Quote:
Originally Posted by maybeblue
I think that psychiatrists, and for that matter therapists, really treat symptoms, not disorders. So if you are experiencing depression the psychiatrist might prescribe the same antidepressant, regardless if she thinks that depression is part of C-PTSD, schizoaffective disorder, major depressive disorder, dysthymia, bipolar disorder, or whatever other disorders have depressed mood as a criteria. And a therapist might work on self-esteem or increasing activity or challenging thoughts if depression is the primary symptom right now. The treatment might be different if anxiety seemed more prevalent.
That said, words and labels matter to most people. I've seen many therapists and I always ask what they have diagnosed me with. Most of the time I have been ok with it if they label me with something close to what I think I have: major depressive disorder vs. dysthymia for example. I'll own that. But I threw a five alarm fit once when a therapist diagnosed me with personality disorder, NOS. That seemed like a lazy catch all diagnosis. Pretty sure I changed therapists soon after that.
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I agree with you. I've been in and out of treatment since I was about 9. So that's about 20 years now. Not one of them ever mentioned ptsd (though I've had multiple diagnoses). I finally heard it last year, and my therapist was an intern! That's one of the reasons I was so outraged. How dare she?! She barely has the experience! Haha that's what I thought anyway. She was right it turns out.
Ah, I get you. I can own my my diagnoses. I do believe I've had issues with it before. It's calmed down so much that I figured it wasn't true. Mental health truly is a journey! At least I know I can change my doctors and therapists!