Okay, where do I start? With the fact that the psychologist decided to take a lunch break in the middle of seeing patients or with the fact that they lost my report and I had to wait 2 hours in order for them to make a copy?
I don’t understand diagnoses or doctors anymore. It started with a simple diagnosis of depression and anorexia nervosa. Then I developed schizoaffective bipolar type in May. Now they’re telling me that I have Unspecified Depressive Disorder and Unspecified Anxiety Disorder because of my psychological exam results. And I quote, “You exaggerated your answers in this test”. How can I not be mad when the psychologist tells me that? I was being 100% honest in the exam. I poured my heart out and I get told I was exaggerating? I scored high on the depression, anxiety, and psychosis part. I believe it. I was in the middle of a psychotic break. Now I can’t help but feel guilty. I feel horrible. I feel like I’m a fake. Like I lied. But deep down, I know in my heart I was going through one of the worst periods of my life when I took that test…
I don’t know what else to think. What next? I don’t really hear voices and it’s just in my head?
You’re not a fake or a liar. Doctors are wrong sometimes. I think I’m schizophrenic not schizo-affective but I was first diagnosed anxiety and depression. They prescribed me Wellbutrin and I had a psychotic episode and they were wrong. Doctors think they know more about us just by looking at us than we know about ourselves but they don’t…unless we’re suffering from really poor insight. Which doesn’t sound like you are. Don’t worry about it much. But I understand the feeling you want to get credit for the struggles you’ve had and say “yeah ive faced schizoaffective…etc…” and its frustrating when they downplay your illness. When you know what you’ve been through. Hugs beautiful and nice lady sunshine!!!
I never found psychologists to be helpful to schizophrenics…you need to see a psychiatrist for your mental health so they can prescribe meds for you. are you on meds?
Yes, when I met with my psychiatrists, they were the ones who diagnosed me with schizoaffective and prescribed me AP’s while in crisis. I’m just glad I met with them before the psychological exam of “personalities”.
I remember I once told a group therapist that I was on abilify in group and someone said “I’m glad an anti-depressant is working for somebody” and I said “No it’s not an anti-depressant, it’s a major tranquilizer” and she said “no it’s just a conjunctive med that’s used with anti-depressants to stable you out a little” and I’m like “It’s an anti-psychotic, and i’m not on any anti-depressants, they make me go CRAZY” and she started like practically mocking me.
Then next time I saw her she was particularly nice to me probably because she googled it.
Lmaoo. is this common?¿ because while inpatient, i remember the therapist saying abilify is an antidepressant too and I was too shy to correct her. But yeah, doctors make mistakes sometimes. It pisses me off because it’s the patients’ life you’re messing with.
It seems to be a characteristic of bureaucracies that anything you tell the authorities will be dismissed. They’re going to tell you what is wrong with you, and it seems to almost be a given that they will say you are deluded about your life and your illness. It’s not a good idea to get frustrated with this situation. Just humor the authorities, and get as much of what you need as you can.
Abilify has more anti-depressant properties than other anti-psychotics. It often is used 5 mg with an anti-depressant to treat depression. But the therapeutic dose for schizophrenia and schizoaffective is 10 mg+ says to @everhopeful
i’m on 20 mg abilify. I believe a depressed person on 20 mg of abilify would have a bad reaction but maybe i’m wrong.
I have learned over the years, every Doctor will have a different opinion and many are not even close, I took the standard government test here and they said I made no effort along with other stuff that was a bunch of bull. That Doctor said I had depression psychosis, when I challenged him with the facts of the past, he was lost for a answer.
Best one can do is see your doctors, read up on it, talk in places like this and really it takes about three to five years to figure out for yourself whats going on, For me I think I’m schizophrenia with some bi polar, most of the Doctors agree but not all.
Sometimes the way doctors act it seem like they don’t care. I remember when I was acting up in middle school my parent took me to see a counciler and he accused me to lying to him when I told him why I did the things I did. So you shouldn’t feel bad. The doctor probably already had a diagnosis for you and your answers did fit his diagnosis. If it bothers you you could try to see a different doctor. It’s not your fault just focus on getting better.
I went to a psychologist once and was told “You’re not Depressed.” and I paid her good money. She also denied my irrational thoughts as psychotic and even told me “You’re not psychotic.”.
I read that you can’t be rational and emotional at the same time. I’m sure Psychologists say things that they regret because they have a lot of information floating around in their heads at one time.
But then again they are in the humanities and they are supposed to be helping you and be compassionate and they make a lot. Instead she should have told you that you were distressed and asked you to reevaulate your answers and retake the test if she doesn’t believe you are “that sick”. She’s labeling you an imposter, but just because you’re “that sick” doesn’t mean that can’t get better.
Was it the mmpi? (Did or have like a million questions?) There are built in measures to the test that detect for things like if the person was exaggerating consciously or unconsciously. If they were exaggerating unconsciously there are further measures that show whether they were truly exaggerating or if they really were just extremely distressed. It goes on and on.
I don’t really agree with saying someone is exaggerating symptoms. If someone is really distressed by what they are experiencing then it should be taken seriously.
I’m trying to look up what the heck they mean by “unconscious exaggeration”. Seriously how does someone exaggerate unconsciously. Like if someone says “I’m really suffering” and the test flags it as “exaggerating unconsciously” what does that mean? That the person somehow doesn’t know that they aren’t really suffering and only perceive themself as suffering? That makes NO sense. Or does it have to do with functioning? Like the person says on one question “I am really suffering” but on a question that asked if they could keep up with everyday life they said “yes” so they must not really be suffering and just don’t know it. BS. If a person says they are suffering, regardless of their functioning, they are suffering.
Screw that. The unconscious exaggeration thing needs to be eliminated in my opinion unless I can actually find a good explanation for its existence.
I remember a pdoc said to me once “you know some people fake it." To which at the time my GAF score was very low so I just sorta nodded. Later when I felt better I started thinking to myself geez was I really faking it or was that just his way of testing me. Well he didn’t get much of a response and it was never brought up again. But distress is distress. No doubt there are conniving folks motivated by an easy government check but I think that is such a small minority and I guess the dics have to probe somehow.
I have heard of people faking bad but to be accused of faking bad is horrible. If they’ve been seeing you for a while, it should have been obvious you weren’t exaggerating or faking it.
Thank you sweet 
