No I think it exists but we certainly don't have the knowledge to properly diagnose it and, by proxy, random Joes certainly do not have the capacity to diagnose themselves.

This is why even doctors go to other doctors to get diagnosed. You're opening yourself up to a world of bias if you try and self-diagnose your medical problems. All of a sudden, you have an answer to your 'tiredness'--depression! Been emotional recently? Bipolar disorder!

It's funny because Reddit loves to talk about how doctors give away pain killers but don't think anti-depressants are in the same territory.

And for all I know, clinical depression might not exist. ADHD might not exist. We don't have a good enough understanding of our brains to understand why things happen to it. So we typically just 'out' any 'abnormal behavior' as the result of mental disorder when humans are infinitely complex creatures that might be doing things for multiple reasons.

ADHD diagnoses are a complete joke, in my book. A kid acts like a kid and some parent who thinks their kid is some sort of idiot because he can't focus on boring subjects/topics. Even now, ADHD is laughed at by people who regularly take drugs that are intended for ADHD patients. Is there a real and objective symptom of ADHD? Kids will be kids, how do we know that one kid 'acting up' isn't explained by genetic/environmental factors that might differentiate him from another kid?

The best way to diagnose this would be to have a literal twin copy of someone. Observe their behavior--these two individuals are genetically identical in almost every way possible. Does 1 kid have statistically significant amounts of outbursts and moments of inattentiveness over the other?

And even if he did, how are we to say that this isn't the outcome of genetics? Couldn't we technically say all deviance from normal behavior can be explained by genetic/environmental factors? Then what is mental illness? It's not simply just a 'deviance from the norm' it's 'deviance from the norm that can't be explained by normal genetics and environmental factors'. That is, it's behavior that CAN'T be explained by genetic (maybe the father has genetics that give him characteristics that are typical of an ADHD patient) or environmental (bad parents who don't keep their children in line/discipline them properly).

My point isn't to discredit the possibility of mental illness. My point is that we barely know anything about mental illness yet we have a huge populace who is self-diagnosing themselves based on words from WebMD rather than the educated facts and consideration of medical professionals. This is a problem. Especially considering the placebo effect, who knows whose mental illness is real and whose isn't?

We can't tell because, for all we know, this entire group of self-diagnosed depressed people are all depressed because they told us so and that's basically what amounts to mental depression these days. A feeling of something being wrong/abnormal is now a diagnosis of a real medical problem.

Obviously as a citizen of the 21st century, I am aware that just because something isn't readily identifiable/observable that it could still potentially be real. But, on the contrary, as a citizen of the 21st century, it should be our duty to remain skeptical about things we do not yet observe and seek objective methods to determine the existence of something. Sadly, a personal testimony does not amount to an objective scientific method.

My ultimate point is that people need to stop being hypochondriacs and pretending like their entire being is fucked up from head-to-toe just because life comes crashing down on them or because life dealt them a shitty hand. Just because your life is shitty does not mean there is a reason to believe you have a mental illness. I've seen far too many people casually diagnose themselves as depressed because they just broke up with the love of their life, they defaulted on loans, or something else trivial (in the grand scheme of things). If you truly have a basis for your belief, then you should seek objective, unbiased methods to determine the truthfulness of that claim. Otherwise, you're engaging in a self-fulfilling prophecy to find an 'answer' for all your problems.