[Happy Camper]

Despite only being 20, over half my life has been miserable and filled with chronic stress without any real joy whatsoever. Every doctor I've seen has been thoroughly clueless, and most have negatively impacted my quality of life with misdiagnoses and prescriptions for medications that nearly killed me through adverse physical and psychiatric reactions.

I've been diagnosed with major depression (age 12), panic disorder (16), and mood disorder nos>>>Bipolar nos>>>Bipolar 1 (18).

I've expressed countless times that I have an insane amount of stress and low tolerance for it, have always had a very hard time falling asleep/lay awake in the morning fatigued, and I've suggested a few times it might be a circadian/hormonal problem to my pdoc. During my third hospitalization, a medical doctor finally mentioned that I might have too much adrenaline and tested for a pheochromocytoma (adrenal tumor) using a 24 hour urine test, but found nothing.

Over the course of all this, anytime I sought treatment, I was already at a complete breaking point (covert nervous breakdown) and unable to effectively communicate to save my own life.

During my late teens it got so bad that I completely forgot that there could be any joy in life. My willpower to change anything was non existent because I had given up.

_________

Well, it turns out I just had adrenal fatigue from a ****** home life (constant exposure to fighting parents), ****** social life, ****** diet, chronic insomnia, being sedentary, and and a natural inclination towards anxiety and obsessiveness, made a million times worse by the things above.

Recovering from adrenal fatigue: How your body can overcome chronic stress and feel energized again

Thousands of dollars wasted because the problem couldn't be pinpointed because adrenal fatigue isn't taught or brought up at all in medical school. To them, if your thyroid hormone is in their acceptable limits, the stem of all your problems has to be psychiatric.

I just needed to rant.

Has anyone else been falsely diagnosed and loaded with pills that made them sick, while the real problem was constantly overlooked?

How frustrating. And unfortunately you are not alone. Pdocs are fast to blame mental illness, they get to charge you heaps and drug you that way! I bet if we did a poll of how many people were misdiagnosed you'd have an overwhelming response. Not to mention all the people who blindly follow their pdocs orders and dont do their own research. How many people are out there suffering like you because they dont realise that Pdocs do NOT have all the answers and they are not always right. People should be warned before they take these meds that there are awful and LONG TERM side effects that could infact make them worse - especially if they have been misdiagnosed - which appears to happen more often than not.

Im pleased for you that you have discovered this while you are still young. Your life is far from over, you have healing to do but you know the truth and path now. Goodluck.

[Anneinside]

I have to disagree with Supanova on some points. Pdocs don't need to fill their appointment slots with people who don't have mental illness.... there are plenty of people with mental illness who can't get in because they are so busy. It is not uncommon for people to have to wait 3 to 6 months to get an intake appointment. Instead of saying OMG more drugs, we should be saying thank you... there are more drugs that might help me. Pdocs are people and will make mistakes just as your family doctor makes mistakes. My family doctor treated me for GERD for a year when what I needed was to have my gallbladder removed. I don't believe, and there is no proof, that "misdiagnosed - which appears to happen more often than not" is true.

Yes, the role of the pdoc is to medicate. As you can see by my list in my signature I take quite a few psych drugs, but my meds for blood pressure, stomach acid, cholesterol, and asthma are quickly taking over. I also list ECT because I want people to see that it is a valid treatment. I do have it every 3 weeks and have NO memory defects, only a slight headache the day of the treatment.

[monochromatic]

My pdoc, general doc, and endo all told me that adrenal fatigue isn't a real thing.

Which bummed me out because thats what I thought was going on with me before I was diagnosed bipolar.

I'd love to hear if you find relief focusing on that! Keep us in touch!

[henrydavidtherobot]

I had the opposite problem. It took me forever to get diagnosed because they thought that I had hyperthyroidism.