Telling my family about having MD

[Nadia]

Hello everyone,

I have decided recently that I want to tell my family about MD and that I have it. An issue that I have is that my parents are very sceptical people and they believe that many younger people such as me misdiagnose ourselves with conditions such as Anxiety and Depression. I want them to be able to take seriously MD and acknowledge that I have it. I am also concerned that they will not accept that I have MD as they will see it as a condition developed from someone being poorly parented when they are not bad parents (and often like to remind me).

How can I start this conversation and back it up with enough evidence so that they see MD is real and that I have it?

Thanks for any suggestions!

[Fishno7]

The above post gives you some insightful suggestions, but I would like to say that it is very hard to avoid talking about the content at all. As long as you start to argue about the difference and explain why you are having exactly MDD instead of other things, you would unintentionally/intentionally bring up contents as backups or evidence, which would end up being super confusing for the conversation.

In this case, it is not a good idea to insist on your standpoint even if you know you are right. Instead, you can try to seek a therapist directly by telling them "let's professional determine what issue I have". They are good parents, so I guess they would not reject this, and if you are able to convince your therapist, the conversation will be successful. Be careful of choosing your therapist though, some therapist are really helpful and kind, but it is possible that some would reject your claim and not caring enough to convince you entirely with their reasons.

If you are not ready for therapists, then the only way is to really just ask them for help same as the post above. Your target is to solve your own issue, and while gaining complete understanding from your parents would likely help, is not a must. In this case, you may take a step-by-step approach, and as long as they care about you, they may slowly accept your claim and start the investigation themselves, which may end up much better than you throwing everything at their face from the start.

[Matt]

I’d be interested in hearing how it goes. I want to do the same thing but don’t really have the courage to do it yet.