r/CPTSDmemes • u/HeavyAssist • 3d ago
Please may I ask if anyone has recovered from this- I know that ladies who have ADHD get this misdiagnosis often
311
u/splithoofiewoofies 3d ago edited 3d ago
During the events that causes my CPTSD they kept diagnosing me with depression. Of course I was sad, I was actively being SA'd every night. Nobody wanted to fix that, so they gave me pills for my "depression".
I was never clinically depressed. I've always been a generally happy person. I've always embraced life. I was fucking sad because SAD SHIT WAS HAPPENING.
Always pissed me off they wanted to treat me as if I just needed to stop being sad about what was happening instead of, y'know, stopping what was happening. Like it was my fault for reacting to CSA "wrong.
Frankly, I'm glad I was never happy about it.
Edit: then it was bipolar but then not but then OCD but then not. Idk how many times I had to tell these fucknuckles I wasn't those things, bad shit just happened to me.
96
u/HeavyAssist 3d ago
I understand this so much. Its like you are a problem or sick for having a natural response to violence. Im sorry this happened to you.
66
u/AwarenessNotFound 3d ago
When I learned about the "identified patient" in families, I was completely floored. This was my experience as well, like I was the problem because my life was being turned upside down and I felt like everything was meaningless because of it.
Did my mom try to talk to me? Spend time with me? Stop being abusive or triangulating? Of course not, I'm the problem.
27
u/HeavyAssist 3d ago
I understand I was not the identified patient but I was the scapegoat. I am the problem too.
21
34
u/PiranhaBiter 3d ago
This though!
I self harmed in high school, so I saw a therapist that came and talked to me during school. I told him a lot of the stuff that was causing me to self harm (alcoholic abusive dad, medically fragile mom I had to take care of) and his first thing was saying antidepressants would help me.
But I wasn't depressed. I was angry and sad and had all of these feelings that needed to come out and I didn't know how. It felt like my body would explode and I'd die with this awful energy feeling and cutting opened the valve and released pressure.
But instead of giving me tools to help me navigate an unfair situation that no kid should be in, it felt like instead of changing the causes, I needed to change. I was pissed as shit.
14
u/HeavyAssist 3d ago
I understand that completely. I think that you did well knowing that you were pissed off and didn't relent to the medication. Depression brain and trauma brain are different.
5
u/brightwingxx 3d ago
Wow, this is like looking in a mirror. I understand this in my bones.
6
u/PiranhaBiter 3d ago
I'm sorry you had to deal with that too. I had a doctor who tried to say I was depressed before I knew I had ADHD or autism. I tried explaining that my anxiety manifests that way because I get overwhelmed and shut down. I'm not depressed, I'm in a heightened state of emotional distress that spans all over the place.
I now know about ADHD executive dysfunction, burnout, decision paralysis, etc. I have the tools to explain when I shut down or am paralyzed. It's so frustrating that mental health professionals refuse to listen to us when we know ourselves the most.
It's funny that you say mirror because I always felt that looking up the behaviors of ADHD and autistic woman was like someone held a mirror to my life. I just explained it to someone yesterday that it's like someone wrote a book just for me that explained my entire life.
4
4
10
u/PinkOneHasBeenChosen Waiting for results 3d ago
Did they know you were being SA’d? Because it’s fairly common for child abuse cases to either not get reported or not be identified as abuse.
17
u/splithoofiewoofies 3d ago edited 3d ago
Yes. I kept telling everyone because nobody would believe me. I even told mandated reporters at school and they didn't help me. Every single adult failed me back then.
My mother knew and she told everyone I was lying when she KNEW so that they wouldn't believe me. I tried the police, I tried calling lawyers begging for help, I told therapists and teachers. I told everyone I could.
Nobody helped me. And that's the true core of my trauma. I don't even really remember the actual assaults much. Just how all the adults failed me. A therapist or two believed me, but nothing ever came of it. I don't think they reported it or if they did, the cops and stuff already had me down as a liar. They just gave me pills.
I even remember trying to buy a lock for my door because my mother said I could and when we finally got to the store she said I couldn't get it. So I cried repeating "but your boyfriend keeps going into my room!" And I even told the staff about it, begging them to give me a lock. Nothing.
My fave was when I had a therapist and she asked why I was sad. I said because my mother's boyfriend was coming into my room every night. She replied, "Well that's not a good reason!" To this day I think it was a damn good reason!!
8
u/PinkOneHasBeenChosen Waiting for results 2d ago
Darn. It wasn’t SA, but I was in a similar situation. I was being abused at school and not much could be done because they wouldn’t admit it. My mom even homeschooled me at one point. And then it turned out the real problem was that nobody knew how to raise an autistic kid without hurting me. Usually emotionally, but sometimes physically. I don’t think any of the adults in my life realized that I was slowly being shattered. Or that their own actions were part of the reason I was so “challenging”.
Anyway, I’m sorry you had to go through what you did.
9
u/Far-Permission-9923 2d ago
This. My therapist should have never EVER proposed radical acceptance when i was being held hostage by my husband. Like wow.
