Has anyone else disagreed with their diagnosis

[GooseFatRoasties]

..but not been listened to. Long story, but wondering if this was common. Have nothing to do with mental health services but am stuggling.

Yes, I have (but I was a young teenager). Eventually I got a correct diagnosis.

How do you meaan not beenlistened to? (if you want to share)

I was diagnosed with BPD but also have problems with memory concentration and sleep.I take my mothers seroquel to cope as GP would't refer and last time i saw a psychiatrist they refused anything to help me sleep or calm down as they said it was a PD and I needed CBT.GP sais the psychiatrists are the experts and won't refer me for a second opinion.Antidepressants make me worse

Can I ask what is the difference between BPD and PD?

Sorry. new here and trying to figure it all out.

I just meant a personality disorder.

It is common to disagree with a personality disorder - partly because it is not something anyone wants to be diagnosed with (widely misunderstood and stigmatised) and partly (sorry) as a symptom of the illness itself (lack of insight, paranoia).

What makes you think that you were wrongly diagnosed?

I am extremely concerned that you self-medicate unsupervised with seroquel and I would advise you to stop before you do damage to either your mother or yourself.

I suggest you contact mind for advice and support. They can help you get the help you need.

And don't knock CBT...

But what if you don't have a personality disorder?

How on earth do you get round that one? Given that a symptom of it is denying that you have it?

It seems like a very dangerous diagnosis to me for that reason.

Starting Afresh that is why the diagnosis is only made by a consultant psychiatrist and not lightly. Not to say that it is not wrongly diagnosed. Mental Health is complex and there are illnesses (eg complex PTSD) that can have symptoms in common with particularly Borderline Personality Disorder.

That's why it is good to contact an organisation like Mind who can help with information and advocacy.

Oh I see. I'm worried about this myself because my GP has suggested I might have this (was Starlight).

I have been 'arguing' with professionals over the last 18 months who have been out to get me.

With that attitude, I'm definately heading for a PD, but it's bloody true!

SA you have one possibly misunderstood suggestion from a GP you have seen once - you are not anywhere near a diagnosis and if you're not being referred to a psychiatrist you're not going to be diagnosed in a hurry...x

I have symptoms of BPD and symptoms that are not BPD. I think those symptoms have been ignored. It seems like the BPD diagnosis gives me no credibility. I feel like they think I am just lying or attention seeking or something

Okay. Thanks. That's reassuring.

I'm new to all this and really have no clue how it works, but 'because' I have been dealing with professionals who are untrustworthy I am a bit guarded/paranoid and want to make sure I don't end up trapped in another nightmare.

To be fair though, the 'health' professionals have been the most sensible - eventually (once climbed through complaints procedures) when I have had more senior people.

I was diagnosed as severe PTSD and depression when I was 15 at the time I disagreed but was ignored.

I have now been re-diagnosed as bipolar (a mental illness in which the depression is often misdiagnosed as PTSD, and the Mania has many symptoms which cross over with both borderline and scizophrenia). I want to disagree because being a illness there is nothing I can do to fix it it will always be there and I will always need meds.

Some days I try to disagree and say they are wrong (which is also common of bipolar disorder for people to disagree that they are ill) but as I have displayed every symptom of this illness, in my heart I cannot deny that yes I do have this it fits me perfectly, and while I wish it didn't and was something else that could get better with time (not worse)I cannot say to myself with conviction that I dont have bipolar. If you really think the diagnosis is wrong trust yourself and ask to see another pychiatrist, if I had fought more when I was 15 and gotton the right diagnosis I would be in a much better place now.

I think one of the problems here is the stigma about mental illness that is alive and well in all aspects of society, and makes those of us who have/are suffering from a mental illness very vulnerable.

The job of psychiatrists is to diagnose and prescribe the most appropriate treatment. They like anyone else are human (though sometimes it's hard to believe that, as the ones I have come across are decidedly odd) and can make mistakes.

Surely the most important thing is for us to get the right diagnosis and follow the treatment plan in the hope that we can alleviate the worst symptoms of our illness.

Another problem I think is that if a consultant psychiatrist refers a person for inpatient care (which sometimes is the right course of action)he/she will only do so if the medical illness is treatable by drugs and anything else offered in psychiatric units. This means that many people diagnoseed with personality or conduct disorder are left without any real help.

