phil d
Well-known member
Ok,now most people who know me will know that for many many years I've been plagued with mental health problems,various people have made various diagnosese,ranging from anxiety,right through to BiPolar.Anyway things were going downhill rapidly,the highs became shorter and less frequent and the lows(severe depression,feeling suicidal and the angry outbursts) became more prolonged and severe.The tablet's were not working and my GP sent me to see another "specialist" now from bitter experience I know that most of these people seem to disregard what you tell them and manipulate what you say so that you fit neatly into one of their little "boxes"! If you don't fit you either get ignored or put on the merry go round,well this new one was different,she listened to what I had to say,made some notes,then announced that she didn't think it was BiPolar and wanted me to see another specialist for an assessment.I agreed to this and after a few minor hiccups I had an assessment last Monday,the woman was very nice,we chatted for over an hour,she asked loads of questions and there were quite a few tests.When we'd finished she explained that the test was for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and that on a scale of 1 to 100 anything under 35 meant normal and anything over was PTSD in various degree's.I had a test score of 75! Meaning very severe PTSD,she reckons these levels are normally only seen in combat troops,naturally sceptical I asked how she could prove what she was saying,she then produced a book written by some eminent psychiatrists who specialize in PTSD and proceeded to show me some of the content's.There to my great suprise were the answers to the questions,almost word for word to what I'd given.She stated that there were only 2 ways that I could have given those answers,either I genuinely had PTSD,or I was extremely clever and had memorized a whole book that to be honest I'd never even heard of!
The upshot is that all the medication I've been given over the last 20 odd years was a waste of time! I was naturally quite annoyed by this and asked what we did next,It's all very complicated but apparently a lot of it lies with one part of the brain becoming overactive due to a traumatic incident and this then causes another part of the brain to effectively go into shutdown,part of the treatment involves "reprogramming" the brain to it's "default" settings.Anyway starting Monday I've got 16 weeks of therapy,it sounds a lot but it's only a couple of hours at the centre,plus several hours "homework" each week,then depending on how that goes defines where we go from there.
I,m happy that I finally have a proper confirmed diagnosis,however what annoys me is that all this could have been done many years ago if just one of the many so called experts I'd seen had actually taken notice of what I was saying rather that trying to fit me into one of their little "boxes"!
I don't want to go into what happened to cause the trauma,I'm not ready for that yet,but what I would say is this,if anyone is suffering from some form of mental health issue and you don't feel the treatment is working,don't be afraid to create a fuss,ask questions and demand a,second or even third opinion,If I had, years ago,I may have been saved a lot of problems.
The upshot is that all the medication I've been given over the last 20 odd years was a waste of time! I was naturally quite annoyed by this and asked what we did next,It's all very complicated but apparently a lot of it lies with one part of the brain becoming overactive due to a traumatic incident and this then causes another part of the brain to effectively go into shutdown,part of the treatment involves "reprogramming" the brain to it's "default" settings.Anyway starting Monday I've got 16 weeks of therapy,it sounds a lot but it's only a couple of hours at the centre,plus several hours "homework" each week,then depending on how that goes defines where we go from there.
I,m happy that I finally have a proper confirmed diagnosis,however what annoys me is that all this could have been done many years ago if just one of the many so called experts I'd seen had actually taken notice of what I was saying rather that trying to fit me into one of their little "boxes"!
I don't want to go into what happened to cause the trauma,I'm not ready for that yet,but what I would say is this,if anyone is suffering from some form of mental health issue and you don't feel the treatment is working,don't be afraid to create a fuss,ask questions and demand a,second or even third opinion,If I had, years ago,I may have been saved a lot of problems.