I got screwed up by a doctors misdiagnosis

this is a warning for people on anti depressants. I'm also curious if any else one here has been diagnosed bipolar II. Its not as sever as regular bipolar. on the up swing there is no full on mania, you just feel exceptionally good and people around you don't notice much. The down swing however is often and dangerously misdiagnosed as major depression. Dangerously I say because being put on an ssri anti depressant like I was is not a good thing for some one with bipolar II. because going into to the upswing while on an anti depressant can make you touch um...unstable.

After years of battling deep depressions that came and went, i finally sought help, and was put on anti depressants by my doctor. It helped and I was fine for probably a year and a half, and then I started to act a bit strange. I got really irritable and wound up getting into fights with my wife which resulted in us being separated (temporarily). Shortly after this I stopped showing up to work, I isolated myself, defaulted on my mortgage. Other people around me started to get very concerned but I happily told them all to fuck off and mind their own business.. The whole thing came crashing to an end when I completely flipped my lid. I'm told The police arrested me for running around naked in park screaming at people, and that it took 6 guys to hold me down. I don't remember much of this, but I remember feeling really damned good at the time

6 months later i was stable enough for release from the hospital. Two years have gone by now and my life is back on track, but I'm still not what I used to be. I'm always in a general drab blah kind of mood, but at least my moods swings are under control. My wife is no longer scared of me, we're living together again, and have a child on the way. It did take a while but I'm working full time again.... life goes on

 

so have you stopped taking the SSRI? do you take any other meds?

sorry for what happened man.

 

Unfortunately, your story is not a strange one, it happens way to often.

The mental health profession is still in the trial and error stage,and we (the patients) are the lab rats...

"You're bi-polar (insert any other diagnosis), here take this"...
6 months later...

"Oh, that royally fucked you up and destroyed your life? Yeah, that happens in some cases, try this one"

6 months later...

"Oh that one screwed you up to?, Try this one"

Years later...

"none of those worked? It happens... here try these two together..."

Now, this is a stage that the profession must go through to progress and learn, but the problem is, that while you are going through this, and they are being CERTAIN about everything they say... its YOUR life that is being destroyed...

Them? They just shrug with a 'shit happens' attitude...

I should point out that ALL of the doctors are not like this, but the majority are. The god complex (what I do is automatically right), is taught to them, and it is only the ones with true compassion and intelligence that step outside of what they are taught and look for solutions WITH a patient....

 

Please spread this story. I already know the horrors of the psychiatric world. Most don't.

 

Yes, and I was put on SSRIs and I agree they are a bad idea for this particular condition. I didn't go as far down that road as you did, but once I started acting strange (after about 1.5-2 years as well) I dropped the meds, cold turkey, my decision. That was about 3 months ago and I'm feeling better but still not 100%... for all I know the SSRIs could have proposed a permanent change in my brain chemistry. Only time will tell, I suppose.

Glad things seem to be working out for you now.

 

well, when I was arrested and institutionalized, they didn't know who the hell I was. I was naked when they hauled me in ( had no ID) and I wouldnt tell them who I was. so they couldn't get any sort background history from my family or friends, and didn't really know what was wrong with me. So initially I was put on an assortment anti psychotics and mood stabilizers. I also wound up going cold turkey on the anti depressant I was on because I didn't tell them about it. this crashed me into deepest bowels of hell

It took them few weeks to figure out who I was, or rather get me to tell them. once they had the back ground info form my doctor they changed there diagnosis and treatment plan. It seems once a bipolar II person goes into a drug induced mania, the treatment is the same as person with regular bipolar

they eased me off the anti psychotics, and kept me on depakote for quite a while. Then they they slowly weaned me off of that and on to lithium. they have since dropped me down to a very low dose of lithium for long term use.

i still have regular therapy sessions/monitoring

I've made certain life style changes as well.
- I don't drink,
-I abstain from caffeine,
-i exercise regularly,
-I eat healthy and regularly.
-I make sure i get regular sleep (this will most likely change when the baby arrives)

- i also take fish oil daily (omega 3)

 

Psychiatric medications sometimes infuriate me. There are dozens of naturally occuring plants that could be put to usage for treating depression and mood swings. But why does big pharma only do studies into things like SSRI's? Because they have a patent on them. At this point in time, scientific evidence is nothing than a marketing tool for those who can foot the bill to prove the efficacy of their own patented medication.

If you want an herb that can help treat mood swings, and pull you out of a funk, try maca. It's a pretty incredible plant for that. But start at very small dosages. Get a bag of loose, powdered maca, its cheap, like $3-5 will do you good for a long time. Then just lick your finger and stick it in the powder, and eat that. Wait the whole day and see how it effects you, you may not feel it much till a few hours later. If you dont notice much from that, then go 1/16th teaspoon for a few days. See how that feels, go to 1/8th, see how that feels. Some people take a regular dosage of 1 teaspoon a day, I like 1/8th teaspoon personally, but I am hyper sensitive to all substances.

Maca is a very very transparent stimulant that lasts for a long time, like 6 hours it seems to me. But unless your paying attention, you won't notice it, you just feel awake and like you should do something. But for that reason I find it is incredible for treating depression or mood fluctuations, because it keeps you in this alert state of mind, that feels completely normal, for all day. If you consume too much, it can produce an intense energy in you, similiar to ginseng, or even a stimulating strain of cannabis in some ways. Don't take that much, you want the dosage to be just so you barely feel it, so it's effect is still generally transparent to your perception, and is in the background, but it will still keep your energy level pushed up to a more normal, motivated state for the majority of the day. It's also very balancing and grounding for the mind I find.

