How Many Dx?

[nomads-quill.livejournal.com]

Ok, so I'm new here. Hello.

My T from ages ago was talking about some things she is doing with new therapists on rotation in her clinic. She is really trying to stress catching this Dx earlier than is standard. It got me to wondering...

D.I.D. was my 5th or 6th Dx. Historically, folks like us go through a lot of Dx before "they" get it right.

She even asked me to write something that she could use in her teaching to help illustrate for new Ts how important it is to see the signs. How my life could have been a bit better-slash-different had the many Ts before her noticed all the signals.

And I guess I am curious as to the responses you guys might give if asked such a question.

I apologize if this is chunky or not clear enough. My head is loose and it's hard to stay on topic just now.

Comments

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

Diagnosed as a multiple? Never. There's no way we'd ever consider telling a member of the Thought Police so-called mental-health professions such a thing. No doctor of any sort has ever seen either of my 'brothers', nor ever will - Kír regards them all as poison-pushing quacks, and Crist-Erui's far too shy and wary to let himself be seen by strangers.

We probably had a passle of different diagnoses in childhood, but it wasn't considered proper then to tell children what labels had been stuck on them. In 1971 the diagnosis was "schizophrenia", but it turned out that that hospital (which ended up getting busted big-time for fraud) was giving kick-backs to shrinks for sticking that Dx on kids whose parents had good insurance and sending them for "treatment" which - oddly enough - always lasted exactly as long as the insurance coverage.

I haven't had any official diagnoses as an adult - what would be the point, when I don't have insurance? In 1998, when my daughter (then in second grade) was having trouble adjusting to the divorce, new school, etc. I went on the school counselor's recommendation to family counseling with her. The counselor decided I was depressed because I sit still, talk softly, don't make much eye contact, and don't use a lot of facial expression - further told me I needed to be on drugs - ha, yeah right. I know when I'm depressed; the symptoms are unmistakeable, and I wasn't depressed then. From my point of view, most people constantly yell, twitch, stare, grimace, wave their arms around, over-inflect their words, inundate their audience in EMOTION like William Shatner playing Hamlet or something - the fact that I don't do this doesn't mean I have "flat affect".

But anyway, that counselor was not a doctor, so her opinion was not an "official diagnosis", nor did she have any business recommending drugs to me, so that was the end of that. I will not take their mind-control drugs - not now, not ever, not negotiable - and if I want either uplifting platitudes or practical techniques for dealing more effectively with people or situations, there are a zillion books available, so I don't see why I would want to pay somebody two bucks a minute to provide them.

As far as I'm concerned, I don't have any "disorders" - and I'm the one who should know, right? - so the APA can just go ahead and shove their Diagnostic and Statistical Manual right back into the aperture from which they originally pulled it.

[sethrenn.livejournal.com]

From my point of view, most people constantly yell, twitch, stare, grimace, wave their arms around, over-inflect their words, inundate their audience in EMOTION like William Shatner playing Hamlet or something - the fact that I don't do this doesn't mean I have "flat affect".

We used to be very intense about expressing our emotions when we were younger-- from the point of view of allegedly normal people, we apparently came across as yelling, twitching, staring, making faces, over-inflecting and most other things you mentioned. We got hauled in by several teachers for 'making faces at them' during class. We were also told that all of this was "phony" and "overdramatising" and that we were trying to manipulate people instead of expressing any honest emotion we were feeling.

People nowadays tell most of us that we have a 'flat affect'-- I can only figure that in our desire to be perceived as genuine, we completely severed the connection between what we were feeling and what comes out at the front. Has its advantages and disadvantages-- people often, for instance, don't believe we're in pain because our voice doesn't 'sound like' someone who's in pain. On the other hand, it's definitely an upside when people can't 'read' insecurity or fear into our voice the way they used to (sometimes when it wasn't there, but that's beside the point).

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

My main goal in school was to pass unnoticed, or better still to escape, at least in mind. One would think that sitting still and not saying anything would be 'safe behavior' - at least that one would be safe from the teachers thus - but they were constantly yelling at me, banging yardsticks on my desk, etc. because they thought I wasn't paying attention, and one went so far as to drag me from my chair and shake me. *shrugs* What can one say; school is jail for kids, and the "social rules" are pretty-much the same as in any other prison.

By the time I was 16, and with a lot of pressure encouragement from Kír, I'd started speaking up and fighting back, but still without apparent emotion. People find that quite intimidating, which was a good thing under the circumstances, but then in later years I had to learn a different, non-intimidating strategy. So I do the whole "pass for human" thing, which is essentially roleplaying, but using Miss Manners' Guide To Excruciatingly-Correct Behavior instead of the Dungeon Master's Manual.

I don't see any good reason to let people know when I'm in pain - after all, why do they need to know? If they love me, they're just going to be worried; if they don't love me, they've got no reason to care; in either case, there's probably nothing they can do about it. I have no idea whether or not anyone believes me when I do tell them - it seems to me that everyone in this culture dissembles pretty-much all the time, hiding their true thoughts and feelings as best they can while expressing whatever contrived ones they think are most likely to get them what they want, so nobody ever knows what anyone else really thinks.

[shatterstorm.livejournal.com]

We've found that when we're willing to let people around us realize we're in pain that it is a way to recognize we've developed a level of trust toward them. Too many people attack if they think you're weak or injured.

We've had flashbacks in the middle of business meetings and no one outside realized. Body control can be a useful thing.

We did have one oddly clueless coworker who was concerned we might be depressed when we were actually very ill and on longterm care precription painkillers. He just didn't comprehend how being in continual pain would make someone less than chipper. :P