misdiagnosed with bipolar disorder 1.

[ch119]

What can you do to get the misdiagnoses off your medical record, or at least listed as a misdiagnoses? Has anyone else experienced an increase in insurance premiums due to this incorrect diagnosis?

I feel I was misdiagnosed with bipolar 25 years ago after dropping out of school my freshman year. I feel what I had was a situational depression. I spent years being treated with various drugs and talk therapy. I haven't taken any meds for years, and my mother just died at Christmas which should have resulted in a depressive episode. It didn't. My problem now is that I can't get health insurance unless I have a group policy. I'm anxious to know if there is a way to get rediagnosed so that I can have this Scarlett Letter off my record, and get normal health insurance quotes like others who suffer normal depressive episodes. My life would be so much easier and less expensive if I could somehow find a way to be rediagnosed as normal depression occasionally.
Thanks for any input.

[Unregistered]

I have had a similar (not nearly as intense as your experience). I had minor manic feelings after taking Cymbalta for 3 days on a low dose (25 mg). I felt the best I had felt in years but in an odd euphoric way, dancing in public places, overstimulated. The doc tried to put me on a mood stablizer and I had an allergic reaction. So I stopped taking it after a non-psych doc said to stop because of the allergy. I haven't taken anything for 2 weeks and I feel mostly normal. I am sure I have a little depression but I am getting a 2nd opinion. I never had any remotely manic symtoms til I took Cymbalta.

Doctors need to admit that these drugs can cause symtoms that mimic actual mental disorders. My primary care person agrees so this is not just my non-medically trained opinion.

[ohfaithful]

I'm struggling with this diagnosis myself and wondering if there is anyone else out there... Apparently, as some as said, this is very common but I think it is more common with women, particularly when who are in peri or menopause... What I find interesting is the horrible impact that this diagnosis has had on my life. Doctors tend to downplay it, but finding someone to help you to find the underlying cause of the symptoms is like pulling teeth! Instead of trying to help, they will quickly refer you back to your psychiastrist... I, for one, think this has a lot to do with not wanting to get involved.

Someone already mentioned thyroid problems, but other issues can be food allergies, hormone imbalances (female or male), medication, etc.

Years of being on the "cocktails" have left me with memory loss, seizures, morbid obesity, and a host of other problems... My mood swings are extreme and can change on a dime, however, my gut feeling and some evidence shows that this all could be HORMONAL!

Anyone else out there...

[Comatose74fi]

