Journey to Diagnosis
It can be a long and bumpy road to finding the correct diagnosis. For those of you who are diagnosed with a mental health condition, tell us about your journey.
- Maybe you were misdiagnosed at first
- How did you feel when you were diagnosed? For some, putting a name to what you are feeling is helpful and even a relief. To others, having that label attached to you can feel scary and overwhelming.
- Maybe you're just starting this process. How are you feeling?
Let us know!
Getting diagnosed was a sort of bizarre process for me, especially because when I intially was in therapy I was a minor, and nobody was being clear about what was going on. I didn't have a good understanding about mental illnesses, particularly depression, so I hadn't realized a lot of what I was experiencing was actually significant. The way I found out, unfortunately, was my mom yelling at me in an argument that I was severely depressed and I needed help. So that was... a rude awakening.
My diagnosis changed to Bipolar II a few years later, which is something I think my parents still don't understand completely. The difference between then and now is that I feel like I have more control over my own care and I have more direct contact with my psychiatrist.
My father was misdiagonsed twice with depression when I was a child. I'm not sure how he personally felt, but I could tell the journey was hard. We visited four different doctors over the course of 10 years and after years of different medications and opinions we finally got the correct diagonse that he was in fact Bipolar.
@lovelyllama13
I was shocked to learn I have depression and I think it plays a big role that I was a teen like I was 17 and pretty much was so confused from the age of 16 when all started getting revealed, you know what I mean? But it was another 'small' shock learning I have trauma and that was recently which still makes me have lots question marks about it.
The process of recieving a diagnosis is kind of hard to remember for me because I developed OCD at around age 11 or 12. After a couple weeks of symptoms my parents decided to take me to a local therapist who just kind of talked with me and had me do a lot of excercies tailored to children such as play therapy. I don't think I was ever explicitly told that I was living with OCD and I didn't really understand what it was for a long time. Only once I was in high school and had taken a psychology class did I fully understand the many ways in which OCD manifests itself. I found it extremely comforting to know that all the intrusive thoughts and things that I had been dealing with for a long time were common and recognizable symptoms. It made me feel less awkward and alienated and better able to come to terms with what it was I was living with.
@lovelyMykia17 I think that's one aspect that makes diagnosis in childhood interesting. This isn't mental health related, but I have a subtle fine motor disability that required treatment with occupational therapy when I was 7. I didn't understand why I was in OT, but I always enjoyed my sessions and after about a year or so I was finally able to write things by hand (which was a huge struggle for me). It wasn't until I was older that I was able to look back and understand what had been going on.
@lovelyllama13 I was diagnosed with Panic Disorder and Depersonalization Disorder back when I was in high school. For a while, I was really afraid to tell anybody about my episodes because I literally felt like I was going to die every time I had a panic attack. It was difficult in the beginning, because (as I learned later in my journey), my parents knew I was experiencing panic attacks and symptoms of anxiety, but they never explained what was going on or took me to a psychologist (money was tight). So for a long time, I thought this was something that only I was experiencing, especially because my attacks had no trigger, and I often felt like I was watching myself interact with others through a TV, it all felt surreal. I decided to visit my school psychologist after my school nurse and I looked up some information on my symptoms, and I saw that a lot of people dealt with these symptoms.
This is when I found out my diagnosis, and it was a big relief for me that what I was experiencing has a name, and other people successfully cope with it. The relief definitely gave me the confidence to participate in therapy and gain control over my symptoms over the past few years.
I think it takes even longer when multiple diagnoses are needed.
All my life there's been some extent of wondering what was going on, and if I had a low pain tolerance, was a 'drama queen' or what was going on. I went through a period of time really examining whether my symptoms were psychosomatic or not, it's unfair for a doctor to put that onto their patients IMO. It's an added layer of stress when being so horribly sick, trying to keep things up and mentally going through a hard time because of physical sickness and total exhaustion.
I finally got some answers and besides the obvious issue (self-injection phobia) everything points to being physical. I don't even seem to have emotional stress as a triggering factor, even though that's a big one for many.
30+ years for one of the multiple diagnoses I have so far with multiple misdiagnoses along they way, maybe I'll get another correct one sometime within the next 30.
