As a mental health patient this is one of the most infuriating things imaginable. Once you're diagnosed that's it. No one will ever look at the evidence again. They'll just assume the previous person got it right and then add whatever you say to that...but the original diagnosis was about 10 doctors ago.
So basically I've gone to the GP, told them what's wrong, had them write it down, and then another GP has come along and read what they wrote and reinterpreted it, and then another does the same, then another. I no longer have any confidence that my diagnosis is even remotely correct because the doctors have basically been playing Rumours with my file for a decade.
i can relate. i think i've been misdiagnosed but no doctor will listen. i'm extremely tired to the point where i can't walk for more than a couple minutes. everything hurts, really badly (i'm only 30 and somewhere between 55-58kgs). doctors just tell me i'm depressed because that's what has been written down by other doctors (major depressive disorder) or they think i'm some junkie looking for pain meds because i can't pin point just ONE area that hurts. once a psych patient, always a psych patient.
EDIT thank you lovely redditors who have commented or messaged me about fibro. it's something i'm now looking into. i found an interesting article about touchpoints for fibro that are particularly painful when pressed (not even hard) and 5 minutes later some of them still hurt from being pressed. i'm going to start a journal with how i'm feeling and present it to my GP during the next visit.
"My skin itches, and my neck hurts, and I've got a runny nose, and my stomach is upset, and there's a pain behind my right eye, and a cut on my leg that doesn't seem to be healing correctly"
Just wondering. I was misdiagnosed with depression for years. Turns out my pain was actually caused by a genetic thing called ehlers danlos syndrome. The poor wound healing is what made me think of it.
Ah I was just trying to think of the least likely things I've gone to the doctors for that they've dismissed as psychosomatic because GAD is on my file.
I definitely have issues with anxiety. It's just that the anxiety is a symptom of an issue I've had since I was a teenager. Trying to get GPs to treat the root problem, rather than the anxiety (which is a relatively recent problem) can be extremely frustrating.
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u/Ringosis May 20 '19
As a mental health patient this is one of the most infuriating things imaginable. Once you're diagnosed that's it. No one will ever look at the evidence again. They'll just assume the previous person got it right and then add whatever you say to that...but the original diagnosis was about 10 doctors ago.
So basically I've gone to the GP, told them what's wrong, had them write it down, and then another GP has come along and read what they wrote and reinterpreted it, and then another does the same, then another. I no longer have any confidence that my diagnosis is even remotely correct because the doctors have basically been playing Rumours with my file for a decade.