Self Diagnosis Is Not An Option

[mamachick]

Thank you girl13. My thoughts and prayers are with you as well.. Progress and not perfection is my motto. Knowing myself as I do, something will "click" when it is ready, and I will take charge again. Right now I am still a bit weak, but I am being true to myself even if it means sleeping during the wrong hours, eating my way, and living in sweats, and maybe just existing. Thats ok. Im not depressed, Im not abusing any substance, and I dont want to die. I want to live and I want my life back. Im just in a bit of hybernation. If I dont have to go to the store right now, I wont, but I know the day will come that I will not accept what I am accepting today. Sometimes I sleep for 14 hours straight-I feel like my cells are healing. I get criticism from my daughter as she is worried and have to assure her that it is healing for me. Still have bad moments, but much less of them. Hus

 

[Elisacullen21]

It´s precisely why that I want to see a specialist. I made a auto-diagnosis test on the site of a private clinic and it detected PTSD (it was a surprise for me), but is not a clinic diagnosis. I know that I need to see a especialist soon in order to determinate with more sure what is wrong with me.

 

[Nicolas Connault]

Can you self-diagnose hypocondriasis? :whistling: Sorry I couldn't resist!

 

[Elisacullen21]

I don't know lol

 

[Neah]

It's nice to be able to point people to actual solid information in the forum, since trying to describe things from the point of a non-professional just makes one sound a little silly. :) There are some members with the credentials to pull this off- rest assured I am not one of them. Thanks for another resource.

Lauren, it's not what one would wish for oneself, but I maintain my stance that re-wired isn't broken, you know? Yes, it sucks that it's irreversable, but it's not 'broken'. :) You're not sounding like a pest, it's just an awful lot to take in, I know.

Just because i have many of the symptoms does not mean that I not going to see some one, it just means that I have or have had 9 of about 12 of them, so yes, I could say it 's possible; however my work is not the place to share this, it only leads to more stress, which leads to many more problems.. I know I'm f"cked up, but at least I 'm not suicidal...

 

[Girl3]

Neah - let us say that 9 out of 12 is significant. If you had 2 out of 3 say for coronary artery disease or diabetes, you'd have a diagnosis.

Not being suicidal is great, but it isn't optimal for you. Things can be better with the right help - not medicine necessarily - just help.

Great wishes for your strength and ability to work for your own health.

 

[anthony]

Neah - let us say that 9 out of 12 is significant. If you had 2 out of 3 say for coronary artery disease or diabetes, you'd have a diagnosis.

Whilst I agree it is significant and local help should be sought ASAP, I disagree to try and compare mental health to physical health. Physical health is measurable, can be screened, recorded, imaged, and confirmed. Mental health... not so easy.

You can have every symptom of PTSD and not have PTSD, all because the severity is mild in each symptom and does not meet that last criterion, where "the disturbance causes clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning."

You could have the bare minimum of symptoms, yet each is severe and causing clinically significant distress. You get the idea...

I've had some long conversations with psychiatrists about this over the years, and at the end of the day most concluded something to the likes of, it all comes down to good medical diagnostic capabilities in their view with best guess based on experience.

It's not uncommon a person with PTSD will lie on their assessment forms, dismissing near most important aspects and downgrading the severity of their lifestyle. Well, it is a majority with PTSD who will downgrade their severity. To an untrained specialist, they would conclude the person doesn't have PTSD. Then you have those who want to have it, so they tick all the severe / close to severe answers, say the right words, and they get a PTSD diagnosis when it's likely they don't have PTSD at all.

Thinking about it, near every shrink I have spoken with or has taught me about aspects of PTSD over the years, seem to elude towards those who try to imply they have PTSD usually do not. Those who dismiss their severity, the shrink is usually making phone calls to spouses or family members to get them into their office for a true picture of the person, if they can't completely tell just by looking at their demeanour.

It was like talking with my local GP the other week... he see's it daily with all these web doctors walking in his door telling him what is wrong with them. The majority tend to leave disappointed and upset... apparently it is quite normal they then doctor hop until they get enough actual medical information to present with the correct words and symptoms to display. I know the medical terms, hypochondriac. Apparently the web makes their job interesting...

 

[mamachick]

It was like talking with my local GP the other week... he see's it daily with all these web doctors walking in his door telling him what is wrong with them. The majority tend to leave disappointed and upset... apparently it is quite normal they then doctor hop until they get enough actual medical information to present with the correct words and symptoms to display. I know the medical terms, hypochondriac. Apparently the web makes their job interesting...

The available web information must drive the docs nuts. Some people seem to notice every little thing as soon as it occurs, others ignore the symptoms until they can not tolerate it.

I was diagnosed with CFIDs and fibromyalgia many years ago and made 90% recovery. I was very grateful. Admittedly, it took a lot of work and self pacing. I read some books on the correlation between these illnesses and ptsd. ??The Body Bears the Burden ?? I think was one, but not until I was actually better and functioning very well.

Just wondering how prevelant you think pain and fatigue syndromes are in ptsd? Is it just considered secondary to ptsd now? and a seperate illness?

