Risks of developing mental health problems if brother or sister affected
I have Bipolar. Scholar Owl has Bipolar. Little Bear shows the symptoms for Bipolar yet they still refuse to diagnose him with it. Instead they give him the bullshit list of “alphabet soup” for a diagnosis. Am I frustrated? You bet.
I understand. It’s a crapshoot. My twin has anxiety, I am Bipolar, Conversion Disorder, Social Phobia, Anxiety and an Alcoholic. Our brother is an Alcoholic with a gambling addiction who has shown definite signs of Bipolar but refuses to go to a Doctor. His daughter was diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder which her and her mother think is the same as Bipolar. It isn’t. The fact that it took until the age of 36/37 for me to get diagnosed when I showed signs from the age of 12 is not excusable. I was ordered by the courts to go to many Psychiatrists that never asked the right questions. It all has to change. Hope things get better.
Looking back I showed showed symptoms at an early age too but I didn’t get diagnosed until after my youngest was born when they were treating me for Postpartum Depression. The meds they gave me triggered mania and that’s how they caught it. It took me taking my oldest son in during a mixed episode for them to see it. And you’re right the system does seriously need to change. Everyone is drowning – even some of these practitioners want and need things to be better than what it is – but for whatever reason the change is slow coming.
There are many reasons that change is slow coming. One of the biggest is money. We can’t fund the system that we have let alone rebuild something new while we continue to run this one in the mean time. But let’s be really honest. The DSM it self is a major part of the problem. In many ways it is alphabet soup all on its own. I haven’t worked with anyone yet who doesn’t think the system is broken, but what’s the solution? It’s not enough to say it’s broken. We have to start saying how and where so we can start posing solutions. Consider visiting http://www.hearing-voices.org/ and reading their position statement. They have some interesting ideas on what’s not working and how to move forward. Not that I agree with everything they have to say, but I like that they are making suggestions. Any way, I’m ranting!
It’s okay I think that the more of us that can bring our stories and experiences to the table, the more we can start examining what is really wrong and than we can start brain storming about what can be done to repair or rebuild. It’s great to know that there is an organization that already as the ball rolling. Hopefully it’s not of the same mindset as that other group that wants to simply make blue papering easier.
no they are more about throwing the whole idea of diagnosis out the window and embracing the mind as it is. They are more about learning coping skills and acceptance. I think it sounds lovely and for the majority of patients I agree it would be the best approach. But for the profoundly ill this is just not sufficient. But you should go check them out. They have some really interesting ideas.
I did take a quick glance and I have added them to my resources page. I’m just not sure what heading to put them under. For now I have it under a new heading call “symptoms of psychosis” with the note that these symptoms can be caused by things other than just mental disorders. Which is true and which is why I didn’t know where to put this website under.
Yeah, I like the way that they talk about it. “hearing voices” rather then “hallucinations.” Hearing voices leaves open the possibility of spiritual discussion while hallucinations doesn’t.
I agree. I have always been two minds about that. As you know when we were younger I did consider it a spiritual experience but then when we got older I learned that scientifically it was considered to be hallucinations. It was crushing. It made me doubt myself.
Which I think is sad and an all too common experience.
As far as Little Bear’s diagnosis goes, that’s why you got the referral for the neuropsychologist. The hope is that they can give you the answer in regards to his diagnosis. The little guy is complex. There are a lot of symptoms there that over lap between various disorders.
True. The most frustrating part is the constantly being told that “the label doesn’t matter.” I keep telling them and every fellow parent out there that the diagnosis doesn’t define the person, it defines the treatment plan so if you want the right treatment you need to make sure the diagnosis is right. Going through treatment induced mania really sucked for me. I would never want that for any child. Ever. So yes, the diagnosis means everything to me. Not because of “the label” but because of the treatment. Fuck the label, but the wrong meds can seriously hurt someone.
I agree with you to a point. But, if you have a good provider they are looking at your symptoms and treating those to start with. And regardless of your diagnosis the medications are a crap shoot, a roll of the dice; even if you have the right diagnosis the medications can cause more harm then good. They can make you more unstable, they can cause side effects and they can mask other problems. Medications are always a gamble.
I realize that but certain diagnoses don’t – or shouldn’t – permit the use of certain medications regardless of symptoms. Whereas some diagnoses almost always instantly get you certain meds regardless of the symptoms you have. I don’t know what your experience has been as a patient, but this has been mine as both a patient and a mother and now as an admin for a special needs parent support group. This is what I’m seeing. I’m seeing an alarming rate of young children being diagnosed with Autism being prescribed with Respridone (spelling?). Many of these parents haven’t received in-home services, haven’t been offered anything in the way of out patient therapy, or anything else. It’s almost like the answer has become “let’s snow these kids and call it good” and I don’t understand that at all. We’re told there is no money for services, but we can’t afford the meds, but the money had to have come from somewhere because these kids are getting those meds. And the kids diagnosed with ADHD aren’t in any better shape right now. Don’t get me started on how the ones diagnosed with ODD and Conduct Disorder are being treated.
Which is why I think that medications should be the last line of defense in all aspects of health care. But one of the ways that the system is broken is that we are reaching to the medications first and we are more often all the time. Things that we didn’t treat before are now things we are giving medications for. I’m not a huge advocate for medications but without there being other options even I find myself on them. And in the world of psych there really aren’t any rules that are hard fast. Doctors can give about any psych med for about any diagnosis. And it comes back to the problems with the DSM and the diagnostic process. Sigh. Shit is just fucking broken.
It doesn’t help that “Big Pharma” is pushing that it has a pill for every problem either.
Sigh. No it doesn’t help things at all. I think there is too much money driving the health care bus…