[university girl]

Heya... felt like sharing some stuff...

I recently went to the psych for some testing. When I got there, the psychiatrist told me "we are investigating a possible psychosis...maybe schizophrenia"!!!!!!!! Schizophrenia?!?!?!?! I was surprised to hear that word. Before I go to most of my appointments nowadays I usually drop of a copy of Daphne Simeon's latest DP paper, this psych included. I told her I disagree with the whole psychosis thing and me, telling her I strongly feel I have DP. Her response? "Some people try to promote certain disorders..." I couldn't believe my ears, once again. I was initially confused at her response but later realized she does not believe DP exists. Has anyone else had this experience?

As for the psychosis, I have a hard time understanding why this has been proposed. Of course, hearing the word schizophrenia disturbed me and I am having a difficult time getting over it. As far as I've read, those with a psychosis cannot differentiate reality from unreality. I, on the other hand, can. I feel like people are looking at me, when in fact I know they are not. I feel like people are laughing at me, when in fact I know they are not. What bothers me is that those with social anxiety also experiences this. (of course I also experience DP symptoms) I feel the psychs have focused on certain symptoms of mine and ignored others.

You may wonder why I care what 'they' call it... Well, I know I shouldn't, as long as these titles do me no harm. But it is difficult feeling like the psychiatrists are not on my side.

 

[g-funk]

I would be feeling exactly the same as you. Im not a psychiatrist but I don't think you are psychotic or schizophrenic. I would perhaps find another one who does believe in dp. Labels scare the shit out of me too, but at the end of the day, it means nothing. You are you. Besides, schizophrenics don't have coherent thought processes like you seem too, and like you say, you KNOW that people aren't looking at you. I think schizophrenia and psychosis is a total leap into unreality, with no questionning it. I don't know but it's just what I understand of it. Try not to let the pending diagnosis bother you, and if you don't agree with it, get another opinion. Certainly don't start taking anti-psychotics if you don't need them (although a lot of people find them helpful for DR from what I gather)
gx

 

[dakotajo]

Hi,

I know the exact feeling you are talking about. Social anxiety to the point where you become paranoid. When the anxiety builds I look at people and feel they see how tense I am. It snowballs to the point where I feel everybody is staring at me. I just want to go be by myself.

This is only my opinion but I dont believe you are psychotic. I think your shrink is confusing the anxiety driven paranoid feelings for the extreme paranoia in pschosis. like me, you have some anxiety problems... thats all

 

[Guest]

Oh, I know it's awful to get those bizarre diagnoses....very disturbing.

Clearly you are not schizophrenic. No doubts about that one. But here's why many doctors think of it, as a possiblity with us. When someone is YOUng (the vulnerable age of 15-25), and when they describe 1) dp states and 2) anything bordering on Paranoia, many doctors will recall from their training that pre-schizophrenic states can include both of those.

Those pre-schizophrenic states also include a hell of a lot MORE than those two, but if a doctor is not highly experienced working with psychotic patients, they just don't have the practical skills set to recognize the difference - which is SO clear to anyone very familiar with it.

Psychiatrists really don't get a lot of training, hard to believe. They do a residency at a hospital where they're working with severely regressed patients, in patients, so they hear alot about those symptoms. Later, if they hear a "regular" patient say any of those things, they might go to "oh, that's like that schizophrenic at the hospital"

Psychoanlaysts have much more experience and training - I do realize you're not into analysis, but just wanted to mention that ANY decent analyst would know immediately what you're describing (and even understand the role your social paranoia plays - it's related to our obsessions with self-image, how others see us, etc...it's a narcissistic feature, not a psychotic one)

Anyway, sorry you had a bad experience (I've had dozens of absurd interchanges with doctors over the years)

The mind. SO little is know about it, and even to those in the profession, we all have blind spots.

Janine

 

[Guest]

I understand you perfectly, it's my fear that someone tells me that. But you seem perfectly OK to me and to all of us, and Janine. Dont worry!!! If you are schizo then I am :lol:

Take care and go search other opinions if you want.

Cyn xxx

 

[person3]

If you are schizo then I am

I second that! If some doctor wants to call YOU schizo, uni-girl, he will have to answer to all FIVE HUNDRED of us schizos!

 

[Guest]

Uni I don't think your schizophrenic at all...... I know what your saying though, I really love getting asked 25 different questions by the docs like " have you ever had hallucinations?", " do you black out and not remember where you were" " do you have paranoid thoughts?" I had to answer a ton of these questions yesterday.

The fact is, with this whole DP/DR problem we are the oddballs to be frank about it. The doctors ALWAYS try to associate the DP/DR with something that may be more severe than what you have. Like one doctor said " hmm this sounds like potential Bi Polar" etc etc. I was like what the fuck??

