How do you feel about your diagnosis?

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Do you ever find yourself disagreeing with the diagnosis you've been given? For a while I thought I might be a (mental) hypochondriac, because there are about 8 different disorders whose descriptions could fit my symptoms, but on some level, what does it matter? Isn't the whole point of diagnoses to group commonly co-occurring symptoms in order to identify effective treatment - so shouldn't that ultimately be the goal, even when there isn't an obvious diagnosis? I just wanted to know if anyone else was frustrated with this process of getting told that everything is wrong with you when you feel okay, or that nothing is wrong with you when you feel absolutely awful.

I'm ticked-off about my diagnoses. I'm diagnosed with about 10 different things some of which are very contradictory. I'm almost positive I have Aspergers but that is the one thing that I can not get officially diagnosed with. I was diagnosed with dyslexia & ADHD sense I started school. I agree with those diagnoses because I had lots of learning problems that fit those profiles. I had a mental breakdown when I was 20 when I was in my 1st relationship. I was having lots of panic attacks & mood swings. 1st psych I saw believed I had AS & she referred me for testing but the psych I saw(& every one else I saw since for things) did not think I had AS because they thought I communicated too well verbally & seemed too intelligent to have anything on the autism spectrum so the quacks looked for other diagnoses that could explain my some of my different issues. Schizoid Personality is my primary diagnoses; I was an extreme loner who was detached party because of my AS problems since I was very little. Other diagnoses were~ Borderline Personality because because of my Aspie meltdowns & having lots of emotional problems some of which were related to different problems I had due to my AS. Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder because I'm very picky about routines & schedules which is AS related & also because I was kind of controlling at times due to my anxiety issues that docs didn't really recognize. I was told I fit all the main features of Schizotypal Personality(didn't get officially diagnosed with it for some reason) due to being paranoid because of my depression & anxiety(some of my anxiety is related to my AS stuff) also sometimes mistaking noises for voices due to AS sensory/processing issues. OCD; I agree with that diagnoses but I think some it is a learned thing that was caused by my AS issues when I was very little; for example I obsessively worry about making mistakes because I had problems doing things rite partly related to my AS & dyslexia; I got in trouble or had lots of other problems as a result. Post Traumatic Stress because I was bullied a lot but some of that was related to my AS. Depression which I had bad but part of why I was depressed was because & I had lost the 1st person I was close to & connected with & I had problems being close & connecting with others because of my AS; also other life circumstances were kind of unfavorable partly due to other problems I had that were also AS related. Panic Disorder which I agree with because I did have lots of panic attacks but they were caused/triggered by being nervous about lots of things & some of that nervousness was because of problems I had all my life which were related to AS. So to sum it up the psychs thought my issues were lots of different things & did not realize that were all somewhat related to one root-cause which was AS

A massive sense of relief. I felt the same way about both my Aspergers diagnosis (when I was 12) and my diagnosis of ULTRADIAN bipolar 2 (about two months ago). With other diagnoses I have been given - ADHD, straight bipolar 2, I felt this sense of uncertainty and discomfort - because they just didn't seem quite right. It didn't feel quite comfortable, and I knew there were things these diagnoses didn't explain.

For example - just being diagnosed with Bipolar (where the minimum length of time a mood episode must last for was 4 days - as a psychology student I own a copy of the current DSM IV which I trawl from time to time) didn't make sense because it did not explain what had happened to me. I kept feeling like each day I had experienced "every symptom in the book" but when I considered maybe I had had a "mixed episode" that didn't fit either because you were supposed to get full blown manic symptoms as well as all the other symptoms and I only ever reached hypomanic type states.

However, after seeing a leading bipolar specialist and being diagnosed with Ultradian bipolar all the pieces have fallen into place, as my cycling is often hourly to two hourly, or even half hourly. This can make it difficult, because like mum says, everybody goes through constant emotional changes throughout the day so why am I abnormal? However, when those emotional changes represent constant swings between depression and hypomania and are so crippling they turn you into a complete invalid (unable to even reliably feed yourself let alone live some sort of a life) without mood stabilizing medication you know you have a problem.

All of my diagnoses are spot-on. I compulsively researched each one. Some of my diagnoses are ones I correctly self-diagnosed myself with and knew to seek treatment for specifically. My AS diagnosis was met with lots of skepticism by me at first, because I only knew the stereotypical symptoms, but I read and read and read everything I could, and delving into research made me see how AS is my life. If you don't think one or more of your diagnoses is correct, please tell your doctors! They do NOT know everything! Psychiatric diagnoses are VERY subjective in nature, and if there are red flags that diagnosis "x" isn't what you're experiencing, the doctors need to know. Overdiagnosis is extremely common nowadays, which is unfortunate. Just because you're moody doesn't make you bipolar. Just because you like things perfect doesn't mean you have OCD. There's much more to it than that, and a lot of doctors today are throwing out psychiatric diagnoses like they're diagnosing the common cold. Very, very frustrating...

I've been diagnosed with various disorders/syndroms starting at the age of 14. Now 29 I've kind of gotten over the names. I tell my psych team that I don't really care what label they put on me; if it helps me achieve my goals of independence and a stable adult life I'm OK with it. AS/BP - and avoidant personality disorder - seems to be the combo that works for me.

I was diagnosed when I was three, but no one really told me about my Learning Disability that slows my processing skills until I was about 18 years old when my mom was talking to someone about my disability and how I am in class. A year later, I was diagnosed for having mild anxiouty Disorder. And I think, I'm not sure, but seeing my documentation last summer, I think I might have Mild PDD-NOS. When I found out about those, I wasn't really upset about it or anything. I actually said to myself, "...Well...That explains alot."

I don't find what I have a burden or a problem. Granted, I have days where I wish I could learn faster; especially on bad to really bad days, along with when I feel more anxious in certain situations than others, but I digress because that's with anyone. I am 21 years old mind you, and I find what I have a good thing for many reasons:

The first reason is if someone says something to me, after a minute or two, depending on what it is, I won't remember that much of it. Literally, I won't remember it at all that's a good thing for me because if I get into an argument or if I want to get rid of something that someone says that I don't want to hear, my mind just erases it out of my head. LOL!

The other reason is that I work better when I'm alone and away from other people. It helps me concentrate on my work in college.

Granted, the forgetting part can annoy me when I'm trying to remember what I need to do for class which is why I bring a recorder with me just in case that has been extremely helpful.

And the other reason is that I can be empathatic, if that's the word. Meaning I can be understanding to people who have certain problems and I can talk to them about how I got over it.

In the end, I don't let what I have get me down. It's a part of me that people love and I don't care if people say what I have is a good thing or not because it'll effect how my way of learning. They're not the boss of my mind, body, or spirit. Only God is. I am who I am.

I suspect those of us, like myself, who were diagnosed a adults have a completely different perspective here than those who were diagnosed as children. If you lived most of your life undiagnosed, and thus, inthe dark about who you really were, you were generally relieved to finally learn what was "wrong" with you. I felt liberated and empowered when I finally had a name other than "misfit" to use for myself and knew that all the mess-ups in my life had not been just my fault, That It was not that I was just too lazy, too stubborn or too finicky to get or keep a job/ /husband/ social life. The diagnosis of Aspergers answered many of the questions that I had had about myself. However, if I had been diagnosed at an early age, I might have rebelled against it. After all, what kid wants to be told that they will never be like othr kids, that they were born differently wired, and no matter how much they try, they will never be , ah, normal?

I bear a deep grudge to the woman who diagnosed me, but I feel nothing about my diagnosis. *shrug*