Hello all of you in this thread. I am one of those who also was diagnosed with bi-polar disorder and had ten years of my life destroyed because of this. It turned out I had a thyroid disease called Hashimoto's. The onset of Hashimoto's Disease often starts with hyperthyroidism that later on swings into hypothyroidism, but instead of thyroxin I was prescribed anti-depressants first. It was called Cipramil and it threw me into a full blown psychosis with hallucinations and everything. I lost a lot of weight and couldn't hold any food. The doctor who gave me the pills told me she didn't want to touch my case and signed me over to a Psychiatrist, who took ten minutes to diagnose me with bi-polar disorder. It sounded good at the time, but it strikes me now that he didn't want any blood samples taken or anything else, he just prescribed me drugs. It feels now that he almost experimented on me. I got Zyprexa and gained 20 kg of weight, I got Risperdal and fell to sleep on my bike, I got Deprakine (which is an anti-epilepsy drug) and became paralyzed in my own bed. I developed a horrible migraine which would send me to bed up to twice a week. I had to quit my studies just weeks before my Master's and in the end I was on 7 different prescriptions and had some 40 different symtoms, none of them were psychological or psychiatric. I wasn't depressed, manic, suicidal or irrational, just so so very tired and aching all over. My hair fell off. My skin was itching, I had chronical stomach pains, constipation, nausea, no apetite, no sexual desires, no will to do anything, a body temperature around 35,5 celsius and a chill to the bones. On my own free will I started to cut down on all these medicines and had a long period of withdrawal but slowly starting to come back to some form of life worth living. During this cut-back time period I gained some form of will to fight and find an answer to my problems. During these ten years on psychotic drugs I received no understand and no respect from doctors. I experienced the stigma of being labelled as a "mental case" an no one took me seriously, not even when I was rushed into the emergency after being found unconscious on the kitchen floor with my baby daughter left untended for. I went to an Endocrinologist that really tried to help me. He suspected Cushings Syndrome, which I've learned is a form of cancer, but when it wasn't, he just phoned me and said "good news, you are not ill". End of story. All my own investigations were leading me to some form of thyroid disease, I suspected hypothyroidism. I started seeking alternative therapies and an electrophysiologist started treating me for hypothyroidism. Over the past two years I've seen him on regular basis and is now on almost zero medication. From 30 mg Cipralex to 2,5 mg and from 300 mg x 2 Seroquel to 25 mg and I still have no mental symptoms. I have chosen to stay with this mini dosis for one reason only: the drugs have deprived me of my natural ability to sleep. Without them I can simply not fall to sleep! I've dropped almost 25 kg of weight, too, without much change of my diet.
By chance I heard of an expert on thyroid diseases and decided to give her a last shot, after all I had no more dignity to lose. And believe it or not, now when I had cut down on my medicines, the blood tests showed clearly that I had hypothyroidism. She later diagnosed me with Hashimoto, which is an autoimmun disease of the thyroid gland, a kind of chronic inflammation. She said that I must have been sick for at least ten years and that it is managable but not curable. If I had gotten help before, it probably wouldn't have developed into a chronic disease. The electrophysiologist agrees, and recently I also have been seeing a doctor of classical Chinese medicine that says the same. The disease plus the many drugs I've been forced to take have also done damage to my liver and spleen and the irregular menstruations caused by Hashimoto's have given me Endometriosis and cysts on my ovaries. So, one can honestly say that I am ill, but I haven't been of these high spirits in more than ten years because I finally know the name of my demons and I am on thyroxin, not anti-psychotics and strong Migraine medications. I learned from the Chinese doctor that liver problems causes Migraines according to their traditions, and it makes much sense in my case.
In my case it's clear that the doctors are very keen on trying out new drugs on people, and that drugs can cause the very diseases they are trying to cure. Besides my thyroid doctor I trust no one within the medical profession and nowadays I am seeking alternative ways to heal myself. I encourage you all to try doing the same, and I hope it will help you too.
I am aware that my story is long, but it feels good to have shared it with you, and I hope you all had the patience to read it. Thanks,

L.

I'm sorry you all went through horrible misdiagnoses and were labeled as a result.

There is a condition which can mimic and even temporarily cause bipolar-like symptoms - thyroid disease. People can and have been erroneously treated for bipolar disorder when in reality they had a treatable disease which alleviates the bipolar-like symptoms. And Lithium can actually make thyroid disease worse.

[ohfaithful]