I mean in 95 % of DP/DR cases its a symptom of Anxiety & Depression, and possible drug abuse, so those are the things that they should focus on.

I really wish that Therapists could perscribe meds because they know you better.

 

[sebastian]

I remember when i first started feeling this way, and thought i was all alone in the world, i was desperately wanting one of the many psychiatrist/psychologists/shamans that i visisted to give me a label...ANY label...just so i belonged to something earthly.

Now, that i've found this group, and grown a little wiser, i'm relieved that, at the very least, an anxiety-bourne disorder is all i have (disclaimer: I don't mean "All i have" as in la-di-da, everything's fine...it's only dp. I mean, at least i'm not on the inner circle of hell, kind of thing).

Uni-g, remember that the majority of these so-called professionals really don't know what they're talking about in our case. They're blinded by ignorance, prejudice, and the inherent superiority they feel in their role as the "normal" rock of sanity. Don't be fooled. Use your brain against this quack. There's nothing more satisfying than turning one's own expertise against them. Start quoting from the DSMV or whatever that medical pscyh boook is called. Show him how he's contradicting certain things...point on his foibles...his errors...his weaknesses. Make him blubber tepid apologies and stutter out dubious excuses. Turn him into a weeping little girl when you reveal to him that he knows nothing of what he speaks, and he does more harm than good to the patients he ostensibly is trying to help.

And tape it and then play it for some psychiatric board.

Good luck, uni-g. Don't worry...you're one of us.

s.

 

[enngirl5]

Unigirl, you're not schizophrenic. My mom is a psychiatric nurse and some doctors latch on to one diagnosis and want to label everyone with it. At her last hospital they wanted to label everyone schizophrenic. At her present hospital they like to label people bipolar. When I started having panic attacks she was working at her last hospital and I saw a psychiatrist from there and when I described my panic attacks to him and tried to describe derealization he said, "Are you hearing voices?" Sounds innocent enough, but he wasn't listening to anything I was telling him. One minute he was telling me it's just depression, the next asking me questions trying to find out if I'm schizophrenic. And it was so clear it was textbook Panic Disorder. And nothing is scarier to a new panic disorder patient than being asked questions by someone thinking they could be schizophrenic.

But I agree with Janine. Psychiatrists are not trained in depth in the area of psychology. Most get a Biology or Chemistry undergraduate degree, then go to regular Medical School and learn about the body, then intern (residency) in ALL fields and do a little bit of training in Psychiatry, then become Psychiatrists.

 

[Guest]

I agree with all that has been said here.
Just wanted to say that from my own experience of confronting psychiatrists...........it's one thing they don't handle well.
I've been called defensive when trying to dispute a psychiatrist's opinion.
I really doubt that Uni girl would get the results that Sebastian has suggested,perhaps it's possible Sebastian could,I don't know.
IMHO it's simply best to move on.
Goodness knows what nasty notes they might write about you in their secret folders.
:shock: don't you just feel like grabbing the damn thing and reading it
anybody recall the episode of Seinfeld with Elaine ?

 

[Guest]

To Shelly and others,

you have a right to request copies of all your medical records including the notes of the therpaists you may have been seeing. This is a patients right here in California in the U.S. I have requested and recieved copies of most of all my dealings with doctors and therapists. Some are quite willing to give you the records of their notes and others are somewhat reluctant , but the law is the law.

Don't be afraid to be assertive in this matter. I don't know how it works in other countries though.

john

 

[Guest]

Thanks John the law here has changed recently.Not so long ago you had no rights to these records,they belonged to the doctor.
I know it has now changed but I think it's as Clover has suggested a time period has been included.

Recently I was not permitted to collect results from a specialist via my local doctor.The specialist wrote on them that I must collect them from him,even though my local docotor also had them.
This was a problem as the specialist was hours away and I needed them in a hurry.They would not fax them but would post them out?
I felt like the doctors were still playing games.
As far as I was concerned the results were mine as I had paid for them and what matter if I collected them from my local doctor who in this case had more rights than I did with my results!

I would have to look into it but I'm not certain if doctor's notes are included.

Actually I will look into it because I have been concerned about a particular doctor here that I saw several times.
He's an odd guy(spoken of by many people who have the misfortune of meeting him).
He treated me very strangely when I first got chronic dp,he actually told the receptionnist that he didn't want me to be his patient,I was shocked,this had never happened to me before.
To this day he will not look at me or say hello if he sees me in the town.He refuses to give me any eye contact if I have to see another doctor in the same surgery.

I've known several nurses over the years and they have told me we would all be shocked to know how some doctors speak about their patients.
Cheers Shelly

 

[university girl]

thanks to everyone who replied to my post. i feel better about it now.