Have you ever had disagreements with your professional about diagnosis?

[noname223]

Yeah maybe that is a touchy topic. I am convinced some mental illnesses deceive the perception and the person is unable to realize they are ill. This is especially true for people with psychosis/schizophrenia. Or often also manic people. During my first major depression I also did not know I was severely depressive. This is why education on mental illness is so important to get the best help.

When there is a discussion with a therapist and he says you are psychottic it is better to believe him. The likelihood is very high he is right. Delusional people (who are psychotic) in most cases cannot see they are wrong. It is interesting. Due to intersubjectivity we are not able to realize that. But if someone else is delusional it is often way easier to spot it. (if you have some basic knowledge)

Yeah but I wanted to talk about some other diagnosis. In my huge history in psychiatry I received a lot of diagnosis. Some were blatantly wrong. Other were debatable. Once a psychiatrist gave me a very weird personality disorder which is usually not given anymore. To be honest the bitch did not care about me. Really she did not give a single shit. I don't think she was dumb. But she was emotionally very cold. I think she just pretended that without digging deeper. The cause of my behavior was rather the fact I did not take my antipsychotic medication.

The first time I was delsusional I saw my family doctor. I told him I am scared to lose my mind. He told me that is usual when people are depressive. And he gave me fucking antidepressants during a fucking psychosis. What a fucking idiot. This is like adding fuel to fire. I became extremely psychotic due to that.

In psychiatry they once gave me one of these unspecific psychosis. They are more harmless in contrast to schizohrenia. Yeah they were wrong. I am bipolar. My first therapist also had a feeling it might be bipolar. But he did not write it in official documents. What a mistake...I went to other therapists who did not have the knowledge. They gave me a very high dosage of AD. Yeah I switched to mania. And nobody realized it. My therapist and I were all happy yes I am feeling good again. What a fucking joke. The induced mania led to my second psychosis.

Okay now to my current discussions with my current therapist. I think I am have atypical anorexia and I am convinced I have OCD. My therapist denies both. I think also because I can somewhat control it. But believe me I go nuts if I gain weight. I took 1 year a medication which slowed my metabolism down on an absurd level. I ate way less food, was hungry for like 24/7. It really was torture. I think barely anyone would have done that. The pain was immense. Moreover I am convinced my suicidality was way higher if I was not thin. I weigh myself a lot. I think a lot about my weight. I am quite obsessed by it. I also had this atypical anorexia as a suspected diagnosis. When they told me that diagnosis in the past I denied it. But now I welcome it. I absolutely don't want to change my behavior but I want that it is acknowledged. Though my therapist still denies it. I hope it is not bad that I often repeat in this forum I had atypical anorexia. For me it is so obivous and I identify with it.

The other condition is OCD. It does not fully stop me from being productive. But without it I would be way more productive. When I worked in a business. OCD and major depression destroyed everything. I was unable to make any decision it was so awkward. I was fired after a short time. But my therapist also does not acknowledge that diagnosis. I made some diagnosis tests. I think the problem is my OCD behavior is quite unusal. The questions do not really mirror my OCD behavior. I check my smartphone insane amounts of times before I turn it off, I am very obsessive in college (So that some people wonder about my weird behaivor luckily noone cares about me- but I received some feedback...), and in my head there are so many obsessive thoughts. Yeah I think the tests are wrong. I don't care how my apartment looks like for example. but I have other OCD. I am unhappy he does not acknowledge it. But in the end I should not really care about.

I also got suspected diagnosis like autism or other shit. Yeah I doubt that. Though I am not fully sure.

What is your history with diagnosis? Do you also had some disagreements?

 

[western_heart]

The problem for me was lack of even getting close to a diagnosis. I went through ~6 years of mental health treatment before trauma was mentioned by the provider, and then 4 more years until I actually talked about / got treatment for trauma. For most of that time I was unable to speak about my trauma, it wasn't until 2021 that I became able to open up & started seeing a therapist who knew what she was doing. Now I am diagnosed with PTSD.

I was diagnosed with ADD 15 years ago, which is correct. (This was after being diagnosed with depression / prescribed mania-inducing SSRIs)

Long ago I was diagnosed with bipolar 1, all because an antidepressant made me hypomanic. I never had mania without drugs as a trigger.
I got pretty upset after seeing the BP1 diagnosis online, I printed out the criteria and went through line by line and I did not meet the definition. my diagnosis was eventually changed but I continued to get bipolar treatment (medications that mostly caused harm, bad/inconsistent talk therapy). I spent years suffering in treatment, waiting for the pills to fix me while my life fell apart.

I was once referred to substance abuse treatment because I admitted to having used weed in the past six months. The therapy program would not accept me if I didn't go to meetings. I was upset as I was not a regular smoker & loudly complained to those that tried to get me to sign up for it. I did not go.

I have been diagnosed with personality disorders.. one that I don't think fits too well anymore, and then my 2nd to last therapist diagnosed me with "unspecified personality disorder". I have long been in denial about my cluster B traits, and sometimes think I have BPD.

I experience a lot of dissociation, but don't think I have been diagnosed with a dissociative disorder, my last therapist told me to find someone who specializes in them. I think I have OSDD, but it and BPD/CPTSD/DID overlap a lot.

I consider myself autistic but I have never been diagnosed, almost got referred for testing (without my knowledge) a few years back but have never discussed having autism with a professional. I relate to the experiences of other autistic adults.

When talking to my friends & partner about work, I have been describing myself as "neurodivergent". It doesn't imply any particular diagnosis and is more generic of a label over calling myself an aspie.

 

[NumbItAll]

The problem is there is not really an "official" diagnosis to be had. It is a judgment call, not something like cancer where you either have it or you don't. Also, mental conditions occur on a spectrum. I think a psychological "diagnosis" is potentially only useful as a starting point for understanding and communicating what is happening, but the labels should not be internalized too much.