis in psychological syndromes is that you may miss a medical disease that masquerades as a psychiatric syndrome,” the doctor adds. “Thus, if you have panic disorder, you may miss the diagnosis of hyperthyroidism or an irregular heartbeat.”

“Even more serious is the fact that some brain tumors may present with changes in personality or psychosis or even depression. If you assume you have depression and treat it with an over-the-counter preparation, you may completely miss a medical syndrome. Even if you do not want conventional treatment for depression, you may want conventional treatment for a brain tumor.”

We can know and see ourselves, but sometimes, we still need a mirror to get a clearer picture. The doctor is that mirror.

We can only guess what intentions the woman had when approaching OP’s daughter when she was with her nanny, but her actions seem alarming and hopefully, that was the last time he had heard from her.

Image credits: cottonbro studio (not the actual photo)

People who read his story believe the parents had every right to protect their kids from her

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