Well, at least you can be pretty certain you have panic disorder and social phobia.
As for ADHD and autism and the other stuff, I suggest looking at a few things.
Firstly, what were the two guys' credentials? Usually a specialist is better equipped to diagnose something in their field accurately than a regular doctor is. So if one was a GP and the other was a psychiatrist, then the psychiatrist is more likely to be right.
Second, how did each meeting go? Did you feel like they were listening to you, and reflecting back what you were saying accurately? Or did they seem to ignore stuff you said, or explain to you how your perceptions can't be right? Or even accuse you of lying when you said something that was actually true? For example, I had one doctor say I couldn't have hypermobility (a joint issue that I've since been diagnosed with) because I didn't have knee pain. In fact, I do have knee pain and had forgotten to mention that. But when I told him so, he accused me of lying in order to get the diagnosis I wanted.
Third, research each condition. Especially look for first-person accounts by people who have that condition. Does it seem to describe you? If you've been diagnosed with something and you read about it and it doesn't sound like you at all, it's either a misdiagnosis or your self-awareness is poor.
Fourth, if possible, ask someone who's known you for years (preferably since you were a small child) and can be trusted to give an honest opinion. You don't need to get into each condition and what it means - focus on the symptoms instead. Have they seen you do stuff like that? Do they think those features describe you? For example, it can be hard to tell if you're missing social cues, but someone who knows you might be able to say 'yeah, many times I've seen someone so annoyed they're about to blow up at you and you seem to have no clue about it' (my Dad said that to me when I asked him).
And lastly, even if the diagnosis isn't 100% accurate, the treatment might still help. For example, right now in counseling I'm getting a kind of treatment known as DBT. DBT is designed for people with borderline personality disorder, which I don't have. But my particular mix of autism & PTSD has resulted in some similar problems to BPD, such as moods that spiral wildly out of control in response to a small provocation, and difficulty with self-soothing when I'm upset. Because I have a lot of the same problems as BPD people, I figured the same treatment might help, and so far it seems to be working. In my case it's a deliberate strategy, but if I'd gotten DBT because of a misdiagnosis, would that really change the fact that I'm getting an effective treatment for the particular issues I have?
03 Apr 2016, 7:19 am
