Have you ever been mis-diagnosed???

[topo_piccolo]

I was diagnosed as bi-polar some twenty-odd years ago.  I certainly was severely depressed, no question about that (with an abusive husband and a nightmarish job that I couldn't get out of for economic reasons).

Funny thing - after I had been in the psych hospital for a few days, I started acting like a normal person - talking to other patients, interacting, participating in activities (even inciting a general strike over one unpopular daily activity.) Maybe even telling jokes and laughing.

So they diagnosed me as bi-polar and added another med - Lithium - to the Happytime Cocktail I was already getting.  It gave me a weird, crawly sensation on my skin, and I complained about it, but they kept giving it to me.

I didn't think I was manic - I'd never gone on wild, three-or-four-day activity binges without sleep, or spent tons of money that I didn't have, or do anything else stupid like that.  But heck - I was just another nut case, what did I know?

A couple of years later I was reading a book called "Women and Madness" and they described this very thing:  when a woman whose life at home is nightmarish, IT IS ONLY NATURAL that once she is in the hospital and feels safe, she will perk up and act more cheerful!  Golly - just think - you are suddenly in an environment where somebody else is responsible for cooking, cleaning, etc, and people ask you how you feel and seem to care about what you say.

During those two years, I had NEVER had anything resembling mania, and I still had the weird side-effects of the Lithium.  So I gradually took myself off it. . .and guess what?  No manic episodes in the 20-odd years since then!!

Why did they label me as "manic-depressive" when there wasn't really any sign of mania?  I felt - and acted - more cheerfully because I was away from the situations that were tormenting me!  Why didn't the "professionals" around me see that?

I carried that label for such a long time - but it was WRONG!  We trust doctor to get things like that right, don't we?

[teresa]

topo,

Sorry, I never saw this until today.....

My youngest daughter's been misdiagnosed.  Originally, we were told for years that she was a normal teen when I knew that she wasn't.  I had already partially raised two other daughters who never did the things that she did and I had many friends with girls in the same age group who were not dealing with the things that I was dealing with.  When she had her melt down and had to be hospitalized, they diagnosed her with major depression, however, when she got out and into therapy, her psych dr diagnosed her with bipolar disorder.  I agreed with their diagnosis because I had already been online ( that's how I found this forum), and researched mental illnesses.  The meds they've had her on have helped but things aren't perfect.  She also has ADD and they can't seem to get her on the right med cocktail to deal with both issues.  Her depression is under control but she can still be impulsive and she's not focused in school.

I'm happy for you that you took control of your own health and did what you thought was right..... some of these professionals amaze me.


hugs,


t

[duc]

Topo,

Oh yes.  Several times.  The worst is when I was in the hospital after my open heart surgery.  I had been given two kinds of drugs to put me under for the surgery - the 2nd because I was coming to consciousness while on the table for 15 hours from the first.  Then they slammed me with pain killers.  I started to have awful hallucinations - the only ones ever for me - featuring super-vivid heads coming out of walls and talking to me.  I started to fear for my sanity.  I asked them what they were giving me, and asked that they stop giving me the pain killers - they refused.  I talked to my wife, and was very upset, she didn't hear me, and just saw my rank fear, she did nothing.  After another 18 hours or so I started talking to this nurse who was friendly and positive, and this time demanded my rights as a patient to stop being given pain killers.  They again tried to buck me, talking not only about my bipolar condition (it didn't matter that I managed six people and was highly paid at the time - obviously I was another near crazy person), but started to openly wonder if was a schizophrenic as well.  They also mentioned that I didn't handle a knife and fork very well - and I said yeah - I have a lot of cramping and pain in my right forearm - but I haven't brought it up because compared to these hallucinations, its nothing - so?

Finally, I said, I'm done talking.  I will not take anymore pain killers.  They still went to my wife for permission to do that.  They got it, and stopped, 12 hours later I was fine, and had no pain to speak of.  There is nothing worse then being dis-believed and powerless for me - it takes me right back to the worst abuse of my life at age 4.

Advice: stay as calm, and clear as you can, but once you lock on to what seems right, hang on, and take your position in favor of yourself.

W

[littlemitch]

Hi Duc,

Good for you that you stuck with your gut.  I know that horrible feeling of not being believed.  I think of people who are in prison for a crime they didn't commit and I feel that same way for them.   It is such a hopeless, helpless feeling.    Medications can do so many things to different people.  What a scary thing to see heads talking to you.  It is amazing you didn't totally freak out.    Schizophrenia must be absolutely terrifying when halluciations are involved. 

Yeah T,  even our therapist says she is embarrassed sometimes to admit what she does for a living because there are so many strange ones out there.   

squish,
LM

[teresa]

Duc,

I can't even imagine what that must have felt like.... to be THAT out of control.  I would have bonked my husband on the head as soon as I had my sh*t together . 

