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Have Any Sufferers Been Misdiagnosed With Another Mental Illness?

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Queen Boudica

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I hope this is the right section to put this in. After watching the Changing Minds program last night, about a mental ward in Campbelltown and the patients treated there, I may be triggered by what happened with my sister, but I was also tweeting with another childhood abuse sufferer at the same time and he was thinking exactly the same thing.

There were several patients in there, who clearly had major traumatic events in their childhood. In particular, a woman in her 20's is bought to the hospital after buying a rope to attempt suicide. She is a single mother, no family, has very serious financial difficulties. She also tells them that she witnessed her father kill himself as a child. She does say she heard a voice tell her to kill herself. Which is then pounced on by admitting psychologist. She bursts into tears about being so alone and scared. She gets diagnosed with bipolar and sent on her way. She is clearly distressed about this bipolar diagnosis as well.

Another boy taking marijuana, confined to his grandparent's house. His mother died when he was a child, grandparents put him in a care home, no father. He is clearly very distressed about what happened in that care home. He does say he is hearing voices. Diagnosed with schizophrenia, off the marijuana. No therapy. My opinion, whatever happened in his childhood in that home, and how he is so disturbed by it needs therapy to talk about it. No mention, no help. Just sent out to live with his really elderly grandparents.

This really sent warning bells ringing. So I'd like to ask if any sufferers here have been misdiagnosed before? Certainly my sister was misdiagnosed with schizophrenia at 17. So I am wondering how often this is happening.
 
@Lizio - literally watching episode one right now...omg, this is frightening...the girl in the programme who is hearing voices, keeps repeatedly talking about all "the bad stuff" that she remembers from childhood....but no discussion or questioning on what that bad stuff even is!?!

I'm going to go out on a limb here - in relation to your question about being diagnosed with "another mental illness"...looking at this programme, it looks like "the other mental illnesses" are for the majority of people, actually PTSD....i.e. isn't it possible/likely that the "other mental illnesses" are literally just descriptions of symptoms of trauma...so are the other "mental illnesses" actually even, valid or real??
 
Yes, exactly @Mammo. Glad you are watching and seeing what I saw. Yes, I seriously think the "other mental illnesses" here are symptoms of trauma. I don't think they are real. You watch the woman who bought the rope. She is extremely depressed. I can relate so much because that is exactly the situation I am in, alone, no family, looking after my kids alone and scared for the future (although for the moment, financial situation OK, so less stress on that, but future not looking good)

They pounce on the fact she hear a voice when she was thinking about suicide. Is that all it takes, depression and suicidal thoughts and a voice (which I think when you think about suicide, it is quite easy to think a voice inside you is telling you to do it and distance yourself from it because you know it is such a terrible thing, especially when you have kids).

She just got a diagnosis of bipolar after telling them she witnessed her dad hanging himself. WTF. That bipolar diagnosis will stick with her, any relapse, in hospital, up her meds or add more. No therapy, she probably can't even afford it. We all know this is a ticking time bomb for someone with childhood trauma. And those drugs are the ones which shorten life. She could have therapy and be helped to manage her symptoms. Unbelievable.
 
I was told that I had bi-polar - not because I had the symptoms but because I didn't 'respond properly' to SSRI's. That is f*d up. I challenged her on it and never did go back. I was given the eye when I was bold enough to challenge.

My t-doc said that the majority of people living in assisted housing for 'mental illnesses' of varying types, he guessed anywhere from 80-90 percent, all had serious trauma in their backgrounds. Nobody was treating them for PTSD.

I am a firm believer that schizophrenia is PTSD gone wild - no treatment and the mind just has to go elsewhere. It is so tragic. It also makes me extremely angry.
 
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Yep, thing is these patients are in hospital and they can't refuse the drugs, they are sectioned otherwise.

Young people there, I am not convinced that for a lot of them the voices thing is something that is easily put into their minds. They are asked do they hear voices? One guy was on ICE, displaying psychotic symptoms. WOW ICE, does it not cause psychosis? Does that mean he has schizophrenia!!
 
I know someone who was hearing voices from why i think was drug induced psychosis and why was he taking drugs? Self medication and why? Child hood abuse. He was diagnosed schizophrenic and then bi-polar when his hallucinations stopped.

Someone else I know was diagnosed with OCD then bi-polar then GAD now its none of that its Aspergers. They are so borderline I can't even. They are intelligent and read up on all these things and convince themselves they have it go to the doctor and are diagnosed.

I wasn't miss diagnosed but treated for anxiety and depression for years. No one asked me about any traumas and I thought my rape didn't count for some reason so I wasn't exactly telling anyone about it. Plus the thing is it took me ages to even tell my psychologist because it's was kinda traumatic obviously.
 
Woah, bit of a difference between bipolar and Aspergers! OCD and GAD I can see might be confounding. Aspergers should be able to test for with brain scan now I thought??? Maybe wrong.

I'm not wrong in thinking some drugs cause psychosis am I? And any diagnosis should be made after the person is clean. And yes, reason for drug taking could well be childhood trauma, so yes therapy for that.

Glad you got access to a psychologist and could finally talk about it @NoWhereKnowWhere .
 
I haven't watched the show, but I had a thought.

The woman said that she heard a voice, was it really a voice?

When I am feeling down and dealing with suicidal ideation. I tend to describe it as a "little voice telling me to kill myself."

It's not a disembodied voice, as one would hear with schizophrenia, it's a thought. My own voice in my own head. Part of my internal monologue. But for lack of a better term, I would describe it as a "little voice".

Is that what this woman was talking about? Or was she actually suffering auditory hallucinations?
 
When I am feeling down and dealing with suicidal ideation. I tend to describe it as a "little voice telling me to kill myself."

It's not a disembodied voice, as one would hear with schizophrenia, it's a thought. My own voice in my own head. Part of my internal monologue. But for lack of a better term, I would describe it as a "little voice".

Yes exactly how I feel. No I don't think from the way she was describing it it was a auditory hallucination. She only said she had it when she was thinking of suiciding a voice telling her to do it. It sounded exactly how I think with SI. It is an Australian program so not sure you could see it in Canada.

@Mammo is watching it, so maybe she can confirm. Because I have this tendency to mistrust what I am seeing and need back up sometimes I think I must have imagined that because it seems so unbelievable. But it did not look like auditory hallucinations to me. This woman was severely depressed because of the situation she was in, alone, financial difficulties. Bipolar you have mood swings up and down. Of course she is down. How can you determine that is just a mood swing with all that is happening to her?
 
@Lizio exactly what I thought. The doctors must know they're being played.
They were clean but because they answered yes to have you ever heard voices they got that diagnosis. Although he said I was on drugs when...they were very dismissive he had been picked up by the police and sectioned for acting strangely.

I'm not sure about the brain scan thing but it's the NHSwe're talking about it's pretty underfunded atm. Although Aspergers isn't even in the DSM any more it would be high functioning autism. So who knows I haven't talked to them for a while so they could be diagnosed with anything now.
 
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