 

I'm only 15 and about to be a sophomore, but I can completely relate.
About a year and a half ago, my mood significantly changed. I was depressed. My parents and I passed it off as hormones giving me a typical case of teenage angst. I started spiralling downwards, and got into a bad habit of constant cutting. I'm stilling working on getting off of that.
Then a year ago, I went off the mental deep end. I was diagnosed with type one diabetes, and went into a horrendous manic phase a few months later, right before I was date raped. The manic episode past, and I became the most depressed I have ever been. The manic episode was brushed off, and I was diagnosed with psychotic depression. I was put on an antidepressant and two different antipsychotics, and was dismissed as "better".
Except nothing got better, and my hallucinations came back worse than ever. I was put in a psych ward after having a humongous melt down at my school. I was escorted to the hospital, sitting in the corner shaking and yelling as I was hallucinating.
After two weeks at the hospital, I was out again and put on a mood stabilizer. It also didn't help, and I was evaluated by the doctors. They diagnosed me with bipolar disorder I.
I'm about to be switched to a different mood stabilizer. I'm just worried that I'm going to feel numb. I won't feel like myself. While my mood swings are too much to handle right now, I will crave them after being so numb and feeling lackluster for a while.
I also just hate how psychiatry is not an exact science. Not every case is the same, and they can't be treated the same. It takes time to cater to each individual. It's all so "trial and error". I guess I just wish that there was a more efficient way to go about treating mental illness.

 

There are many good books, based on solid research, on mental illness. You might try, for instance, Robert Whitaker's Anatomy of an Epidemic, or Dr. Timothy Scott's America Fooled. The bottom line is that psychiatry is far from an exact science, and in fact, at the moment, the psychiatric field is a very misguided science. The medications for various depressions and various bipolar disorders do not work, and in fact over the long term it is far better for the patient if the patient never starts on meds. And when you consider the many negative cognitive and neurological side effects of these meds, it is plain to see that the pharmaceutical treatment for mental illness should be avoided, certainly for the vast majority of patients.
If you are depressed or bipolar, try exercise, yoga, volunteering to help other people, making the world a better place, developing a humble-forgiving-giving-loving nature.
When people claim that they have been psychiatrically misdiagnosed by a doctor, such a contention incorrectly implies that the field of psychiatry usually makes precise diagnoses, and it incorrectly implies that there exist precise treatments for the various diagnoses.

 

Mike, yes. BTDT. I can tell you what I did, but then I have to be careful doing that as I am not diagnosing or prescribing anything. Untilmately it will take research on your end.

Your call.

 

This is why I hate doctors. I feel they get paid way too much money to not help us! Then you get stuck with medical bills that you dont want to pay cause what really did they help you with? I went to the doctor in high school for migraine headaches they put me on a crap load of blood pressure meds and stuff, yeah I had a really bad problem with the pills I was all wacked out for the first day I took them I could barely walk to my classes! I think if doctors do this kind of stuff and really mess people up we should get free medical care for ever or something or they should not practice at all! I just do not get doctors at all!

 

Treating mental problems is probably one of the most difficult jobs that exists. How in hell do you know whats happening inside someone elses mind/life. Damned near impossible and yet for all of the horror stories that get told here, there are untold numbers of people who do seek out Mental Health Professionals and regain control of their lives. Badmouthing medication because it doesnt work for some is about like badmouthing cars because people die in car wrecks. For years I worked as a therapist in a State Mental Hospital...nothing caused us more personal pain, worry and sadness than the situation the OP described. We get handed a human being in extreme distress, usually by the cops. We know little to nothing about the person and often the person can't or won't tell us anything. So what we got are symptoms, many of which overlap with several other diagnois. There is no test, no blood work no MRI to diagnois a mental illness. So begins the difficult process of elimination. We're looking at a human being in pain, distress, misery and we are relying on our best guess, the things most commonly seen. We try what we know works for some things. we watch to see if there are signs of improvement or a worsening of symptoms. We came into this field because we chose to be healers, helpers and we know we are going to make mistakes regardless of how hard we try. Big Pharma is just what it has been described as...a money grubbing beast with marketing schemes to sell snake oil. That said though, some medications do make a life or death difference. In all of this we often have family members who tell us what assholes we are for our efforts, we have elements of the general population who are eager to bad mouth our efforts and we have people who have regained their lives and say WOW! thank you.

I don't have any answer for the OP...I'm sorry you went through that though cause I know it was hell for you and those who love you. For other folks I suggest looking into the field of mental health as a profession however you think it should be practiced. I just spent a week in a Shamans Camp in the jungles of Peru working through some of my own shit using the Shamans' Medicines. Soon as I can I'll head back and spend a longer period there. That said I will not quit using some of the medications prescribed by my Western Medicine doctor cause they too work. Opinions may vary but respect for others should be a constant.

 

When the entire society has been fed a bunch of myths and too much marketing, it is important for some voices in the wilderness to try to bring out the truth. The idea of skepticism is a crucial part of good science, but such skepticiam is sadly lacking in the field of psychopharmocological psychiatry -- especially when the medications have been proven to harm mental patients' long term outcomes, and to have severe cognitive and neurological side effects. For an explication and history of how science is held back and misled many times by economic, religious, & political reasons, see Thomas Kuhn's famous The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.