Interestingly, back when I was diagnosed with cfid and fibromyalgia (around 1990), some thought it was related to emotional issues. I belonged to a CFID group and members resented any dr that suggested such. Most people were very defensive about this. Nobody in this group ever shared any dysfunctional/abuse/trauma life history to me.

At the same time, there was a big co-dependncy movement which I found most interesting and able to relate to. Dealing with life from the co-d perspective is in large part what got me better, as it led to lifestyle changes and acceptance.

 

[anthony]

Just wondering how prevelant you think pain and fatigue syndromes are in ptsd? Is it just considered secondary to ptsd now? and a seperate illness?

Statistically, they're a minority, many of which would be mere coincidence with trauma.

If a person suffers a physical trauma, then that has nothing to do with PTSD, but more the physical trauma could cause pain. That is biological. Whilst psychological can cause biological and vice versa, it is a minority in respect to PTSD + pain / fatigue when talking diagnosis in the same sentence versus symptoms.

 

[Girl3]

As a doctor with a mental illness as well as a biological illness, I can tell you that even many doctors (and nurses) have a very hard time dealing with certain mental illnesses.

Everyone I work with knows about my high blood pressure - because having hypertension isn't seen as a terribly unnatural thing. But I have seen how colleagues over the years - as well as nursing staff - react when they find out a patient has Bipolar, PTSD, Borderline, Schizophrenia, etc. Depression isn't a problem. Nor is anxiety. Those diagnoses seem to be ones that engender compassion.

Likewise, I have friends and aquaintances who know I was assaulted (beaten and robbed) - and they are very sympathetic. But I do not discuss my brother sodomizing me when I was a small child. That isn't a topic that will go over well in polite society. So I don't discuss it.

What will it take to make society OK with all mental illness? Well - Herschel Walker's book will make a small impact for Dissociative Identity Disorder, the way Brooke Shields did for post-partum depression. Making it visible - especially by people who have been socially successful is one way. Getting health care professionals to understand the complexities and importance of mental illness for the purpose of diagnosis, research, and treatment is crucial.

But self-diagnosis shouldn't be anyone's goal; yet the internet tests and diagnostic lists are at least a place to start.

For any disease - heart disease let's say - you have certain symptoms and you have certain risk factors, you may even have signs - but an expert still needs to make the diagnosis. You have chest pain, high blood pressure, and nausea, are obese with high cholesterol: you can say "I'm having a heart attack" but you still need to go to the hospital. You might be having a gall bladder attack, pneumonia, liver cyst with rupture, abscess around your diaphragm, etc. You making a diagnosis isn't useful. But the ability to look up your symptoms, risk factors, and signs could save your life by getting you to realize where you need to go to get help.

 

[anthony]

Diagnosis will soon be given the best of both worlds, being instant onsite diagnosis from your smart phone with the aid of the worlds smartest computer, Watson... who is currently in medical training. In the next few years we should see the release of an app that will be able to diagnose many illnesses validity from the palm of your hand, with 99% accuracy, thus freeing up medical professionals globally to concentrate on those that require human intervention.

Basically, medical diagnosis with 99% accuracy will be globally available in abundance.

 

[Girl3]

Differential is different than diagnosis: Watson will be able to give a differential diagnosis with rankings of most likely to least likely given the input (which of course is the most important part of any differential - does the patient tell you the truth AND everything).

Last week I had a teenage girl with acanthosis nigrans - she was obese but had a significant family history of cancer. The differential diagnosis for her acanthosis nigrans is: cancer especially adenocarcinomas, especially colon, also lymphomas; insulin resistance (think type 2 diabetes), polycycstic ovaries with metabolic syndrome, acromegaly (which she had some features), oral contraceptives, genetic inheritance, other medications, morbid obesity, and a few other things that are quite rare.

Her family history included several types of cancer at early ages. Her father died at an early age from some unknown cause. She is morbidly obese, takes oral contraceptives for her PCOS (polycycstic ovary syndrome), is quite tall with a very large shoe size and has a prognathic jaw. We were doing a surgery for her huge cyst on an ovary that wouldn't go away. From my standpoint - I didn't want her lost to follow up and not be diagnosed properly so I explained to the surgeon that while we were operating for one thing, the patient should also be tested for a few other things. Those tests require a certain set of clinical guidelines - serum IGF-1, EGD/Colonoscopy for instance. Without those results you cannot eliminate any part of the differential.

Watson will be able to dialogue with patients - getting a handle on the differential - but will not be able to do any testing per se. And the differential can be whittled down - but only so much as the patient can give information - the fewer the words, the less likely the differential will be spot on. A really good doc with enough time will come up with a differential that is great. Then it is up to 'the system' and the patient to explore those options.

My hope is that Watson - or any other computer system - will be able to get the information from the patient. In my twenty odd years of being a doctor, patients often tell less than the truth for a variety of reasons. I have done no less myself - as a patient - either because I didn't know the importance of something or I didn't want to be seen any crazier than I already felt.

I love the idea of Watson - a computer program that I can set parameters so I get the information I need/want as a doctor.