Diagnosis

[SilentRage]

I just want to ask when you all first saw a psychiatrists was you diagnose right away or did it take a while.  I saw another doc and she said she didn't want to say I have bipolar yet being that I was a new patient to her and she wants to do her own evaluation of me and make her own conclusion. But she is saying I do have a mood disorder but she. Wants to make sure its the correct one.

Did anyone else experience this. I hink I might have found the right doc.:)

[ILADVOCATE]

  Well I have schizoaffective. Since the auditory hallucinations seemed like "bad thoughts" (my psychopharmocologist says they were "pseudo hallucinations" because I didn't actually think they came from outside of me) I thought it was some form of Tourrette's Syndrome so I went to a support group for that which ironic now that I have occasional attacks of tardive touetticism. Then in having obsessive thoughts I believed I had ocd. That could have been partially correct because I still have annoying ocd type thoughts about categorizing things and organizing things and there is a study criteria called "schizo-obsessive disorder". Since I did have some obsessions I ended up on Anafranil (I was frightened of Prozac because a kid in high school had gone off it and committed suicide and that's all that was around then). And it made me so wildly psychotic and manic I ended up in the psych. hospital.
   Then they diagnosed me with "paranoid schizophrenia". I wasn't into all that phobia of disclosure the other consumers ("patients") had and was still adjusting to the Lithium in addition to the anti-psychotic so I was somewhat manic and called all my friends on the payphone one after another and boasted "guess what. I got the big one" lol. But then after all the meds kicked in (lousy combo of Lithium, Trilafon and Cogentin, I was a zombie) and I could hardly accomplish anything. Then because there was an obvious mood disorder involved I was diagnosed with schizoaffective so it reinforces the concept that "selling your psychiatrist a diagnosis" is a poor idea. Just explain the symptoms and let the psychiatrist come to conclusions as many people with bipolar talk about suicidal ideations and assume they have depression and never talk about the manic aspect, are initially placed on an anti-depressent which of course makes them wildly manic.
   Of course now I'm in the reverse situation. I will seeing a movement disorders specialist next Tuesday and I am trying to get the tardive psychosis issue identified and researched and unfortunately due to the anti-psychiatry groups who have misused it its a controversial diagnosis. And my psychopharmocologist accepts it but its neurological in origin so a neurologist must diagnose it. So as soon as I got the referral (which came from the director of psychiatry at hospital where I had testified about the recovery with the phase II study antipsychotic glycine) and scheduled an appointment I wrote up a full case study of myself as to what had worked on all the different aspects of the tardive conditions and what specific aspects of it were potentially tardive psychosis. But I know that any research neurologist in seeing something like that written by a "patient" would tend to dismiss it as grandiose. So I asked my psychopharmocologist to call and I heard from him today and he said "the movement disorders specialist had recieved the information I sent and they had an extensive conversation". So I know that if there's any evidence of tardive psychosis that it won't be dismissed and most importantly along with the wide variety of physical spasms better treated as well as being offficially documented.
   So although a person shouldn't sell a psychiatrist a diagnosis everyone should be knowledgable about their psychiatric disability and its treatment and to understand exactly what the medication is for and what aspects of mania and depression are emerging. For example, the term "agitated mixed state" seems complex but since its so common people should know what it is and not confuse it with "anger" (I used to experience that all the time before recovery). As I've posted a great resource is "Depression Central" (which is for all mood disorders) as the difference between a "patient" and a "consumer" may seem like semantics but the more people become knowledgable things always work out for the best because an educated consumer tends to get the best treatment and certainly the best response. If people want information on new medications in development as well (there appears to be a new antipsychotic that may be released soon, similar to Abilify) the site "Psychmeds123" is easy to understand and updates itself so that's a good one to bookmark as well.

[FxGz]

my experiences were a bit more frustrating. i kept getting "situational depression" diagnosis from the 2 docs i saw. it wasn't till after i became my own advocate that i was able to get my doc to "get real." i was told that many docs try this process of elimination. probably to cover their butts! or maybe not, maybe i just had bad luck. i guess it all depends on how you feel after whatever diagnosis and meds are prescribed. luck to you!

[jen21287]

The first psychologist that I saw diagnosed me with ADD and possibly a mood disorder. Finally several months later, he diagnosed me with bipolar disorder. The psychiatrist that I am seeing did his own evaluation and came to the same conclusion. When I went to see a new psychologist for therapy, she made a point of doing her own evaluation to make sure the diagnosis was correct and again diagnosed me with bipolar disorder. So I am 3 for 3. I think it is a good sign when doctors do not blindly follow the diagnosis of someone else and try to better understand the patient. I think you found a winner - good luck!