Hello all of you in this thread. I am one of those who also was diagnosed with bi-polar disorder and had ten years of my life destroyed because of this. It turned out I had a thyroid disease called Hashimoto's. The onset of Hashimoto's Disease often starts with hyperthyroidism that later on swings into hypothyroidism, but instead of thyroxin I was prescribed anti-depressants first. It was called Cipramil and it threw me into a full blown psychosis with hallucinations and everything. I lost a lot of weight and couldn't hold any food. The doctor who gave me the pills told me she didn't want to touch my case and signed me over to a Psychiatrist, who took ten minutes to diagnose me with bi-polar disorder. It sounded good at the time, but it strikes me now that he didn't want any blood samples taken or anything else, he just prescribed me drugs. It feels now that he almost experimented on me. I got Zyprexa and gained 20 kg of weight, I got Risperdal and fell to sleep on my bike, I got Deprakine (which is an anti-epilepsy drug) and became paralyzed in my own bed. I developed a horrible migraine which would send me to bed up to twice a week. I had to quit my studies just weeks before my Master's and in the end I was on 7 different prescriptions and had some 40 different symtoms, none of them were psychological or psychiatric. I wasn't depressed, manic, suicidal or irrational, just so so very tired and aching all over. My hair fell off. My skin was itching, I had chronical stomach pains, constipation, nausea, no apetite, no sexual desires, no will to do anything, a body temperature around 35,5 celsius and a chill to the bones. On my own free will I started to cut down on all these medicines and had a long period of withdrawal but slowly starting to come back to some form of life worth living. During this cut-back time period I gained some form of will to fight and find an answer to my problems. During these ten years on psychotic drugs I received no understand and no respect from doctors. I experienced the stigma of being labelled as a "mental case" an no one took me seriously, not even when I was rushed into the emergency after being found unconscious on the kitchen floor with my baby daughter left untended for. I went to an Endocrinologist that really tried to help me. He suspected Cushings Syndrome, which I've learned is a form of cancer, but when it wasn't, he just phoned me and said "good news, you are not ill". End of story. All my own investigations were leading me to some form of thyroid disease, I suspected hypothyroidism. I started seeking alternative therapies and an electrophysiologist started treating me for hypothyroidism. Over the past two years I've seen him on regular basis and is now on almost zero medication. From 30 mg Cipralex to 2,5 mg and from 300 mg x 2 Seroquel to 25 mg and I still have no mental symptoms. I have chosen to stay with this mini dosis for one reason only: the drugs have deprived me of my natural ability to sleep. Without them I can simply not fall to sleep! I've dropped almost 25 kg of weight, too, without much change of my diet.
By chance I heard of an expert on thyroid diseases and decided to give her a last shot, after all I had no more dignity to lose. And believe it or not, now when I had cut down on my medicines, the blood tests showed clearly that I had hypothyroidism. She later diagnosed me with Hashimoto, which is an autoimmun disease of the thyroid gland, a kind of chronic inflammation. She said that I must have been sick for at least ten years and that it is managable but not curable. If I had gotten help before, it probably wouldn't have developed into a chronic disease. The electrophysiologist agrees, and recently I also have been seeing a doctor of classical Chinese medicine that says the same. The disease plus the many drugs I've been forced to take have also done damage to my liver and spleen and the irregular menstruations caused by Hashimoto's have given me Endometriosis and cysts on my ovaries. So, one can honestly say that I am ill, but I haven't been of these high spirits in more than ten years because I finally know the name of my demons and I am on thyroxin, not anti-psychotics and strong Migraine medications. I learned from the Chinese doctor that liver problems causes Migraines according to their traditions, and it makes much sense in my case.
In my case it's clear that the doctors are very keen on trying out new drugs on people, and that drugs can cause the very diseases they are trying to cure. Besides my thyroid doctor I trust no one within the medical profession and nowadays I am seeking alternative ways to heal myself. I encourage you all to try doing the same, and I hope it will help you too.
I am aware that my story is long, but it feels good to have shared it with you, and I hope you all had the patience to read it. Thanks,

L.

Wow....this story sounds so familiar...can you believe that I was tested at the beginning of the year...finally...and was told that I was hyperthyroid. When I asked for a trial of T3, she told me that WE WOULD WATCH IT... Now, I'm quite confused with this form of treatment, watching it..

It is very hard to get doctors to take me seriously too, it almost feels that they want no part of an ongoing diagnosis that could be wrong! I'm beginning to think that it has something to do with the legal ramifications of it all.

Even with the chronic seizures, I'm blown off because I know they are directly related to the "cocktails!"

Thanks for relating your story...I'm sure there are many more people out there!

[CRT]

I too was wrongly 'diagnosed' with 'bipolar disorder'. When I was 19 I took some ecstasy, it was fun, I seemed to return to normal. A few days later, I was awoken by my mother in the middle of the night. A sudden death in the family had occured. My brain was overloaded just trying to metabolize its first ever dose of hard drugs just days before, now it's job was to deal with the stress of watching a loved one slowly die over the course of one full day.

I had a drug induced psychosis as a result. Unfortunately, our society hands extraordinary power to one man alone, the shrink who saw me a few days later after my family became worried after I had not slept.

A drug test came up positive, but it was IGNORED. I am an atheist and had viewed scientists as the highest of the high minded people in the world, I had so much trust and respect for this 'man of science' in front of me, a confused stressed to the max 19 year old, and he told me I had a genetic brain defect, and that I would need to take pills for the rest of my life. I had no history of mental illness. Nor did anyone in my family.

I trusted them. Over the next five years my identity was crushed. I assumed the identity they handed me in place of my shattered life, that of a walking birth defect. The stigma nearly killed me. I put on 20 kilos and was in and out of hospitals, accumulated thousands in debt as I languished and failed college.

