Hello all, first I would like to say thank you for having such a cool community here. I’ve been lurking on the site for a few months, but just got up the guts to make an account.
I have a question for anyone who is willing to answer. I have been having a very rough time of it finding a doctor that I can actually speak to about my problems. I currently have no diagnosis and am trying to head in the direction where I can confirm or deny if I actually have a problem. I have been hearing voices for about 6 years, have had an array of tactile, auditory, and visual hallucinations, delusions, and spent a 3 months period in a serious break from reality a few years back. I have tried to explain this to a few professors, a few counselors and a doctor through the two colleges that I have attended thus far, and mostly the reaction has been negative.
I have had professors tell me I must be faking it for attention, none of the counselors knew how to deal with me, and the doc I went to was unhelpful. He told me I had textbook symptoms but couldn’t possibly actually have an illness because it had been going on for too long and I am still high-functioning so it obviously can’t be affecting my life, but here try some samples of an anti-psychotic anyway and see what happens.
So a few questions: 1. Do I have a right to be upset about this or are they right, and I should just suck it up and deal with it. 2. I now have actual health insurance and can go see someone not associated with my school, how do I find someone who will actually believe me?
Thanks for any help that people are willing to provide.
I think you should spend some time with a psychologist and then let him decide whether he wants to refer you to a psychiatrist. Only you know how much emotional agony you’re going through. It would be better for a timeously diagnosis in order to get a better prognosis.
Sorry, that is what I meant. All people who you pay to attend you physical/mental health have the blanket name of doctor in my head. How do you find a good psychologist I suppose is a better question. I’m having anxiety about seeking someone out because of the reactions I’ve got from people in the past.
It is only by chance. …I think. I use to see a psychologist for almost five years before he refered me to a psychiatrist. During this time I begged him to tell me what’s wrong with me but he persisted that nothing was wrong with me. After almost five years he asked me if I was getting any better from all the hypnotherapy and I told him my symptoms were getting more intense. He refered me to the pdoc so I asked him for a last time what’s wrong with me. …so he said…maybe you bumped your head when you were small. It was only years later that I realised that with that remark he actually meant that I was bat crap crazy.
He refered me to the best psychiatrist i could have asked for. She diagnosed me within two minutes In her office …paranoid schizophrenia. .and I walked out with my shiny brand new label
Aah well that’s where the story gets a bit embarassing. I’m not overly fond of meds, I can never remember to take them, plus when I was a kid I was on anti migraine and anti anxiety, which were both depressents bc my doctors did not communicate, which act like stimulants in my system. That was a crazy manic few years tell you what. Anyway, my paranoia kicked in hardcore, I left mid apponintment and went home. Had an anxiety attack once I got there and I haven’t been to see anyone since.
Meaning “anti-depressants” here I presume; Elavil amitriptyline was widely used for migraines. It is a tricyclic anti-D.
Yep; one anti-D will ultimately be bad news for one who has bipolar (this is what happened to me from '94 to '03). Combine two of them, and one will become highly… manic.
As did my one during that period.
I had them continuously for 30 months (8, 11, 8, 2 & 1 from '94-'03). Screaming yellow zonkers, and nothing they gave me would touch it. Not Risperdal, not geodon, none of the benzos.
I don’t blame you. The so-called profession is full of incompetents and their incompetence. But… I finally encountered one who said, “Oh. You have PTSD.” She put me on Seroquel quetiapine. AND EVERYTHING CHANGED.
Moral of the story: Don’t give up before the miracle happens.
Another thing that might help… if your in the U.S. is
They have support groups all over. I know they are known for support of caregivers…
But my Sz support group was sponsored by them. Also… my family says they got some good referrals and names from their contact with NAMI… it’s usually plugged into services in the area… Good luck and I hope you find a doc soon.
