Self Diagnosis Is Not An Option

[missd84]

Brat17, you are right on in your posts! I was first "diagnosed" by my counselor, who was a social worker with many years of experience. I had been seeing her originally for other issues and in the midst of my therapy, I was raped. I had endured domestic violence from an alcoholic husband, divorce, and rape all within a year and a half. When she saw that things were actually getting worse for me, she got out her DSM manual and asked me the questions and recommended I go to a psychiatrist. At first, I didn't want to because I felt out of control. Why was I suffering so terribly for what someone else did to me against my will? Why couldn't I cope? I told myself I was fine until I ended up in the hospital for panic attacks. Six weeks later, I was able to see a psychiatrist who made the official diagnosis...but it was my therapist who really diagnosed me because I had a closer relationship with her and she saw the signs. She was very professional and with 2 people diagnosing me, I know this is my problem...not to say that I couldn't have any other disorders that are co-morbid with it but I prefer not to have another label stuck on me.

Rain, I also have felt this way about mental illness being a degrading label. People, especially here in the US, don't realize how many people honestly have suffered from mental illness at one time or another. It's a silent disease. I know I don't like to admit it to people because I am afraid of what they will think or they will just deem me "another crazy bitch." I'm trying to find acceptance in myself about the trauma I have endured and the consequential PTSD. From reading other people's posts, I have hope that one day that will happen. However, it seems so far off that I can't even imagine it either. PTSD definitely has changed my entire mindset, as far as thinking about the future goes. I'm just trying to survive each day, much less plan very far out in advance.

 

[mamachick]

Miss84 I am so glad that you had a good professional available when this happened. Often the delays in treatment can make things even worse. Also, for some who have been given a lesser diagnosis than ptsd originally, it is for your own protection. You can add, but never take away a diagnosis. Therefore, if a person comes in and are going through a divorce , change in school, or work problems etc, they may be diagnosed as "adjustment disorder" which is the least possible diagnosis. As more information is presented, other diagnosis may be added-such as a mood disorder. This is necessary in order to warrent medication such as for anxiety or depressing or bi-polar.

I do not mean to be pessimistic and this is off the topic of self diagnosis, but professional diagnosis. Whatever diagnosis is recorded will stay with us forever. In the event that something happens, those records can be supeoned-such as custody suits. I had dpression following a brain injury. Since this was part of my claim, the defense has the right to all records. An old record showed that my mother was depressed and alcoholic. Now the defense can say that you would have become depressed even if they were not negligent in causing this accident. It make the difference in deciding to settle or pursue. Just as one expert will say the cause is the injury, the opposition will hire an expert to report that it is hereditary. They will dig up all family history and use it against a plaintiff even though it has little or nothing to do with circumstances. I can attest that one with ptsd does not need this kind of unnecessary stress. Sorry but it is the harsh reality.

 

[Girl3]

Because of the shame and guilt involved with how many of us get PTSD, we are more likely to get an appropriate diagnosis with a therapist we trust - trust takes time to build. You don't get trust with 10 minutes once a month. Trust requires actually telling someone what happened to you. You won't tell someone those terrible dark details that you meet in a flurry, not making eye contact, or looking at his watch.

 

[mamachick]

rain I also wanted to say that without a doubt learning the terminology can help us articulate what we are trying to describe. Someone can zone out and it can be dissociation but can also be seizures. I feel like I should have understood what flashbacks are, I did not until this site. The term is referring to emotional flashbacks. In my mind, I associated flashbacks with a visual hallucination that occurs after a substance such as LSD is out of the system, (think I learned in early college drug class and was never described in terms of ptsd or I missed it. )Since I do not have that, I did not consider it.. Once I discovered the real meaning, I was able to affirm.

 

[Srain]

I can see why those with prior diagnosis that have followed them and especially those in the military would be hesitant in today's climate would be reluctant to other than to self-diagnose.