Through the drugged out haze, the ultimate punishment for one night of ecstasy, I eventually learned through the web, after years of reading on and off, through the haze, that psychiatry IS a pseudoscience.

There can be no doubt that there is some biological basis for psychosis. I do not doubt this. What I want the world to know however is this... the brain is the most complicated organ in the universe. There is no objective biomarker test for alleged chemical imbalance I was supposed to have had. If I died and you cut my brain open you could pinpoint the chemicals that were missing, and furthermore psychiatry is yet to even discover every chemical.

Psychiatry has not a had a significant development since Thorazine in the 50s, every sedated, brain function perturbing drug they have ever come up with is just a slight variation on that random discovery.

My mind and soul and very identity as a human being were raped for five long years. The only reason I am alive today is because I live in the internet age and was able to learn of the stories of others like me, in countries across the western world. If this had happened to me in the pre internet age I would be dead or disabled for life.

At the five year mark, at 24 years of age, I took the plunge and stopped waking up to a self administered chemical lobotomy. Ten months later I have never felt more pure, more human, or more dignified.

I still cannot type the word 'dignity' without a tear coming to my eye however, as that is crux of it. Labelling people for life, flinging them into a society where discriminating against those who have mental health involvement is the last accepted prejudice, and adding to that giving them drugs that make them get the stigma of a fat person, is the most soul destroying prison of mind rape you could imagine.

Psychiatric diagnosis is the most misunderstood application of pure and raw power, far reaching consequences, I cannot own a gun, nor serve my country in high office and be trusted with top secret classified intelligence, the list goes on. And all for what, having a high sensitivity to amphetamines, and having the bad luck of getting my face put in front of ONE man who with the stroke of a pen, changed my life forever.

The pen had a Zyprexa logo on it by the way, so it shows who is really running the show, Big Pharma. Much is said about Scientology and the Antipsychiatry movement being nutcases speaking out against psychiatry. I agree we could have saner looking advocates. The sad truth is we take money and information dissemination where we can get it, even if it is from some alien believing Tom Cruise nutjob. The man's heart was in the right place when he spoke out. And anyone who says it's dangerous to hear about people who have broken free from sanctioned mind rape and ditched the meds is a god **** fool. Millions are disabled worldwide by psychiatry every decade.

Hundreds of thousands are in the ground.

Now I agree there is something biological going on when I went psychotic after the death and the amphetamines, but I also KNOW, in my heart and my head, that psychiatry doesn't know what happened. It is throwing darts at a board, maybe in 800 years they will know how to accurately target chemicals and heal people. But right now, for a problem that requires I would imagine laser precision, they are using a musket shotgun on people's entire systems, not just their brains.

To walk the streets of the town where you once had dignity, to stand among your friends' frivolity on a Saturday night, if you are luck to keep your friends, and to be the whole time TRAPPED in a drug haze, and false idea of who you are, ie a perfectly healthy man who evolved for millions of years thiking he is a worthless pathetic walking birth defect who should not have kids. Its obscene.

I was told by a man of 'science' that I trusted with my life and identity as a man in this world, I was told, that I would risking my future son going insane and killing somebody should I dare have kids. Nazi Eugenics anyone?

I was told to EXPECT to go insane again at ANY TIME. Fancy deciding on a career young man starting out in life? What do you chose? Do you feel a sense of permanence? Why not eat that Quarter Pounder then and make yourself fatter than the drugs made you because NOW youre depressed. You have no future. Why not take ecstasy AGAIN and go insane AGAIN and get stripped naked, drugged with a needle in the buttock, held down by three men when you are not even resisting, and locked in a solitary confinement cell when you have committed no crime?

Mad is the story I tell.

Say no to drugs kids.

Of ALL kinds.

Wow. Thank you.

Currently fighting an eating disorder (my BAD way of coping from past 3 years of crisis after crisis), but <i>thankfully</i> I think I have a good psychiatrist, a stroke of some luck. He was the only nearby one covered by our insurance - AND had a good reputation. I've only been on 2 different antidepressants, the first one I only had to give it a good month or so chance, and when it for sure had nasty side-effects and wasn't helping, I was allowed to switch to a radically different one, that I really think is good. Anyway, he listens, is pretty academic, but not too-too-too "I'm the smart doctor" like so many are. That's so frustrating when you get treated like you're stupid and can't make any decisions, just because you have a psychiatric condition of any sort at all. I am actually treated like I'm intelligent, and not a mentally-challenged burden to society. Like I said, stroke of luck.

