I can’t believe I haven’t done this poll before, and if I have, I can’t believe I’ve forgotten it.
I’m rather curious as to what you, my dear readers, may be living with. I wonder if people reading this mostly have bipolar disorder, or if a lot of people reading are reading out of interest, or care for someone who has a mental illness.
So for my benefit, here is a ticky box poll I’d be grateful if you could fill out. It has multiple choice for those who love ticking boxes and who might have more than one mentally interesting diagnosis. I will not pass on your details to the Inland Revenue.
Thank you. Sorry to be classifying you via such dispassionate little words. Bonkersfest are going to kill me.
ARGH! I forgot things like delusional disorder, DID and PTSD and so on. Sorry!
So I’m not hiding my results from you, my diagnoses are: bipolar I disorder rapid cycling with psychotic features (or, as Jerod would say, being an Uberspazzen), body dysmorphic disorder and bulimia, with a wee bit of avoidant/anxiety stuff that isn’t official but noted.
Filed under: Bipolar Disorder
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hallo… I’ve been popping in and out for a while here; of other people who I know read this, I know Lorna and bodnotbod. My impulse to speak up was to say that I’ll be one of the many who’ve ticked a diagnosis alongside ‘out of interest’ and ‘I like polls’… something which I then supposed was rather obvious – but I ran on the Magnusson principle nevertheless (‘I’ve started so I’ll finish’)
Is there a box for ‘I went to the psycologist to get assesed and told her I tried to kill myself the day before but she booted me out with advice just to go back to my doctor and now I’m having hallucinations I’m off to the psychatrist horrahhh!’??
I’m not bitter, no no no….
N x
P.s. Hello Seanen I met you at the wedding of joy recently. I am the girl with the blue hair opposite you at the meal. Been reading since then.
Many shrinks are fantastically dumb – sighs – this reminds me of when I had my first nervous breakdown. I tried to kill myself (there’s a fair amount of gallows humour associated with it actually but I’ve not commented here before so I’m not sure of the ettiquette of joking about war stories) anyway back on track I scrubbed myself up smiled sweetly (this is 2 days later) and persuaded them I was totally fine by saying I suspected I maybe manic depressive and was sent back to my college alone with no medication I have since learnt that saying your a loon whilst looking quasi pressenrable and sounding normal does not help with getting a diagnosis. I wish you much luckand try and nab a consultant if you can they’re more willing to actually listen to their patient rather than presume they know best.
I enjoyed that a little too much I think. Might change my diagnosis to Tickyboxyophilia….
Lola x
I want tickyboxyophilia!
Oooh it’s raaaare! Soooo raaarrre!
I’m furious I binded votes to cookies. I WANT TO VOTE MORE!
I had to answer confusingly. I’m definitely diagnosed with depression, so I ticked that box, but I actually think that it’s some form of bipolar, so I had to say I’m not diagnosed, but suspect.
Rapid-cycling Bipolar type II – yeehaaa baby!
Rapid cycling. Type II or maybe NOS: depressed, hypomanic and mixed; but a past history with high doses of steroids – no, not for bodybuilding – and a chemotherapy might have made things worse.
Bipolar Type II, depression, anxiety disorder, disassociative disorder
Me too! Although most of the time I seem to attract the label of patient from hell!
I’m Post Traumatic Stress Disorder – but I did like tickboxthingy
Bog standard depression and anxiety
i almost ticked schizoaffective as it was mooted for a while but then retracted so i didn’t. also i was briefly diagnosed with epilepsy, that was also retracted but it was official.
i ticked ocd even though i don’t have an official diagnosis – it’s recognised by my pdoc and tdoc but it’s not codified as far as i know. same goes for PD – there’s some debate over which i might or might not have – the most likely contender is schizoid but no one is really sure….
I’ve actually been diagnosed with major depression (now in remission), dysthymia, and characteristics of BPD, so I ticked depression and BPD. I also have EDNOS which is currently undiagnosed, and as I’m in yet another bout of trying to recover, I’m not 100% sure it would be formally diagnosed at this point.
Same here with bulimia. It’s still on my diagnostic facked sheet, but I’m firmly ED-NOS now.
