I have all disorders in one big mix

I have agoraphobia, social anxiety, generalized anxiety, avoidant disorder, a tad bit schizo, paranoid personality. Its a little bit of all of them mixed into a really messed up kid. But I believe that when you have anxiety and depression issues you have all of the above. I dont believe in the seperate disorders. A person with mental issues is a person with mental issues.

 

a lot of those are basically almost the same thing, ie, the first four

 

Not really. Agoraphobia=afraid to leave home social anxiety=afraid of social situations
generalized anxiety=afraid of certain social situations Avoidant=avoids all anxiety prone situations

Second and third are similiar

 

Sounds like me!

 

but all those are symptoms of something greater. ie-I have post traumatic stress disorder and as a result feel anxious, which leads me to have social anxiety, which if I refuse to go out for more than a few weeks I start getting depressed. all of these are blanketed by the post traumatic stress though

 

Yeah, that something greater is me having mental issues. And when a person has mental issues they are what they are mental issues.

 

Yeah, that something greater is me having mental issues. And when a person has mental issues they are what they are mental issues.

 

i agree with lynsey and was going to post something similar... im guessing through experience that there is an under lying cause that you may or may not know- could be post traumatic stress (and you may not even know from what as some minds block out certain horrible memories or down play them to the active mind but its very difficult for the mental and physical health to not be affected b/c it still exists)

in any case... i hate when labels start being thrown all over the place because it can detract from the real problem. labels have their benefits- (you need to know someone is schizophrenic so they can take the right medicine) but when labelling all kinds of social and anxiety orders is the main purpose it deflects from the issue(s) and real healing.

 

How can something that is generalized realate to only certain situations..........all of those things make you afraid of the same things.......agoraphobia is a fear of open of public places.....not leaving the home by the way...

For example, public speaking would cause someone who has any of those disorders to be anxious

 

right and wrong lalamort.... the techincal definition of agoraphobia IS "fear of open places", however most agoraphobics are afraid of leaving the house in either all or most situations- either totally or without a trusted friend. the main part of agoraphobia stems from having had panic attacks in the past, being so afraid of having another panic attack and espiecially in public.

 

You just had to go and pick some of the most confusing disorders out there, didn't you? haha... Seriously though, there's a lot of difference between generalized anxiety, socialized anxiety, avoidant personality, and agoraphobia. It would take a few paragraphs outlining each of them to get a clear picture of what's different between them. I'm not going to do that, but if anyone wants to see the differences, go here:

http://www.anxietyhelp.org/information/avpd_vs_sad.html

Agoraphobia is the only one that doesn't fit in that list real well... it's more to do with panic disorder than the others, meaning that fear of panic attacks makes them avoid whatever situation causes that stress (though it's more complicated than that, as they typically associate the panic attack with something physically wrong, like a health condition). The other three don't have much to do with physical symptoms (like panic attacks) and more to do with cognitive process resulting from anxiety... if you follow...

 

OMG the avoidant personality disoreder perfectly describes me. I thought I was just overly shy ): and I've been this way since I was about 10 so it has nothing to do with the post-traumatic stress but it really affects my life.

 

Be careful with any type of self diagnosis with the personality disorders... almost everyone exhibits several of those criteria, but it's in how severe those symptoms manifest when determining the diagnosis. The criteria must be pervasive, with long lasting negative effects that significantly hinder job, lifestyle, and quality of life. It must also cause severe emotional distress (ie: thinking about it all the time reinforces the anxiety).

No one but a personal psychologist should determine this, and it should take them a while to do it too (weeks).

 

Well said, fulmah. Mental hypochondria is more rampant than ever. There isn't a single person alive that isn't messed in the head to some degree. I think alot of people just try and make themselves feel special or think they're solving something by slapping a self-diagnosed label on them when really, they're just as normally screwed up as the rest of us.

 

First off let me start by saying that whoever thinks they have the right definition of these disorders are rediculous because all of these disorders as they are called are all anxiety induced and when a person has anxiety issues it will make them fear everyday situations where they have ANXIETY induced PANIC ATTACKS. You can say all you want about whos right and whos wrong but in the end like I said when you have anxiety issues it leads to all sorts of mental problems. Oh and to the person who said I should ask a psychologist about my issues I already have and they pretty much explained to me my problems which I listed.

 

I have mental illness, and physical illness, both diabling and chronic in condition. I say the running out of walmart super center as a visit there on a saturday afternoon with my parents. Even at 31 years of age then at the time, I had a list of things I needed for my apartment, and tried to explain to my mom that walmart on a saturday would be difficult for me. I have Bipolar type 1 with mixed states, rapid cycling, agoraphobia, OCD, ADHD, Disasociative disorders, and PTSD.

