Self-Diagnosing Mental Health: Sources and Outcomes to the Physical, Cognitive, Social and Emotional Well-being of Education and Psychology Students in Private College

This study determines how college students are starting to self-diagnose their own mental health issues and focuses on its sources and perceived outcomes across physical, cognitive, emotional, and social domains. The researcher used a descriptive and exploratory approach, with a 30-item questionnaire called the Self-Diagnosing Mental Health Scale (SDMHS) to 197 Education and Psychology students at a private college. During the diagnosis of mental health, students tend to rely more on their personal experiences with mental health (X=3.52) and psychology / scientific information learned (X=3.88). Symptoms such as sleep disturbance (X=3.14), lack of concentration (X=3.26), and exhaustion with stress or being drained or distressed (X=3.48) were clearly identified through self-diagnosis. In addition, there were some positive effects observed among students, including a greater capacity for empathy (X=3.42) and an increased ability to grasp other people's perspectives (X=3.36). The study suggests that self-diagnosis can have both beneficial and harmful outcomes. Moreover, the research emphasizes that it is important to improve mental health education, give better context to psychological knowledge, and encourage working with professionals to make sure that self-diagnosis leads to positive results instead of harmful ones.