Hi, I just joined. I was misdiagnosed in 2012 with bipolar, despite no history of psychiatric illness my entire life (now young middle-aged), given medications for bipolar that did diddly-squat for me, and worst of all, "railroaded" pretty much against my will into spending 3 weeks in a psych (day hospital) program.
In talking to others with PTSD/C-PTSD on the web, this seems really common. Which is such a travesty. In my case, the doctor I went to for my initial symptoms,panic attacks, total insomnia, etc, diagnosed me as bipolar within 2 minutes of meeting me, after reading the one-page intake form from her office. Two minutes after that, I was told that I "had to" be hospitalized for my own safety. She actually wanted me to go inpatient, the sort-of compromise was day hospital program.
My mistake, and her rationale - I admitted, truthfully, that I thought about suicide quite often, which I was at that time.
At any rate, after dealing with that doctor a handful of times, less than 10 total appointments, I found out she was basically both incompetent and heartless. Another patient of hers described her online as "a brutal thug" and that is about right.
The lasting effect of this is ... I am way more messed up now after seeking "help" than I was before. My precipitating incident was a workplace situation of threatened violent death, which brought up a lot of memories of a really bad childhood at the hands of a father who also literally threatened me at gunpoint more than once, and generally made my life at home Hell. That was bad enough.
BUT, if I had gotten a correct diagnosis, the right medications, and not been forced to do something I literally was pleading NOT to do, I wouldn't be in such a mess today. It's complicated to explain, but basically - I had this father who should have been a loving, supporting parent, but instead, all I got from him was "the iron fist". And, when I was a real trouble and did what I thought was "the right thing" and sought out professional help, instead of the compassionate understanding I was expecting, again all I got was "the iron fist." So, it really damaged me.
But, I have survived a lot in my life, and I have fought back in a lot of ways over the past couple of years. I saw a general practice psychologist for a couple of years, that helped but wasn't the "answer" I hoped. I found a trauma specialist about 6 months ago - after being informed by a member of another support forum that there were trauma specialists - and that has been a dramatic difference. Of course, it's still all up and down, and a lot of triggering things happen. But, I am determined at this point to get past this, to a point where I can feel comfortable and confident managing the situations that come up that are triggering.
I would be especially interested in hearing from others who have suffered due to misdiagnosis. Namaste.
In talking to others with PTSD/C-PTSD on the web, this seems really common. Which is such a travesty. In my case, the doctor I went to for my initial symptoms,panic attacks, total insomnia, etc, diagnosed me as bipolar within 2 minutes of meeting me, after reading the one-page intake form from her office. Two minutes after that, I was told that I "had to" be hospitalized for my own safety. She actually wanted me to go inpatient, the sort-of compromise was day hospital program.
My mistake, and her rationale - I admitted, truthfully, that I thought about suicide quite often, which I was at that time.
At any rate, after dealing with that doctor a handful of times, less than 10 total appointments, I found out she was basically both incompetent and heartless. Another patient of hers described her online as "a brutal thug" and that is about right.
The lasting effect of this is ... I am way more messed up now after seeking "help" than I was before. My precipitating incident was a workplace situation of threatened violent death, which brought up a lot of memories of a really bad childhood at the hands of a father who also literally threatened me at gunpoint more than once, and generally made my life at home Hell. That was bad enough.
BUT, if I had gotten a correct diagnosis, the right medications, and not been forced to do something I literally was pleading NOT to do, I wouldn't be in such a mess today. It's complicated to explain, but basically - I had this father who should have been a loving, supporting parent, but instead, all I got from him was "the iron fist". And, when I was a real trouble and did what I thought was "the right thing" and sought out professional help, instead of the compassionate understanding I was expecting, again all I got was "the iron fist." So, it really damaged me.
But, I have survived a lot in my life, and I have fought back in a lot of ways over the past couple of years. I saw a general practice psychologist for a couple of years, that helped but wasn't the "answer" I hoped. I found a trauma specialist about 6 months ago - after being informed by a member of another support forum that there were trauma specialists - and that has been a dramatic difference. Of course, it's still all up and down, and a lot of triggering things happen. But, I am determined at this point to get past this, to a point where I can feel comfortable and confident managing the situations that come up that are triggering.
I would be especially interested in hearing from others who have suffered due to misdiagnosis. Namaste.