So sorry you had to go through that. I'm way too scared to do drugs, for many reasons (surprisingly, none of which include the fact that they could be dangerous...). And one of the main reasons is because I'm afraid a consequence could be (either while on them or afterward) I could seem psychotic and no one would believe me that I'm not. Or, the simple fact that I even took drugs could be extrapolated to be "proof" that I'm mentally unstable, even though millions of "normal" people do, too! But almost anything can be used against you in the right context. That's what's so scary to me. But see? Perhaps I'm "paranoid"! Haha...

Good luck to you. I'm glad you got your life back.

I know you said you are/were(?) atheist, but God is good.

Carley

[amusedfall]

Hi -K,

if you read this please contact me because I need to talk to you.
My email is JDatto@aol.com

my websites are www.bipolarbeware.com
www.myspace.com/drjeffmdphd

thanks, I look forward to talk to you, and if anyone else has been misdiagnosed with bipolar disorder please contact me as well.

Sincerely,

Jeff

Who knows where to start with their story? I am a single mother of four, just that is enough stress to make a person go crazy. My husband decided after 13 yrs he needed to go find HIS happy place. It just happened to be inside a chick named Jennifer..lol I have a interesting sense of humor. So now I am alone raising these children. I am not a cryer no need in feeling sorry for myself even though I now know crying isn't a weakness!! however last yr I just started crying one day and couldn't stop. It kinda freaked me out and all of the sudden the last 13 yrs caught up with me! I was so upset and tired of feeling like **** all the time that I finally relented and went to go "SEE SOMEONE" like everyone loves to tell you.
This is where my nightmare began on my second visit I got to take the mental assessment questionnaire (yay). Because I answered a question YES to sometimes I feel better than other times and overwhelmed a lot I got diagnosed with BIPOLAR. At this point I just wanted to feel better so I went with it. I started taking all these ridiculous strong drugs and got to the point where I couldn't remember my phone #. I read everything I could on Bipolar disorder and it just didn't sound like me. I asked family and friends and they agreed that I didn't have those symptoms. After 2 months on this **** I went to my next and last appt with him. I told him that I did not agree with this diagnoses and I wasn't going to take this stuff anymore. He told me that I was just in denial and that always happens in the beginning of therapy. Then he said " Well I am Bipolar and have been an alcoholic for 30 yrs" and I was in denial, I said well I'm not sure what that has to do with me? I said "I don't know if I am just over burdened by the situations in my life the past few years and my body and brain had had enough or if it might be something else, but I knew this wasn't it". I sat back a min and then I asked him " What happened to you right before you sought help and were diagnosed with Bipolar disorder?" He said " Well I went out on the porch to have some coffee and the pigeons were talking to me." I sat there for a min and then I said" Well if the **** pigeons start talking to me I'll be back!"
I mean seriously it is such a crime that when we are down and we seek an intelligent professional for help we get this. A yr went by and I just continued to deal with everything until I went back to the Doc for one last attempt. After to listening to my story I was diagnosed with adult add. It never dawned on me because I'm not hyper so it was always overlooked and I guess I created such good cooping skills that no one ever picked on it. Whenever I would go to the doc previous to this nightmare they would just tell me that I was depressed because of the stress in my life, but I didn't feel truly depressed just fed up with not knowing why I could be so smart but never accomplish anything which made me feel like I was depressed. I mean even doing the laundry seems like I have to fight the devil to get to the washing machine..lol
What I don't understand is that when Doc's put you on meds of any kind they start you slow at the lowest dose, but they will start at the ceiling with a mental diagnoses?? and will keep you on a drug side effect roller coaster and overlook that these side effects can sometimes in fact give you symptoms you never had in the first place! I am new to this add stuff but everything I have read totally sounds like me, I used to think ADD was a title people used for their bratty kids who wouldn't listen, boy do I feel different now. I am so mad that the frustration I have always had could have been helped by something so easy to figure out. Is there anyone else that wants help but sometimes it feels like you will just get more trouble by going to "SEE SOMEONE"?

