Great... now I'm bipolar???

[Guest guest]



I went to go see a new dr last week. I have a major sensitivity to reverse alarms. Never occurred to me that the dr's office was next to the hospital. Hindsight - wish it came a littler earlier.

So we're talking and the reverse alarms start from the ambulances I suppose. I get upset. Panicky. Stressed. Stumble over my words. Get confused, can't follow the conversation since I'm being audibly accosted by these reverse alarms.

Dr. starts asking me these off the wall questions - personal questions about my marriage and such - and this was an internist - not a psychologist. I got snippy because 1) of the questions and 2)trying to contend with the noises.... snippy and annoyed - not a good combination apparently.

She then suggests that I'm bi-polar. I'm not bi-polar - I'm pretty confident that in the last few decades of seeing people in the mental health community that at some point, I'd have been diagnosed as bipolar if I was bipolar. Seeing me for 10 minutes and diagnosing me as bipolar - um, no.

Seems my demeanor and attitude changed without warning when I was being annoyed by reverse alarms. I could have handled the dr's invasive, nosey questions but couple that with the reverse alarms, I turned into, apparently, a crazy patient.

I'm torn between just not going back to that dr (really even if she was a great dr, not sure I'd go back just because of the location - but given that she's an unpleasant person anyway..., maybe it's not a big loss) and 2) writing her a little note and 1)complaining about her invasive questions and 2)suggesting if she has that much interest in psychology, that maybe she should have chosen her specialty a little more wisely. I left there in tears. Tears because of how I was treated and tears because of just the stress of trying to act normal with those noises but not being able to. I tried to explain my issue (which I didn't feel like I should have had to do, I was there for an issue that had nothing to do with my hearing/ears/mental health. At one point she tilted her head at me the way a dog tilts it's head at you when you say 'wanna go for a walk?'. It was an embarrassing and humiliating experience. The dr's bedside manner was that of an evil troll. It was so hard to talk about my sound issues anyway... with anyone.... but especially while they're occurring and while I'm being looked at like I'm a nut. The appointment just didn't go very well. At all.

Anyone else ever have a situation like this - or feel that you get a subpar level of care when you have to fess up about your auditory issues?

Pam