There was a time I could have been diagnosed with bulimia nervosa, but lately the ED’s changing form… wants me to restrict instead of b/p. Haven’t lost a ton of weight, though, and am trying to keep my intake to at least a liveable level. And I really really don’t want to b/p. I’m not quite sure what that all makes me.
I have: Bipolar NOS (it kinda resembles Bipolar II with pretty rapid cycling and obsessive thoughts), Borderline Personality Disorder, Anxiety (did you catch the Capital A?), and Attention Deficit Disorder. Erm, I think that’s all.
Long time lurker here…
“General anxiety disorder”, but I suspect moar. TBH I read of the incompetence of mentalhealthland with a shudder and avoid them like the plague, even when I’m desperate enough to ask them for help they’re not much use. Once when I was going through a hellish depression and they’d already tossed a few pills in my direction they offered me this patronisingly titled computerised CBT programme, and at that point, when they told me that I would be getting therapy from a fucking computer programme, I realised that they were about as much use as a chocolate fireguard.
Bitter? Me?
That wouldn’t be “Beating the Blues”, would it?
It’s absolute bollocks, nonsense of the highest order.
I’m about to see the psychiatrist for my official diagnosis, but it appears to be bipolar 2 or NOS, with rapid cycling.
I was told, some years ago, by a particularly useless psychiatrist that I was suffering from a “mood disorder”, dosed up with anti-convulsants & antipsychotics & pretty much forgotten about..
Bog standard depression, with a nice epilepsy diagnosis thrown in there for good measure. Just formally put on the epilepsy register today. not a good day.
Bipolar disorder. Diagnosed with this for years and never given a type, so I went with NOS.
Eating disorder NOS.
Post-traumatic stress disorder. That wasn’t up there, but I’ve been diagnosed with it.
Fun grab bag of labels. I don’t necessarily identify with them, but there they are.
Great…Bobby Gee Check out my blog. It’s different and crazy.. http://bobbygee.wordpress.com/
It’s certainly different. It’s about football and is no-way related to mental health issues.
Diagnosis? Hahhah. That’s a good one.
My psych once told me that I was young, and that he didn’t want to brand me for life (gee, that’s a great idea, let’s scrap diagnosing people so they dont have to deal with the concequences!) and although my psychs letters to my GP feature such a rotation of choice phrases such as “hypomanic” and “psychotically depressed” I am not officially diagnosed with anything – But I do take 5 pills a day for… well, for fun, obviously, as there’s nothing wrong with me.
Love the poll thing…. mine are: borderline pd, depression, ?ptsd
Wonder if the dss can steal your title and use “label yourself for your benefits” – ie, they have a bag of labels, and you have to choose the “right “ones to get your benefits. If you choose wrong, you get nothing, if you choose “right” you are labelled and castigated for life… might work?
Hi,
Have been reading awhile and thought I’d finally post something. Currently I’m diagnosed with Dysthymia and dependent personality traits. Borderline traits have been mentioned also. I also have high anxiety. I self-harm too. I have an assessment appointment coming up for psychodynamic psychotherapy. I currently feel like I don’t know what normal behaviour actually is as I’ve had every part of mine taken apart looked at under a microscope and labelled.
Anyway I wanted to say that I really like reading your blog and I have especially liked ‘do’s and don’t of the mentally interesting’ mainly because it is all true, especially the one about the psychiatrist.
M.D some years ago and the subject hasn’t come up since.
I should get something in writing.
Rapid cycling Bipolar type I with psychotic features. At least that’s the notion from the assessment. Probably wasn’t too difficult to tell when I walked in somewhat manic. But, they didn’t seem to listen to my 3 days like clockwork statement (even when spouse verified it). So, I’m thinking it’s really type I-ish NOS.
There’s also OCD and some other “mild” anxiety stuff. Not sure about the official status of that though.
But, am I in treatment? Of course not. Because, shrink #2 had to try to blackmail me into a course that I wasn’t comfortable with. That I couldn’t abide. So, I walked. God knows when the current referral will go through.
I really dislike the unhealth care system here.