Thanks ,
Amusedfall

[ohfaithful]

Who knows where to start with their story? I am a single mother of four, just that is enough stress to make a person go crazy. My husband decided after 13 yrs he needed to go find HIS happy place. It just happened to be inside a chick named Jennifer..lol I have a interesting sense of humor. So now I am alone raising these children. I am not a cryer no need in feeling sorry for myself even though I now know crying isn't a weakness!! however last yr I just started crying one day and couldn't stop. It kinda freaked me out and all of the sudden the last 13 yrs caught up with me! I was so upset and tired of feeling like **** all the time that I finally relented and went to go "SEE SOMEONE" like everyone loves to tell you.
This is where my nightmare began on my second visit I got to take the mental assessment questionnaire (yay). Because I answered a question YES to sometimes I feel better than other times and overwhelmed a lot I got diagnosed with BIPOLAR. At this point I just wanted to feel better so I went with it. I started taking all these ridiculous strong drugs and got to the point where I couldn't remember my phone #. I read everything I could on Bipolar disorder and it just didn't sound like me. I asked family and friends and they agreed that I didn't have those symptoms. After 2 months on this **** I went to my next and last appt with him. I told him that I did not agree with this diagnoses and I wasn't going to take this stuff anymore. He told me that I was just in denial and that always happens in the beginning of therapy. Then he said " Well I am Bipolar and have been an alcoholic for 30 yrs" and I was in denial, I said well I'm not sure what that has to do with me? I said "I don't know if I am just over burdened by the situations in my life the past few years and my body and brain had had enough or if it might be something else, but I knew this wasn't it". I sat back a min and then I asked him " What happened to you right before you sought help and were diagnosed with Bipolar disorder?" He said " Well I went out on the porch to have some coffee and the pigeons were talking to me." I sat there for a min and then I said" Well if the **** pigeons start talking to me I'll be back!"
I mean seriously it is such a crime that when we are down and we seek an intelligent professional for help we get this. A yr went by and I just continued to deal with everything until I went back to the Doc for one last attempt. After to listening to my story I was diagnosed with adult add. It never dawned on me because I'm not hyper so it was always overlooked and I guess I created such good cooping skills that no one ever picked on it. Whenever I would go to the doc previous to this nightmare they would just tell me that I was depressed because of the stress in my life, but I didn't feel truly depressed just fed up with not knowing why I could be so smart but never accomplish anything which made me feel like I was depressed. I mean even doing the laundry seems like I have to fight the devil to get to the washing machine..lol
What I don't understand is that when Doc's put you on meds of any kind they start you slow at the lowest dose, but they will start at the ceiling with a mental diagnoses?? and will keep you on a drug side effect roller coaster and overlook that these side effects can sometimes in fact give you symptoms you never had in the first place! I am new to this add stuff but everything I have read totally sounds like me, I used to think ADD was a title people used for their bratty kids who wouldn't listen, boy do I feel different now. I am so mad that the frustration I have always had could have been helped by something so easy to figure out. Is there anyone else that wants help but sometimes it feels like you will just get more trouble by going to "SEE SOMEONE"?

Thanks ,
Amusedfall

If I were you, I would do an "elimination" diet and then slowly start adding foods back in one at a time. Take a couple of weeks and drink veggie smoothies, and organic yogurts only. You MAY BE surprised to find out that WHAT YOU ARE FEELING is actually an allergic reaction to something in your environment, either what you are eating or what you are rubbing on your skin.

Just try it and get back with me and let me know how it goes! Unfortunately, people are being MISDIAGNOSED EVERY DAY with bipolar disorder and find out that they have allergies to something.

[Unregistered]

I too believe I have been misdiagnosed as bipolar II. I ended up going to what I believed was a social worker for counselling as I had been violently mugged. I was seeking reprieve for PTSD. IN three consecutive weeks, I had been diagnosed with GAD, OCD and Bipolar II. I don't understand how it is possible to have three different diagnoses in three different weeks!! I too had worse side effects FROM the medications. I had originally been diagnosed as depressive and had put put on anti depressants which apparently 'triggered' my 'mania.'
I am only on 100mg of Seroquel. How is it possible that someone with bipolar can be 'stabilized' on that medication alone?? I believe the meds have made me worse. I started losing my hair while on Epival, felt suicidal while on the 'anti seizure meds' which are also used for stabilizers. I have missed countless days at work, developed hand tremors, look prematurely 'old'..i think anyways. I look tired all the time, am asked if I am ok as I am pale, have gained 20 lbs, and have not been taken seriously...and I am also a mental health professional!! I am attempting to slowly wean off my meds (currently at 75mg). I am very shaky and tired already (assuming this is the withdrawal), but in my heart I disagree. I believe a lot of people are helped by these meds..I just don't think I will be one of the them!

