How Important Is Having A Diagnosis To You?

[digger]

Is it something that is/was important for you? What ways has having a diagnosis helped you? Has it hindered you in any way?

If you don't have a diagnosis, is that through choice, or because you just haven't been able to get one?

 

[Kas_Can_Fly]

Very, it was even important when the diagnosis was wrong (Autistic Spectrum Disorder), but now I know that I have the correct "label". Even now I still have this though as I have been told I have a dissociative disorder (which I knew anyway), but even though it's been talked about since, nothing has come of it. Also I've been told by my therapist I have all of the traits of someone with Avoidant Personality Disorder, but she's hesitant to diagnose me because she thinks as I heal, that will too -though that doesn't mean I don't have it.

Between the two it's incredibly irritating (and slightly invalidating) especially when bouncing around between hospitals, GPs and Mental Health Teams. I can't just say: I have Depersonalisation Disorder, PTSD and Avoidant Personality Disorder because that won't be backed up by my file, (hell my GP doesn't know any of it because it got lost in the mail and is confused by me) ,instead I have to try and explain it to people who are too busy to care enough to listen and don't know me well enough to not jump to their own conclusions.

Some of these have been distressing, for example being told I have nihilistic delusions, when my issues are not psychotic but dissociative isn't helpful. Nor is being told, I must have Borderline, because I self harm - completely ignoring the fact I have PTSD because apparently the additional dissociative symptoms confuse them. Or being blamed by the hospital for not being able to do certain things (mostly socially) that actually distress me a lot. When they finally listen it's ok, but that's the reason of the labels isn't it - for them to understand in a nutshell what I'm going through.

Personally it's also validation of what I experience and that I struggle with those things. It also helps me to understand them - kind of like when I have a panic attack but don't realise it until several hours or days later when I recognise my behaviours were nervous and agitated. I'm usually so dissociated from my sense of self that I don't really experience the emotions, I somehow have them with out knowing, like another part of me is having them - so when the issues that the other part of me has, diagnostically confirmed it's a relief and means I can start to understand it and make progress.

Lastly and I believe this to be the biggest thing and this was a recent realisation: The fact that it's diagnosed means it wasn't my fault. I could nearly cry at the relief this gives me. It's not my fault, sure that doesn't mean I can use it to hurt others, but it's as close as validation comes to proving what happened is real and I'm not making it up and that I'm not incapable because I'm not good enough, but I've been through a lot and need to recover and heal and learn and grow.

Not having it has hindered me and retrospectively the misdiagnosis also hindered me. Having the correct diagnosis has only helped me so far.

Any way sorry for the long message, but I think that about covers it!

 

[Seasounds]

EarIy on, I avoided an official diagnosis of PTSD like the plague, even though I knew that it fit. I did not want to be seen as 'less than', nor did i think my symptoms were that bad (in denial), nor did I want to be stigmatized.

Knowing that I had PTSD validated me, when no one else would. (I had to be able to verbalize enough my symptoms, first, and my symptoms needed to be strong enough to fit an official diagnosis.) Knowing that I had PTSD helped me know how to go about helping myself, rather than guessing, and it helped me feel hope, because I knew I had the opportunity to manage it.

On the other hand, I have needed to remind myself that I am not defined by my diagnosis. This means that my deeper identity is of a whole, free, spiritual human being. Remembering that, I don't get angry at myself, nor do I feel limited by it. Instead my diagnosis and symptoms remind me of things I need to consider, to take care of myself, as I go about my life.

As I 're-entered the world', after a decade of retreat, having the official diagnosis has served as a protection for me in my workplace, when I get triggered from life or work events.

 

[Abstract]

This is a bit different digger but may still be of interest. https://www.myptsd.com/threads/was-your-ptsd-diagnoses-helpful-or-not.36521/

I think where I am with this is that it has been helpful for me. Initially I wasn't sure because I spend so much time battling with the diagnosis. I have not truly accepted it yet and it's years later now. I still think it and the trauma isn't true. But the truth is that it is probably the one thing tethering me to the fact that I have to process the trauma.

However, if I was here interacting and doing what needed to be done then I don't think it would be that important to me. Like Kas I have been very misunderstood and that has been hard and diagnoses helps that a lot but some people are lucky and get treated appropriately. I suspect dissociation muddies things often.

Like change I did not want anything to be wrong with me and I don't have PTSD as my identity now.

 

[intothelight]

The only reason the diagnosis was important to me as it gave a "name" to what was wrong, and once it could be identified, I could take the steps necessary to make it better. It is a diagnosis, not who I am.

 

[Deleted member 1860]

The correct diagnosis is the reason I am able to heal. Without a PTSD diagnosis I never would have sought out treatment with trauma specialists. I never would have gotten treatment at two trauma treatment facilities, both of which greatly propelled my healing forward. I most likely wouldn't have received SSDI after my first application and wouldn't receive other benefits which financially allowed me to seek out proper treatment. Without SSDI I wouldn't be able to go back to school, as tuition is free in my state for those on SSDI.

It may seem like a little thing, but those 4 little letters have literally changed my life for the better (it was the trauma that changed my life for the worse).

I don't know what things are like elsewhere, but I know that here in the US, where much of the psychological world revolves around the DSM, a proper diagnosis truly can mean the difference between healing and not healing (as much, as fast).

 

[Ed Norton]

It was very important to me. I finally felt validated. I knew I was not just having these symptoms out of nowhere. For the longest time therapists and doctors were ignoring me.....thank you Dr. Ting

 

[arfie]

I need a name for "IT." I need a whole new language for "IT and all its sub-its as I struggle to function in the grips of "IT." Perhaps even for my prayers of healing. The names they called it in my granddaddy's day just don't quite work for me. The diagnostic names for it keep changing, too, and still carry more hope of healing than the pre-Freudian names for it.

I guess that is important enough to make me glad I have them.

 

[DharmaGirl]

I didn't like it at all. I had no recollection of my abuse, but I had all the symptoms. I hated that my therapist knew more about me than I did. I didn't want to have a mental illness. I researched PTSD after that and I knew I had it but it took about a year and a half to accept it. I had avoided thinking about my childhood and early adulthood.

I think the important thing is the correct therapist for trauma. I was lucky. I also think the acceptance of it allowed my recovery to continue. I spent a lot of time in therapy trying to distract my therapist.

 

[Candleflames]

I don't know yet. I'm still very confused about how I could have this diagnosis. I know I have the symptoms but symptoms overlap and diagnosing is much more complicated than just ticking off of a list. The part that is hard to wrap my brain around is how my experiences can be considered traumatic. There is no question that I had a crappy childhood. It just seems like it it was the normal kind of crappy.

I'd kind of like to have a diagnosis that validates how I feel about my experiences. It's a little scary to think that all I am going through is just because I was too weak to handle life. That's not really what I want to hear either.

 

[digger]

@Abstract and @monster1977 - please feel free not to answer this if you do not want to, but can I ask how your diagnosis was made with no recollection of the trauma? How your diagnosing doctor saw that you met the criteria A? I am not doubting your diagnoses, just curious to know how the doctors dealt with it.[DOUBLEPOST=1390770146][/DOUBLEPOST]Do you have a diagnosis or are you in the process of getting one @Candleflames?

 

[Candleflames]

I was diagnosed in February 2013. I had been in therapy for about 6 months and had taken a trip back to the area I grew up in. While there I had some additional issues come up that tipped the scale from "this could equally be a biological or trauma issue" to "this is a trauma based issue" for my therapist.