Hi there! I have a stepdaughter who is 17 who self-diagnoses constantly. She’s always saying she’s certain she’s ADD, gluten intolerant, lactose intolerant, has a stomach ulcer, has PCOS, has autism, has OCD (which, thinking about all of this is the only one I think might be worth looking into…), has gastroparesis, has DID, has anxiety, has Tourette’s; these are just the ones I remember. She’s very serious and while not scared or nervous, she checks things off a list and swears she has each of these things at any point in time. Not all at once, but singularly at different times. Her dad indulges this behavior instead of kind of giving her a level head about it and kindly being like “honey, do you, in all honesty, think that you have ALL of these things?” Or “can we talk about this?” Or putting her in therapy. He kind of says “oh, you think you have that?” and sometimes “hmm, maybe.” But later he will be like “no, I don’t think she has that. But I don’t want to be mean.” I feel like it’s doing her a disservice bc I think I think she needs real help. I want to be helpful but frankly, I’m exhausted of the certainly that she has these truly serious issues with absolutely no signs of any of them, with the exception of anxiety and possibly OCD which I do think we should seek professional opinion on. Any advice on how to help or at least stay sane?
