Diagnosis

[Rachie]

Shortly after I was registered at my doctors surgery I told my doctor that I'd been having flashbacks and stuff but there wasn't much he could do bc I was still in the registration process and then I didn't have many flashbacks fir a while so I didn't talk to him about it again but they've been quite bad recently so I made a doctors appointment and told the doctor I'd been feeling low and having flashbacks again and he talked about the medication I was on and about wanting to get my thyroid levels checked out again and about counselling
But he never mentioned ptsd
I just want to know if I have ptsd or not.

I know some people don't find diagnosis helpful but I feel like one could help me

 

[RecoveryGuy]

Are you going to start the counselling? Usually a PTSD diagnosis does not come until after several sessions with a counselor who can diagnose.

 

[Rachie]

Ooh, I didn't know that
Thank you

 

[Mee]

Are you going to start the counselling? Usually a PTSD diagnosis does not come until after several sessions with a counselor who can diagnose.

This depends on where you are in the world. In some places a counsellor or therapist cannot legally diagnose.

Eg- in uk I was diagnosed by my GP .

 

[Rachie]

This depends on where you are in the world. In some places a counsellor or therapist cannot legally diagnose.

Eg- in uk I was diagnosed by my GP .

I'm from Northern Ireland

 

[Mee]

I'm from Northern Ireland

I am not familiar with any protocol in NI, I’m sorry. I would suggest a visit to GP who may then want to refer you to a mental health team or might make a diagnosis or at least can tell you what the system would be.

Having a diagnosis might make some services available under NHS- who knows? It’s worth seeing :)

 

[Friday]

Quite a few different psychological disorders & medical conditions come with flashbacks... and part of the differential diagnostic process is ruling out other sources or causes; like hormonal imbalance (thyroid is an especially common one, in women), and head injury.

It’s only an unethical idiot who would diagnose any psychological disorder without ruling out medical conditions, first.

It doesn’t mean a person can’t have both, but by dx’ing and treating the underlying medical condition? It allows you to dx & treat the psychological disorder in its pure form. Rather than condition X being made a thousand times worse (or weird) by condition Y. Especially when condition Y? Usually has an easy fix. Most medical conditions do.

Like someone dying of thirst? May be hallucinating. If they’re still hallucinating after being given water? Then you’ve got more things to sort. But it’s fairly pointless to refuse to give them water... whilst you treat the 50 things that can cause hallucinations. ;)