Quote:
Originally Posted by Michanne
To your point... It is on your record for life. In the case of bipolar it is a particular problem if you are incorrectly diagnosed. This is another reason to be a partner in your own treatment. I mean, if the only treatment is for symptoms why would you not treat based on symptoms? You can have bipolar people that dip to the depressive side and ones that swing to the manic side. The dx bipolar alone isn't going to help you very much. And let's not even get into the quadruple dx's! 
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk |
Well you have a good point there. Diagnosis can be very ambiguous. Personally if my pdoc thought I was ADHD and wanted to put me on Adderall I would want them to tell me they think I am ADHD. If they are not sure and want to experiment then tell me they suspect I may be ADHD but are not sure. That was my main point in the other thread where that person did not get that conversation. They got the conversation about treating symptoms. That would not be good enough for me. It does not have to be charted and made a part of the record just a conversation.
Just to be clear I do not have a diagnosis of BPD in my record. I was considering letting them give me that diagnosis for the sole purpose of getting into a special new treatment group. My therapist thought I would benefit but I would have to have that diagnosis in my record so I declined.
I was however misdiagnosed with bipolar for about seven years. That is certainly in my record. The misdiagnosis came from the amphetamine induced post acute withdrawal syndrome. The psychosis lasted over a year. They didn't know as much about PAWS then and because it lasted so long they figured I had to be bipolar. After all I had a full blown manic episode that lasted over a year. All the symptoms matched bipolar. It was actually the amphetamine withdrawal the whole time.
Amphetamines are powerful drugs and can cause severe psychosis and this is why I started the thread. For ADHD/ADD they can be wonder drugs. Although many kids sell them to their friends. And many people abuse them. It is just my opinion that they should not be prescribed lightly and a lot of warning and monitoring should be done when prescribed.
The same can be said for benzos and we all know the debates around those. I told my pdoc that I thought it was unethical for him not to give me benzos since they were the only thing that would work. Despite my history of addiction. He gave me klonopin. .5 mg in the morning and .5 mg at night. I don't take any more than that. So maybe i am being hypocritical. I have no history of benzo addiction but I do with amphetamines so I am very sensitive to the amphetamine issue. They should both be prescribed with a great deal of care. If I take more klonopin then I should I will be SOL because they won't refill it until the day it is supposed to run out so that keeps me honest.