←back to thread

Nobody has a personality anymore: we are products with labels

(www.freyaindia.co.uk)
540 points drankl | 9 comments | 06 Jul 25 22:16 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source | bottom
Show context
parpfish ◴[07 Jul 25 01:05 UTC] No.44485690[source]▶
Decades ago in my first abnormal psych course, the prof warned us that there was an almost iron-clad law that students will immediately start self diagnosing themselves with “weak” versions of every disorder we learn about. In my years since then, it has absolutely held true and now is supercharged by a whole industry of TikTok self-diagnoses.

But there are a few things we can learn from this:

- if you give people the chance to place a label on themselves that makes them feel unique, they’ll take it.

- if you give people the chance to place a label on themselves to give a name/form to a problem, they’ll take it.

- most mental disorders are an issue of degree and not something qualitatively different from a typical experience. People should use this to gain greater empathy for those who struggle.

replies(21): >>44485765 #>>44485973 #>>44486164 #>>44486176 #>>44486614 #>>44486756 #>>44486800 #>>44486816 #>>44486909 #>>44487348 #>>44487570 #>>44487609 #>>44487864 #>>44488239 #>>44488655 #>>44488855 #>>44489328 #>>44490389 #>>44490808 #>>44508689 #>>44518726 #
Aurornis ◴[07 Jul 25 01:52 UTC] No.44485973[source]▶
> - if you give people the chance to place a label on themselves to give a name/form to a problem, they’ll take it.

This one is widespread among the young people I’ve worked with recently. It’s remarkable how I can identify the current TikTok self diagnosis trends without ever watching TikTok.

There’s a widespread belief that once you put a label on a problem, other people are not allowed to criticize you for it. Many young people lean into this and label everything as a defensive tactic.

A while ago, one of the trends was “time blindness”. People who were chronically late, missed meetings, or failed to manage their time would see TikToks about “time blindness” as if it was a medical condition, and self-diagnose as having that.

It was bizarre to suddenly have people missing scheduled events and then casually informing me that they had time blindness, as if that made it okay. Once they had a label for a condition, they felt like they had a license to escape accountability.

The most frustrating part was that the people who self-diagnosed as having “time blindness” universally got worse at being on time. Once they had transformed the personal problem into a labeled condition, they didn’t feel as obligated to do anything about it.

replies(14): >>44486240 #>>44486241 #>>44486436 #>>44486445 #>>44487322 #>>44487357 #>>44488250 #>>44488642 #>>44488820 #>>44489621 #>>44490106 #>>44491410 #>>44506265 #>>44521780 #
Walf ◴[07 Jul 25 03:20 UTC] No.44486445[source]▶
I'm sure there are those who self-diagnose without really suffering from a condition, but you do realise time blindness is a real issue, right?

https://www.simplypsychology.org/adhd-time-blindness.html

I don't watch TikTok videos, I don't use Instagram, but I have been plagued by these symptoms my entire life, and don't really care about others opinions on it. You probably don't have it if those symptoms don't resonate with you, but there are plenty of people who genuinely struggle, and there's likely some overlap with those who have undiagnosed ADHD.

replies(8): >>44486486 #>>44486555 #>>44486670 #>>44486940 #>>44487051 #>>44487058 #>>44487616 #>>44488692 #
nomdep ◴[07 Jul 25 04:07 UTC] No.44486670[source]▶
If you know you have time blindness and you still arrive late it is worse, because you knew it will happen and did nothing to prevent it
replies(1): >>44486835 #
Walf ◴[07 Jul 25 04:44 UTC] No.44486835[source]▶
Sorry, but you clearly have no idea what it's like to actually deal with this, at all. If I try to be on time to things, I will be stupidly early, or still think I have time to do tasks A & B before doing C, because they invariably take more or less time than I estimate. Or I start doing tasks X & Y, because I'm easily distracted, you know because it's a deficit in attention. Don't trivialise what you don't understand.

