[Peanut842]

I read the "what to tell your primary care doc" thread and found it very informative. I have a lot of difficulty with this. I most definitely dissociate when I see my doctors. I recently had a neurologist treat me like I made everything up, because of this. I was just scared because of the dissociative symptoms which I thought might have been ms. Combined with nerve damage in my leg. When the MRI came back normal, the doctor mocked me and made me feel horrible. This was 6 months before I started to understand the dissociation. I imagine that I do appear like I'm changing my story or disconnected.

[amandalouise]

Originally Posted by Peanut842

I read the "what to tell your primary care doc" thread and found it very informative. I have a lot of difficulty with this. I most definitely dissociate when I see my doctors. I recently had a neurologist treat me like I made everything up, because of this. I was just scared because of the dissociative symptoms which I thought might have been ms. Combined with nerve damage in my leg. When the MRI came back normal, the doctor mocked me and made me feel horrible. This was 6 months before I started to understand the dissociation. I imagine that I do appear like I'm changing my story or disconnected.

yea it can be hard to know somethings wrong but treatment providers not understanding. one thing that helps me through any diagnostic process is knowing that with each test saying this is normal or that is normal it narrows down the "playing field" and knocks out what it isnt so that what it is can shine through.

Example it took 4 years for me to be diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (a physical health problem) it took all those years because the symptoms are shared with many other mental and physical and normal problems/diagnosis. As each one proved to be "not it" that narrowed down what "it" was, got us that much closer to what the problem really was.

the process of diagnosing dissociation /dissociative problems in some people also take a long time because dissociation is a normal reaction, just like getting angry or laughing, or being happy is a normal reaction in life. from that normal section of dissociation it moves into the abnormal (the dissociative disorders). here in america mental disorders have a set of diagnostic criteria that has to be met before a person can be labeled as having that mental disorder.

here is where you can read about the dissociative disorders and what the diagnostic criteria for each of them is here in the USA...

http://forums.psychcentral.com/disso...s-dsm-5-a.html

since dissociation is a completely normal thing it cant be seen on an MRI or x ray or other physical body scan tests. its not like looking into the persons body and seeing a broken bone or the brain misfiring the wrong way or a muscle spasm when stimulated. those tests are done to ....rule out.... physical health problems that may be causing similar symptoms like those with dissociative disorders. ie a brains neurons firing at a fster or slower than normal rate can cause a person to feel spacy, disconnected and appear ro have alternate personalities but instead its a physical health problem called epilepsy or seizure disorder not a dissociative one.

the fact that your MRI was normal that just knocked out a whole bag of physical and mental diagnosis's of what you dont have. now it will be that much clearer for them to evaluate /test some more to either knock ot some more of what it isnt and get closer to what really is the problem /diagnosis.

it takes time to be diagnosed with a dissociative disorder, for some people as many as 10-20 years.. try to be patient. one way you can make the diagnosis process quicker is by asking your treatment providers for a psychiatric evaluation for dissociative disorders. this is a very long process but has specialized physical and mental testing procedures, it involves meetings with a psychiatrist. oral and computerized tests, physical health testing, IQ testing, some places require 2 or more weeks of hospitalization in a mental facility for observing mood switching, medication evaluations, and other reasons....

once all is done you will have a comprehensive diagnosis of everything and a specialized treatment plan to address those diagnosis's.