How can you tell if you have a correct diagnosis in mental health.?!


Question: How can you tell if you have a correct diagnosis in mental health.?
Since 2004 I have seen multiple doctor's and every time I get a new doctor they change my diagnosis and my medication. How do I tell what my real diagnosis is? It is in the Mental Health catagory.

Answers:

2 ways you can do this?

1. Go to a doctor one last time and tell the doctor every single detail your expierencing, also tell your doctor that each doctor changes your diagnosis and medication, tell your doctor every detail even if its small, then they can find exactly what is wrong with you.

2. Do this on the internet, the exact same. Type in a search engine some of your symptoms, then find the answer which accords exactly to you and find out some ways this can sort your problem out.

Hope this helped hun!



It doesn't really matter so much what name they give to your diagnosis as long as your symptoms are identified correctly. Most mental health disorders deal with a few major symptoms: anxiety, depression, mania and psychosis. A doctor will prescribe a medication for your symptoms, and counselling.

There are also symptoms of personality disorders (i.e. dysfunctional perception, attitude and behavior). Those are maladaptive behaviors that develops on top of some underlying mood disorder. First you treat the mood disorder and then do counselling try to correct the perceptions and behavior.

Depression and anxiety are a common complaint at the psychiatrist's office, so starting off with a prescription for antidepressants, and seeing how they do after a month or so on that, is a routine first step with a new patient. I suspect you may have been doing an endless survey of all the different brands of antidepressants. The antidepressant will clear up some symptoms, and then doctors will slowly add other meds, if some of the other symptoms still persist.

Stop worrying so much about the diagnosis, and start learning about symptoms, and what medications are used for treating symptoms. Whenever your doctor gives you a new medication, try to understand what category the medication is in:
- antidepressant (for anxiety and depression. Preferred for long term daily use). There are tons of these, like prozac, wellbutring, lexapro, etc.
- anxiolytic (for situational anxiety. addictive and not recommended for daily or long term use) i.e. Xanax
- antipsychotic/neuroleptic (for paranoia, delusions and hallucinations). i.e. Risperdal.
- anti-manic (when you are thinking and talking too fast and don't sleep and can't slow down). i.e. Librium

Categorization of mental health illness is part science and part personal preference. While your doctors may agree on your symptoms, they may not agree on the diagnosis, and that doesn't really matter so much as long as you get meds for your major symptoms.

Proper treatment for a mental health disorder is a process of elimination. You try medicines, see how they work, and keep changing medication and adjusting doses until you get the closest that you can to normal functioning, preferably without any side effects like sleepiness, brain zaps, or whatever. Many people will build up a resistance to meds over time, and need to regularly change to a different medication. And, sometimes, after you get some counselling and have learned techniques to reduce the overall stress levels in your life, you can back off the medication until or unless your situation changes so that you are again exposed to excessive levels of stress.

If you keep changing doctors, they all have to start over at the beginning, so it is in your best interests to try to find a good doctor and stick with him for a few years.

The true key to a mental health disorder, is lifestyle changes. You NEED counselling, because when you have a mood disorder, you have to be an EXPERT in managing your relationships. You have to learn how to define and maintain personal boundaries, how to monitor your mood and judge how much stress you can handle. You need to have a plan for what to do when you are experiencing a mood crisis. Your plan needs to be focused on coping with your mood, like putting out a fire, and learning NOT to interpret your mood as information about your environment. You have to learn how to focus on a rational and objective evaluation of your situation, and not to give in to impulse and act on how you "feel" about a situation. If you have a mood disorder, what you feel might be distorted. Some of the biggest damage is done when a person with a mood disorder blames the person standing next to them for their mood crisis. You have to make smart decisions about what situations to expose yourself to, so you do not exceed your healthy threshold of stress. You have to manage your moods like a diabetic manages his insulin.

And, you have to learn about and understand those components of your disease that undermine healthy relationships and learn to monitor and respond when you see that pattern emerging. If you are unlucky enough to have a personality disorder, nothing is going to help but lots, and lots and lots, and then some more, therapy, therapy, therapy.

Best Wishes and Good Luck!!



In addition to researching it yourself, you could try seeing a qualified mental health therapist. They may know more than a medical doctor. If you're seeing a psychiatrist or psychologist, they are already qualified to diagnose, as they're specialists in mental disorders. Only the psychiatrist or medical doctor could prescribe medications, as psychologists and mental health therapists are not allowed.



Mental health is a tough area for doctors to diagnose because it isn't as if you can just do a lab test to get a definitive answer. Sometimes all they have to go on are reported symptoms, which are subjective, and behaviors presented by the patient. Many disorders are similar and there are many overlapping symptoms and behaviors that accompany several different diagnoses. Do some research yourself -perhaps online, to find out where you feel you might be at. If the medications and therapy the doctors are giving you are helping your symptoms, then the "name" of the diagnosis isn't as important as the outcome of the treatment.

RN



the diagnostic categories in the dsm are madeup and based on opinion. they don't reflect the causes of mental problems. doctors fool themselves thinking these diagnoses reflect reality, but the dsm was supposed to be a research tool and the people who made it up didn't intend it to be used the way it is now. my brother had an academic psychiatrist who refused to diagnose any patients for this reason.

as for meds, i guess they think your current meds are no good. 1/5 of psychiatrists are currently on the take from drug companies, also, based on records in the 2 states with mandatory reporting.



You research the symptoms online and discuss it with your doctor. I've been there, I've had my diagnosis changed at least 4 times.

I researched my symptoms online, found something that matched, and my doctor agreed. You really have to discuss these things with your doctor.




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