Your advice is as ignorant as saying 'just do more fun things' to someone with depression.

replies(5): >>44487025 #>>44487358 #>>44487531 #>>44487702 #>>44487965 #
1. osn9363739 ◴[07 Jul 25 05:24 UTC] No.44487025[source]▶
You have to do something about it though. You either come up with strategies to work with the condition or what? Just give up?
replies(1): >>44487094 #
2. osn9363739 ◴[07 Jul 25 05:43 UTC] No.44487134[source]▶
So you agree with nomdep? If you know you have time blindness it's a good opportunity to do something about it. I tend to choose the be really early option because that works for me. But it can be stressful for sure. And I probably don't get as much done as someone that can organise their time better. That's just the way it goes.
replies(1): >>44487184 #
3. Walf ◴[07 Jul 25 05:54 UTC] No.44487184{3}[source]▶
False dichotomy. You can both take measures to address an issue you have, and still know that won't always solve the problem. Being really early sometimes is the only option, but if you're always doing it, regardless of how critical it is, you're wasting a huge amount of waking life.
replies(1): >>44487715 #
4. nradov ◴[07 Jul 25 07:45 UTC] No.44487715{4}[source]▶
Everyone wastes a huge amount of waking life on something, whether it's sitting around waiting for an event to start or watching TV or scrolling social media. So what.
replies(1): >>44487832 #
5. Walf ◴[07 Jul 25 08:05 UTC] No.44487832{5}[source]▶
Some of us have families to take care of, and shit to do. I guess that's not you.
replies(1): >>44488278 #
6. nradov ◴[07 Jul 25 09:12 UTC] No.44488278{6}[source]▶
Lol. I actually spend a lot of time taking care of my family, and plenty of other shit to do besides.
replies(1): >>44503034 #
7. sjsdaiuasgdia ◴[07 Jul 25 11:17 UTC] No.44489036[source]▶
I think part of why time blindness / chronic lateness gets such visceral responses is that the behavior is a broken promise generator. The impact feels very personal.

Continuing with the walking stick metaphor...it'd be like if the person with the walking stick was frequently committing to go jogging, hiking, etc with others. They know the activity might be beyond their capabilities, but they keep saying they'll go on the difficult hiking trail or whatever. This impacts the plan for everyone else.

Saying you'll be somewhere at a particular time is a commitment to someone else. If you're making commitments and frequently breaking them, people will react badly to that.

Having had a number of chronically late people pass through my life, I've often heard "be there in a second", "I'm on my way", "5 minutes, max" and similar phrases once the person is late. What I rarely hear is proactive acknowledgement and ownership of the issue.

The commitments you make as a chronically late person need to include your chronic lateness as a factor, just as the mobility limited person should take their limitations into account before signing up for the group hike.

replies(1): >>44502924 #
8. Walf ◴[08 Jul 25 18:58 UTC] No.44502924{3}[source]▶
That's a good assessment, but it misses the fact that the person with the effective dysfunction genuinely believes they will 'be there in a second', because they cannot accurately assess time. The lack of forthcoming contrition is not difficult to explain, shame discourages people from drawing attention to their faults. If it's happening frequently, one would always be feeling 'faulty'. Aversion to that is expected.
9. Walf ◴[08 Jul 25 19:10 UTC] No.44503034{7}[source]▶
So, knowing how much time and effort is required to maintain such responsibilities, you think someone with a similar situation, but who also has trouble being organised in general, has extra time to twiddle their thumbs for half an hour or something, before every single obligation with a time attached, just to be sure they don't get distracted? Do you have any comprehension of how ridiculous that sounds? If you're less capable of completing tasks you need more time than a typical person to do so, not less. They don't give students with ADHD less time in exams to ensure they can break task and put their pens down on time.

Still pushing those preconceptions, eh? Is this how you approach everything you could learn from? Assume you know all the answers before actually studying? Your teacup is full.