[topo_piccolo]

Once the caretaking people in a hospital-type facility decide that you aren't quite "all there" (for whatever reason, and being in a MENTAL hospital tops the list here) it is the most terrifying thing in the world to not know what to say or how "they" might respond.  You feel so helpless.

While I was in the hospital back then, I had to write a formal letter to the manager in my office (I don't even remember why, now) but my hands were shaking terribly from whatever medication I was on.  I couldn't write legibly.  So I explained this problem to one of the staff members and asked if I could use their typewriter.

She said "No, patients aren't allowed to use office equipment."  I thought she must be dense or not paying attention, so I tried to explain again.  She cut me off with "bring it up in Group." I asked "Why?  What good will that do?  They don't have any authority."  She wouldn't even discuss it.

I didn't dare push any harder; they had a cute little thing they did when a patient got angry or upset.  They would threaten to send you to "Assessment," which was supposedly the Ward From Hell.  That's where the real, hard-core crazies were. 

I finally had to get my doctor to let me dictate a letter to a staff member who typed it for me, but it took about three days, during which time I was getting ugly follow-up calls from my office.  Terrific.  I'm trying to get my head together, not lose my employment (and health insurance) and they tell me to "bring it up in Group." 

Right.

Is "trivialized" the opposite of "validated?"

[chris]

i know no one probably looks hear any more but im wrighting any way.
im easy to mis diagnose because i dont elaborste enouf. i would work a 24 hr shift take things to stay awake drink a tun of cofee with hot cholicate mix in it but if someone asked if i ever stayed up for a day or 2 i would just say yes. and i did, but not because i was in a manic state, but because i was working going to shcool and taking cair of my kid.
iv been asked if i was ever hospitalized and i would say yes, but they didnt ask if i was hospitalized for a mental health condition. i was hospitalized when i had my daoughter and when i was a little kid for surgery.

once i told a dr. my father was an alcholic and he tried to kill me before and my brother tried to kill me to. at the time everyone else denied what had occured and said they didnt no why i was saying it. i was not diagnosed but was perscribed lithum. 15 years or so after the fact my mother remembers when my father wanted to kill me because he was drunk and my oldest brother had to intervean and fix things and she argued with my father and had him spill out his alchohal. (he always got more) i also still have the scar on the inside of my left knee where my brother shot me playing russian ruletts. (i never got the gun) and my mother recalls he always got his gun taken away for shuting and pointing it at me...... kind of odd that i would have had bipolar disorder then but now that everyone can admit to things im not making things up. the dr. at the time had bipolar disorder so she thought she knew exactly what was wrong with me..... i guess not.
after a victimization when i was younger i had PTSD. i didnt know it at the time. i pretty much went threw what im going threw now. i guess they thought it was a bipolar thing as well. i was 16 and had had a few affairs. the problem for me was i was envolved with my friends father a few years earlier and my teachers ex husband. i was aparently having delussions then, but my mother recalls me saying something about the man having a hard dick. my brother and i just hapened to be talking about the guy in the car. i remember it so vividly. i cam out and said yea his dick is hard. my brother was dumfounded. i remember him saying mom did you hear what she just said. i said well he does. dont remember the rest of the conversation, but didnt continue working at that job around the man. i was about 13 at the time, maby 14........ aparently that delussion was real to. still feal bad today that he was aloud to keep my friend hellen. she turned into a major slut. she sleeps with anyone fore some reason. havnt seen her in years. always wondered if he was sleeping with her and felt bad that my mother concealed it. feel worse that i didnt do anything to help her. she was 2-3 years younger than me, but people use to think we where sisters.

after my 2006 trauma/victimization i was told i was delusional because i thought i worked in narcotics, and psycotic disorder NOS for some reason. after loosing custody of my doughter for 6 months the department of child services realized i was misdiagnosed and let me have my doughter back. they waited untill the court date thow. i had narcotics officers vouging for me and had gotten other evaluations that said i was fine. because the court badle took 6 months my time limit on suing was over. i cant even wright the wrong or hold anyone responcable. i was told later evaluations are no science. it didnt make things any better. still not over it to this day.
any way i guess it is easy to be misdiagnosed if you dont really liston or believe the person.

[topo_piccolino]

Chris, I'm sorry I didn't see this sooner.  How horrible, that you have gone through all this!

I lost my son for eight years (after basically being a single mother for 11 years; his father would not lift a finger to help care for him) because I was "crazy" and because I was bullied and abused by my husband and at that time, too emotionally fragile to fight back.

My ex may have won the battle but I won the war.  When my son was grown up, he left his father's house and moved in with my new husband and me.
Once he had the choice, he CHOSE to come to me.  My ex seldom sees or talks to his son now and has seen his granddaughter perhaps twice in her 15 months.  I talk to my son almost daily and usually see both him and my granddaughter at least once a week.  So when the dust settled, who won?

Hang in there.  Sometimes, justice really does happen.