[ohfaithful]

I too believe I have been misdiagnosed as bipolar II. I ended up going to what I believed was a social worker for counselling as I had been violently mugged. I was seeking reprieve for PTSD. IN three consecutive weeks, I had been diagnosed with GAD, OCD and Bipolar II. I don't understand how it is possible to have three different diagnoses in three different weeks!! I too had worse side effects FROM the medications. I had originally been diagnosed as depressive and had put put on anti depressants which apparently 'triggered' my 'mania.'
I am only on 100mg of Seroquel. How is it possible that someone with bipolar can be 'stabilized' on that medication alone?? I believe the meds have made me worse. I started losing my hair while on Epival, felt suicidal while on the 'anti seizure meds' which are also used for stabilizers. I have missed countless days at work, developed hand tremors, look prematurely 'old'..i think anyways. I look tired all the time, am asked if I am ok as I am pale, have gained 20 lbs, and have not been taken seriously...and I am also a mental health professional!! I am attempting to slowly wean off my meds (currently at 75mg). I am very shaky and tired already (assuming this is the withdrawal), but in my heart I disagree. I believe a lot of people are helped by these meds..I just don't think I will be one of the them!

Hello,

I'm sorry to hear about your misdiagnosis, it happens every day, especially to women. While I agree there are some individuals who greatly benefit, for others, unbeknownst to them at the time, the MEDS THAT THEY ARE TAKING CREATE OTHER SYMPTOMS that are misinterpreted as a part of another MENTAL ILLNESS as defined in the DSM! They are then MISLABELED WITH HAVING THE OTHER ILLNESS!

On top of that, most psychiatrists feel that if you don't follow their protocol to the letter then you are a risk to yourself. Because of this diagnosis I LOST MY LIFE, now while they may be dramatc to you, or not, losing ones life is more traumatic than you know, it not only impacts you, it impacts your children and your family.

As a mental health professional, I know you believe otherwise, but think of what you just said, you had THREE DIFFERENT DIAGNOSES, that is because brain tumors/cysts, allergies, hormonal imbalances, especially thyroid and women's hormones, and mens, candida, chemical sensitivities, etc., CAN ALL LOOK LIKE BIPOLAR. However, until a doctor does some medical testing or until you see further guidance, maybe do an elimination diet, then YOU AND THE DOCTOR will never know what is CAUSING THE BIPOLAR-LIKE SYMPTOMS! Misdiagnosis happens often to women because of our hormones and because of the toxins that are stored in our body, estrogenic toxins, that recirculate and cause high levels of extrogen in THE CELLS not in the blood so saliva testing has to be done, NOT BLOOD/SERUM TESTING!

I could go on and on but pleaes get yourself offof Seroquel, I slept for years and the doctors told me it was something I was NOT DOING, I have permanent seizures as a result of WELLBRUTRIN, it's not pretty but had I stayed on those meds I would have surely taken my life. I know two women who did the same and noone is talking about the effects that these meds have, those meds made me psychotic, homocidal and suicidal, I've NEVER BEEN LIKE THAT BEFORE, EVER!!!

The REAL QUESTION for me is why don't psyhiatrists take some time to get to know the patient, order some tests, CAUSE THEY CAN DO THAT, and see if their is an underlying problem causing the symptoms BEFORE they prescribe the drugs, all that would take is MORE TIME! More children are being placed on these drugs then ever, A LOT OF BUSINESS FOR THE DRUG COMPANIES if you are on their POISON FOR LIFE. I'm not a radical, just someone who spent a decade in **** and who struggles with her cognitive abilities in my mid 40's, now think about what that drug is doing to a kid at 5!!!

Have a great day!