who has been misdiagnosed as bipolar?

[Guest guest]

I'm curious.........

who else has been misdiagnosed as bipolar, or something else, besides

myself? for how long did misdiagnosis last (how long were you under

that label) and what were your experiences...........

if for some of you it is too painful to write about that's okay of

course..........and then for some it might be therapeutic to get it

out.

I was misdiagnosed as bipolar at 17......very shortly before my 18th

birthday.............

I had taken a night trip onto the beltway, in my

PJ's..........curiosity, and medication (Celexa) induced fearlessness

of the dark (before that I feared the dark.) contributed to that

trip. No one knew until I told my parents............I told them

because I was very excited about it. they were not amused, and the

psychiatrist I was seeing (because he thought I might have OCD, that

was reason for the Celexa) said I should go into hospital to be

observed. Then bipolar diagnosis came.................

Lived with wrong dx and heavy medication for a little over 3 years.

Then at the end of 2004 I had an idea. I would leave

home..........and not tell beforehand. I planned this, with a friend

whom I had met at a college before.......for a month. I left on Jan

14th 2005........

Time is limited so I will pick up on that explanation later. I'll

also go back and describe my experiences.

Athena Ivan

[Guest guest]

Hi

I can see why it happened. The people arround you

don't understand how frustrating it is operating with

only 25% of the imformation which they have, and also

the frustration of being shunned all the time by

others. This will cause large mood swings, which they

do not see any reason for. Their intepreation is that

you have a mental health problem, when you get to the

doctor s/he may take the easy way out, which is to

prescribe medication. From their point of view they

have solved the problem.

DIane Kivi

--- Athena Ivan wrote:

> I'm curious.........

> who else has been misdiagnosed as bipolar, or

> something else, besides

> myself? for how long did misdiagnosis last (how long

> were you under

> that label) and what were your

> experiences...........

> if for some of you it is too painful to write about

> that's okay of

> course..........and then for some it might be

> therapeutic to get it

> out.

>

> I was misdiagnosed as bipolar at 17......very

> shortly before my 18th

> birthday.............

>

> I had taken a night trip onto the beltway, in my

> PJ's..........curiosity, and medication (Celexa)

> induced fearlessness

> of the dark (before that I feared the dark.)

> contributed to that

> trip. No one knew until I told my

> parents............I told them

> because I was very excited about it. they were not

> amused, and the

> psychiatrist I was seeing (because he thought I

> might have OCD, that

> was reason for the Celexa) said I should go into

> hospital to be

> observed. Then bipolar diagnosis

> came.................

>

> Lived with wrong dx and heavy medication for a

> little over 3 years.

> Then at the end of 2004 I had an idea. I would leave

>

> home..........and not tell beforehand. I planned

> this, with a friend

> whom I had met at a college before.......for a

> month. I left on Jan

> 14th 2005........

>

> Time is limited so I will pick up on that

> explanation later. I'll

> also go back and describe my experiences.

>

> Athena Ivan

>

>

>

>

__________________________________________________

[Guest guest]

> who else has been misdiagnosed as bipolar, or something else,

> besides myself?

It's very common for autistics to be misdiagnosed for a number of

different things, particularly the older autistics such as myself who

weren't diagnosed in childhood. I was misdiagnosed as bipolar some

years ago, although it's a rather understandable mistake considering

that some of my autistic behaviors (such as stims) can definitely

look like manic behavior, and I do suffer from clinical depression.

Another common misdiagnosis is Antisocial Personality Disorder. NTs,

being unable to read our autistic body language and so on, don't

recognize the way we express our emotions and mistakenly assume that

we don't have any. I was never diagnosed with APD myself, but

several people (including my parents and mental health care

professionals) often made comments that pointed in that direction.

My father insisted that I had no feelings at all, which is about as

far from the truth as you can get; I think my emotions are actually

stronger than they are with most other people.

--Parrish