Borderline Personality Disorder, Anxiety disorder. Trying to exist without medication, not doing very well. Just dropped out of galling group therapy.
I come here because I like the cut of your jip.
I do like your site. Haven’t commented before. Thanks for writing such a lovely blog
Originally diagnosed with major depressive disorder. One therapist mentioned borderline personality disorder, though I didn’t meet enough criteria for that by one thing. Sometime after the doctor started giving me lithium, he must have changed my official diagnosis, because now he checks “Bipolar Disorder” on the office visit checkout sheet. Which pisses me off, because shouldn’t he talk to me about a different diagnosis with different features, rather than just changing it? I fucking hate the way docs make diagnosises. Cool poll though.
I got diagnosed with “depression” years ago but something tells me it ain’t QUITE as simple as that. Antidepressants disagree with me quite vehemently at times and make me agitated, sleepless and “hyper”. I told all this to a nurse who thinks it might be “bipolar”. I’m waiting for a psychiatric appointment in fear and trembling ~ I scrupulously avoided telling anything that might sound “manic” for fear of the very word that’s now being banded about and it does my head in
I was diagnosed years ago with chronic depression/anxiety and an eating disorder NOS (but I don’t pay any attention to that, I just didn’t eat much because I was terribly depressed and so anxious my stomach was always upset). After years of therapy, medication (never found one that did much for me), getting away from my toxic family and building a new healthier life – I no longer consider myself mentally ill. But I have many people close to me that struggle with mental illness. Love your blog and wishing you all the best.. I am sorry you’ve been having such a rough time lately.
Paranoid personality disorder, oh good times, good times… also on occasion depersonalisation disorder. I have a close friend who’s bipolar I, so I ticked the ‘got a friend’ choice, too.
x
I’m never quite sure what counts as a ‘diagnosis’. I tend to associate the word with physical illness, (non-mental heath) doctors, and medication. I’ve had a counsellor and a therapist both say deliberately non-committal things along the lines of “it seems like you may have issues with depression or possibly cyclothymia that seems to be primarily circumstantial and/or related to past trauma rather than any chemical/neurological problems.” Is that a diagnosis?
Yer actions match the category but there’s quite a bit of overlapping. Others say I’m bi-polar one but I prefer to the First Shepherd of the Third Kingdom.
Back in high school I discovered there was a 99% chance I had OCD. I fit right into the definition and it sounded just like the way I’ve acted/things I’ve done since I was at least 5 or 6 yrs old. I spoke to my school guidance counselor about this and she agreed that it sounded like I did indeed have OCD, but I was never officially “diagnosed” because from that point I basically knew I had it and it wasn’t that much of a bother to me unless I was stressed or tired.
Well after I majored in Psychology at University I found out I fit more into OCPD. I spoke to one of the psychologists there and he asked a bunch of questions and I was right. By this point (I’m 27) it would be very odd if I didn’t do things the way do because I’ve been this way since I can remember. Most of the time it’s not noticeable unless I’m stressed or really tired,but after telling my boyfriend about it (he’s the only one that knows (even my parents don’t) he read about it and now we laugh when I do odd things because he knows why I do them. I feel so much better now that i don’t have to constantly hide things from him by trying to either act a different way or hide what I do from him.
Major Depression, Recurrent; Attention Deficit Disorder, Inattentive; Pre-Menstrual Dysphoric Disorder…
My doc blew me off when I said I thought I was Bipolar 2. But my moods are nowhere as simple as the diagnosis criteria for depression. The year I was on a mood stabilizer, however, I felt better. Oh well.
Did you mean current or at any point in the past? Over the past eight years I’ve been diagnosed with depression, cyclothymia, various flavours of anxiety and bipolar (no specification), with one shrink suggesting borderline personality disorder but that was shot down by 4 other shrinks as nonsense. Officially my current diagnosis is bipolar disorder and panic disorder, although my incapacity benefit paperwork says depression and agoraphobia – presumably they don’t know the difference.
No mental illness here. I’m in love with a suicidal bi-polar girl though.
I have no mental illnesses, but I am in love with a bi-polar girl. I found this post with my stumble button.