I have to say that I have had no other choice than to live with this diagnosis since a very young age and watch both my retired military brothers, who taunted me with derogatory names, decide long ago this was not the direction for them. I use to listen to my ex talk about how he had panic attacks but how that wasn't 'crazy' like me ???? just panic from having smoked pot and drinking too much...his files somehow having escaped the MI diagnosis so his Military record stayed clean...:speechless:...beats me. I guess child abuse and the way it effected me falls under the 'crazy' category but his alcoholism, abuse, and panic attacks does not...his diagnosis!

The dangers of Self-Diagnosis..because this guy never owned up to what his real issues were, and refused therapy when I went.

 

[anthony]

Also because psychology and mental illness has only recently come into the light, there is still a lot of misdiagnosis. Especially women who get misdiagnosed with BPD for example when they are actually suffering from PTSD.

Whilst I agree with everything else you wrote in your post, I question the above.

Psychology, psychiatry and mental illness is not new, not even close... the disorders discussed have been around for decades.

BPD and PTSD don't even come close to looking the same for mis-diagnostic purpose.

When childhood trauma is present, especially complex trauma, then PTSD + BPD would be within the correct sphere.

Misdiagnosis comes primarily from several factors:

• Lack of diagnostic experience,
• Greed and laziness.
• The client doesn't answer truthfully, hence time can change a diagnosis / provide a more accurate one.

There are more factors... though those three are right up the top and cover broad specific types.

Some are cut and dry cases... military normally fall into cut and dry because a known history is present to the treating physician through documented history that military use, both performance, attitude, deployments, etc. This type of history just isn't present within civilian populations.

People lie, they dismiss things, they use denial, they downgrade severity and lots of other factors when being assessed for mental health, usually because most people before being diagnosed have the A-typical mentality that they don't have anything wrong with them and aren't mentally ill.

There is a study posted on one of the wiki pages I remember writing, that I used within the page, and it contained a study of intentionally fooling professionals for diagnostic purposes to discover misdiagnostic results.

It ranged from 100% fooled, with a professional giving every person the diagnosis, even though every person was coaxed and lied to obtain the diagnosis, to highly experienced clinicians only being fooled by 10% of the actors.

A good majority of therapists are not psychologist or psychiatrists, so normally they will talk with the treating therapist about their non-clinical assessment in order to help them obtain clinical observations... as we all know, getting in with a psychiatrist for hourly sessions every week just isn't reality, and they rely heavily on therapist notes. But any therapist, outside psychologist and psychiatrist, should not be diagnosing mental illness. I know the mental health industry is becoming lazy, and even GP's are diagnosing patients with mental health issues, which is way outside their qualifications, even prescribing mental health medications without any mental health expert advice.

 

[mamachick]

Anthony, I have a high regard for your opinion. I have learned a lot from what you have said and links to information that you have provided. Some information that you have shared has led me to challenge my own thoughts and change my opinion on things at times. I do know that GP's in my area are treating anxiety and depression a lot, which means they are diagnosing it as you say, as without a diagnosis, the insurance would not allow. I also think there is a huge problem with this because people are getting medicated when they feel uncomfortable or when they feel grief. We need to feel uncomfortable and we need to grieve at times. I think we are relying to heavily on medication when things could be changed or survived without it. The medication changes brain chemistry just as mental illness changes brain chemistry. We do live in a society where we want a pill to correct what we dont like instead of making the changes that would take more effort on our own. Im not sure if mental health professionals are getting lazy or it is all of our society-you may be absolutely right.

I have found that you are very knowledgable about ptsd and would guess that you could likely give or rule out a diagnosis on potential ptsd patients. I have also found you quite knowledgable about other diagnosis in general that have been discussed here. I am going on re-call as I am not sure where to look, but I have read many things you have posted and am under the belief that you are pursuing your own profession in trauma? Are you a psychiatrist or psychologist? It is obvious that you are educated and knowledgable and I am interested in what your own background is. I do plead ignorance in mental health systems out of the U.S. but Im interested as things are sure not working great here in the U.S.