Nana Then in my 'paranoia' about the professionals I have so far dealt with, I would suggest there was a financial incentive to diagnose PDs because they are the most financially viable dx for the NHS!?

SA don't go there - I know you've been talking to Leonie Delt but..

All doctors take an oath - the oath of Hypocrates

This is a small part of it:
I WILL FOLLOW that method of treatment which according to my ability and judgment, I consider for the benefit of my patient and abstain from whatever is harmful or mischievous.

'Do no harm' is the first rule of all medical practice - to misdiagnose for financial gain is unethical and harmful and it is totally incredible that this would happen in our NHS.

I'm sure it happens on an individual basis because fraudsters are everywhere - but there is no way it is systemic that's an unfounded conspiracy theory.

And no I don't work in the medical profession. I'm a lawyer.

I didn't mean that in the sinister way it appears, but surely in any profession where there is a shortage of funds, you go with the cheapest treatment first.

Which means exploring the cheapest treatment, referring to the cheapest, least trained/experienced professional with a text book and tick box and getting a dx asap.

I mean, funds wouldn't survive if everyone had an in depth medical assessment everytime they complained of something. It is the most efficient way to do things the way I have mentioned for the population as a whole.

But, that can mean a system of putting a lot of putting people in boxes, some of whom just don't belong there. I have enough experience of these kinds of processes to know that services are nowhere near as individualised as they probably should be.

I have known LeonieD for a while now. I don't agree with all she has to say and nor she me but I can say with absolute certainty that some conspiracy theories that she mentions are true as I have fallen victim to them myself. aka the above processes that I have just mentioned.

A doctor deliberately diagnosing someone with something as serious as a personality disorder knowing it is not the case is malpractising and liable to be struck off.

A different matter completely is the woeful lack of the specialist counselling that can make a huge difference in living with a personality disorder.

I don't suppose I mean deliberately. I know the professionals that have really let our family down haven't done it deliberately, they are just trying to survive their caseloads and their conflicting agendas and lack of recent CPD and have such erroded confidence due to pressures and reorganisations ad nauseam, that they get argumentative and defensive when I suggest that they change the way they do one or two things or that we don't actually fit the criteria they have insisted we do and therefore the treatment that they provide rather something that they would have to buy in.

It's more of an embedded culture than individual maliciousness. Not that that helps us.

But I'm not talking about my GP or the Mental Health Services. I have no experience of them. But I suppose, on the NHS I would expect them to suffer from some of the pressures similar to those I have mentioned above. The 'expert patient' also must be a difficult thing for GP's to find the time for and I get a feeling that many have become immune and defensive wrt them.

With the internet you must have so many people going to the GP saying 'I have this condition, I have researched this as the best expensive drug for it and want you to prescribe it right now, and don't fob me off with any less dose/cheaper alternative because it just won't work for me'.

It would be wrong of the GP to agree to that without at least trying a cheaper alternative. But sometimes the patient will be right because often they have had the time and the motivation to research properly what the GP cannot possibly have the time and resources to do.

I would just expect this to extend to the mental health services. Not a consiracy, just the world and culture that we live in now.

Sorry I seem to have worried you more StartingAfresh - as madmouse said it is highly improbable (unknown) I would say that a GP or Psychiatrist would diagnose PD just to save money via drugs or admission to a psychiatric unit. If you think of an ordinary hospital, people are only offered drugs or admission for a treatable illness, which seems logical.

As madmouse mentions, the specialist counselling that can help people with PD is simply notavailable on the NHS. In my experience all that is offered is 6/8 weeks of CBT. Mind I am not knocking CBT as I have found it helpful. I was introduced to it by my CPN who has been a tremendous help.

Goosefatroasties - are you finding the posts on this thread helpful?

So how common is it for someone to go to a psychiatrist and for them to say, 'hmm, yes you are a bit depressed but it isn't a PD even though we can see no causes?'

Depression doesn't always have a cause any more than PD has.

I suppose what I mean is, if they can find no cause, would that automatically result in a dx of PD?

Or is PD quite precisely symptom-checked?

Even if the cbt does not ultimately prove helpful, if you at least tried it and it did not work that might help get the psychs to take a further look?

SA, i have experience of both mental health services and asd dx and salt etc. I have v little to complain about re mh services and docs, yes there is delay and underfunding but nothing that upset me in same way as my experiences with ds.

X posted, it isnt asa easy as you fear to get a pd diagnosis, depression quite commonly doesnt have an obvius cause