I was first in 1994 diagonosed (in error) with Chronic Paranoid Schizophrenia, loaded up on thorazine, lived for years in 24-hour supervised group homes. Had inappropriate relationship with my main caregiver who would repeat over and over I WAS a schizophrenic, and over 4 year period of time, I ended up munchousen syndrome victom of her getting pleasure from the induced by her my constant 'not an option' choices thus giving her reason to rescue me.

I believe I at first in '94 had only PTSD, only all the other disorders, were devoloped duing time spent in the system and the munchousen syndrome and being told I was a schizophrenic for so long. Then in 2002 told this being bipolar blah blah blah, I have been off the prescribed dose of 1,800mg of Lithium a day and had to be sneaky to do it. I have been off LIthium for over 7-months now, I sleep when I want to .

I am off track here and I am not trying to be a bad poster or off topic only it is sort of like me and my issues of not being able to focus and years of those drugs still take 5, mainly been on valium for 15 years now. It is not even able to understand what it 'feels' like to have cancer, unless you have actually had cancer. The same is with mental illness, all the books in the world can not make you as an individual understand what it 'feels' like unless you are currently chronic with mental illness.

Chronic Mental Illness is the most misunderstood in my opinion, I think it is because to this day it is among a social family topic that everyone knows the unspoken rule of 'uncle rxhead' has bad nerves and needs to lay down. never the truth of it, even to the church people. Still hidden away in a closet withing a closet.

WE ARE SURVIVORS!!!

 

I hope you didn't think I was addressing you in regards to seeing a psychologist. It was just a general statement. IMO, if people are going to use terms psychologists use to define these conditions, it's fine to do so for personal evaluation to figure out the best course for getting better, but no one but a psychologist who's worked up a patients background can make any type of official diagnosis. They can also break the rules explaining it to their patient just so the patient understands what they're trying to explain, ie: if the patient knows what generalized anxiety disorder is, the psychologist may say that socialized anxiety is generalized anxiety with whatever additional criteria the patient exhibits. However, this would be technically incorrect. The anxiety disorders are difficult to pin down, but that doesn't mean that they official defined (and for good reasons). Each of those labels DO have exact definitions, and if you want to know what they are, google them and add "DSM-IV definition" in quotes behind the name to get the exact criteria for each label, and pay close attention to things like (for examaple, in Generalized Anxiety Disorder):

F. The focus of the anxiety and worry is not confined to features of an Axis I disorder, e.g., the anxiety or worry is not about having a Panic Attack (as in Panic Disorder), being embarrassed in public (as in Social Phobia) [emphasis mine], being contaminated (as in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder), being away from home or close relatives (as in Separation Anxiety Disorder), gaining weight (as in Anorexia Nervosa), having multiple physical complaints (as in Somatization Disorder), or having a serious illness (as in Hypochondriasis), and the anxiety and worry do not occur exclusively during Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.

You are right, though; it's completely pointless to get into a semantic argument about what the label means. The symptoms and overcoming them is the only thing that matters. In the end, it boils down to screw what the definition is and get the issues resolved. I wish you the best of luck in resolving yours.

 

that is sad i am sorry. i really dont know much about it at all, not to sound ignorant, but mind if i ask a question?
does it scare you to just like go out in public and talk to like a sales clerk or what

 

I have pretty bad Panic Disorder and it sucks...I have panic attacks all the time and it makes you not want to go out..With me, though, it seems to really hit in the nighttime..so, i've missed alot of weekends because of sheer fright.

 

i do that! if i go to a friends house and they're like "lets turn off the lights and go to bed" i'm like "noooo... lets stay up!" because if i'm not distracted until i pass out, if i have to just lay there in the dark, i almost always have a panic attack. which is embarassing in front of other people. i'll just jump up, and start saying "fuck, oh no, oh shit, motherfucker!" and have to run somewhere until i'm out of breath, or scream at the top of my lungs, or curl into a ball and cry. i can't ever go to bed without reading or watching a movie or listening to music until the very second i fall asleep. i always sleep with the lights on. but that's also because (i think) i'm schizophrenic, and if i don't have anything to look at i'll start hallucinating, and i won't be able to tell if my eyes are open or closed. if i have light, then things just look distorted or maybe i'll see some color spots, but it doesn't get much worse on a regular basis.

anyway, i think i have a bunch of disorders in "one big mix" too. post traumatic stress disorder (i watched my dad die last father's day), depression, social anxiety, schizophrenia, bi-polar, OCD that comes randomly (sometimes i won't care, but i go through periods of weird paranoia that can only be cured by random behavior, or i HAVE TO sit on the floor and not on a chair), and anorexia/binge eating followed by not eating for a long time. and i'm a hypochondriac, bigtime. one day i'll be convinced i have breast cancer. in a few days it'll change to AIDS. the next week i'm absolutely sure i'm pregnant. then my wrist is broken, or i have a brain tumor .