 

[anthony]

I am studying counseling... Though have studied everything trauma and it's immediate surrounding for about 6 years now.

Whilst I do think at times about post-grad psychology as it's only 12 months addition to counseling, psychology is more based on psycho-analytical approach, which is not helpful for PTSD and usually more damaging... Hence counseling being more therapeutic approach, hands on helping to resolve and remove issues, not analyze and treat with medication.

MD's are doing the same thing here... Treating mental health as a general doctor, which whilst they can, they aren't really the best qualified to treat such issues... As you said yourself, they opt more towards pharmacotherapy than psychotherapy, being much better as an initial treatment option for the client.

 

[jka37]

Anthony, the psycho-analytic approach, is that the same as "psychodynamic"? Because I did that for three years through my school, and once I graduated my PTSD hit me like mad...I think them making me so aware of my emotions dug up all my trauma without any help as to how to deal with it.

Is that how it's harmful, or is it another way?

 

[mamachick]

Anthony you are obviously very dedicated to mental health and helping others, and obviously very knowledgable. I am not sure why you would think that you as a counselor would not be qualified to diagnose ptsd in others.

Since last post I did google psychologist and counselor in Australia. One govt. site gave preference to psychologist and wiki describes - because counselors are not government regulated so clients face task of evaluating counselors credentials. Very different than here. Each state has own requirements for each profession but are similiar. For counselors-to get in to a program, must have bachelor/ apx 140 hrs in psychology field and pass test. Then in program, it use to be 48 hrs and some states may still be but most are 60 graduate hours. Then pass state licensing exam. Then work under direct supervision 3000 or so hours over at least 2 yrs. The you have a license and can pay your bi-annual fee and complete those CEU requirements. You can absolutely not practice without this license.

Im not sure which is preferable. Since you do not have the govt. regs, you have the benefit of focusing on your area of interest Basically, here in acadamia, there is not room for much choice as you must meet the requirements. When you specialize in an area (ptsd) word gets around. Its interesting as I have never really thought about the variation of norms, terms etc

 

[Anna]

Whilst I agree with everything else you wrote in your post, I question the above.

Psychology, psychiatry and mental illness is not new, not even close... the disorders discussed have been around for decades.

I guess I did not make it clear in my post properly. The joy of text and forums :) What I meant is that compared to medicine, psychology is a very new science. They are still discovering new things every day. What I meant is that psychology is fairly new compared to physics, chemistry, medicine etc. There is still a lot about the brain, neurology and human behaviour that we do not understand. I was referring to centuries rather than decades so was a misunderstanding.

What I meant about diagnosis is that in males and females due to biological differences and stereotypes misdiagnosis can be common. I agree what you say about the patient not necessarily telling the truth or hiding things etc... Depression for example is not often properly diagnosed for men, and aspergers is not always seen in girls. Sometimes the symptoms can be different. My post did not really bring this across correctly, but this is what I meant.

I also studied psychology to a bachelor degree level, but never managed to complete my masters degree :( I think also that experience helps to understand. I think Anthony you would make an excellent councellor/Therapist. Nothing is better than experience, you know what you are talking about and people are more likely to open up to you as well due to your empathy.

 

[anthony]

Anthony, the psycho-analytic approach, is that the same as "psychodynamic"?

Psychodynamic is actually more the older term used for todays term, psychotherapy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychodynamics

Hence your strong reaction.

Psychoanalytical is more the theory of the mind, trying to theorise what is going on within a persons head, not really what they feel, think, etc. In other words, the person is telling you what is wrong vs. listening to you and learning from you, what is wrong. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychoanalysis

One is about the person, which provokes strong emotional responses and usually discovers the underlying cause and helps a person move on. The other is about theory and using you like a guinea pig for purposes other than to truly help you, but to study medication effects upon you, different theories upon you... basically, they tell you what is wrong with you, you nod your head in agreeance, and often walk out the door none the wiser to the actual problem and usually filled with drugs, reporting back at periods to assess the drugs / theories interaction upon you.