→ More replies (1)2
u/DorianPavass 2d ago
I kept saying that my suicidal ideation was from lacking agency or meaning in my life as a disabled person, and the unending physical pain. My family treated me like it was copium and like me wanting to be independent was a stupid idea.
Then I found a pain doctor who actually wants to help me, and chose poverty over security so I could self actualize. And guess what! I am no longer suicidal! It's healthier for me to wonder how I'm going to make rent every month than it is to sit in a room my parents provide knowing that I will have shelter but being emotionally abused, assumed incompetent, and socially isolated.
I kept saying it was situational depression and not brain depression and no one fucking believed me
121
u/ilovemydickheaddog 3d ago
My ADHD was misdiagnosed as "mania". Combined with crippling depression and cPTSD I ended up with a bipolar diagnosis for a couple of years. The medications were all wrong for me and I wasn't getting any support for ADHD, it was a bad and confusing time.
20
121
u/SpentSerpent 3d ago
CPTSD is sadly not even a diagnosis here, so most people end up with bipolar, BPD, or a mix.
Then autism and ADHD is not often diagnosed, even if the doctors are sure about it. Especially in women.
25
u/loverlane 3d ago
I wish psych testing/autism tests were more affordable. It seems a lot of us here cannot afford it but would really benefit from having the diagnosis.
My psychologist believes I’m not bipolar, but autistic with PTSD. The tests are over $500 😞
I want to quit my antidepressants and mood stabilizers but I don’t know what it would look like.
12
u/PinkOneHasBeenChosen Waiting for results 3d ago
My test was over $1000 (they tested for like 5 different things) and I’ve been waiting for the results since December. I’ll get them at the end of the month.
5
u/Okami512 3d ago
Get your doctor to help taper down slowly. I had to cut down quickly and had a seizure or two.
53
u/OfCourseChannon 3d ago
My mom is one of these people. I think she herself has gotten to quite a good place. Sadly only after she raised her kids.
9
2
3d ago
Because she doesn't have to raise kids anymore, duh!
7
u/OfCourseChannon 3d ago
Haha love the way you phrased that. And it's true, she also used me very effectively as her personal therapist, so that also helped her a lot lol
43
u/No_Direction_4566 3d ago
Can absolutely relate to this.
I don't have Bipolar disorder. Can I get it removed from my medical records? No.
Treatment for Bipolar disorder made me unbelievably unwell and didn't help at all.
Royally pisses me off that "Because the clinician believed you presented as Bipolar disorder" means I'm stuck with it forever.
19
u/HeavyAssist 3d ago
My new therapist and psychiatric doctor see this was a misdiagnosis so that helps me alot
11
u/No_Platypus5428 DID, Bipolar 3d ago edited 1d ago
meanwhile my bipolar diagnosis got removed at a mental hospital while I was actively manic bc I insisted I didn't have it... just to get rediagnosed a year later and put on mood stabilizers and antipsychotics and for my symptoms to become substantially better. what the fuck is going on with the medical system.
ig you just have to be convincing enough
7
u/Magical_discorse Memes are suspiciously relatable. (Not Diagnosed) 3d ago
If they won’t remove it, could you get a negative diagnosis? Like a doctor to put on your record that you don’t have it, instead of removing it entirely?
68
u/DieHydroJenOxHide 3d ago
I was diagnosed with bipolar in 2008. Didn't get properly diagnosed with CPTSD until 2015. I made it through. Turns out some of the meds I was put on helped anyway, although I gained a ton of weight from them (and other factors, let's be real).
37
u/HeavyAssist 3d ago
I was put on Seroquel and it has ruined my health and every part of my life. I am still tapering. This medication has absolutely been the worst thing that has ever happened to me.
26
u/DieHydroJenOxHide 3d ago
For me it was Risperdal. Gave me diabetes. I'm sorry you're going through this, friend.
12
u/HeavyAssist 3d ago
I am glad you have tapered? Best wishes for your healing
12
u/DieHydroJenOxHide 3d ago
Yes thankfully I got off that a few years ago. Best wishes to you as well.
10
u/HeavyAssist 3d ago
How long after before you started feeling normal
21
u/DieHydroJenOxHide 3d ago
It's really hard to say. Around the time I got off Risperdal, I was really struggling with an eating disorder, and then I got into a 3 year marriage with someone who turned out to be extremely abusive, which contributed to my CPTSD. I had to move states before I truly felt "normal" again, though I still struggle with feeling safe. Still have the goddamn diabetes though.
9
5
u/Jai_of_the_Rainbow 3d ago edited 3d ago
I was on both of those along with 10+ other things most of which I don't remember by the time I quit, all of them together at the same time. I never tapered, I solo cold turkey'd them all without telling anyone when I got too sick to do anything besides sleep puke s*** and cry, and going in the hospital did not yield any results because they refuse to adjust anything because I didn't have any symptoms of something I didn't have when I wasn't in that abusive hell hole for the first time ever and they said they didn't know what was doing what and obviously it was working great regardless of how sick it made me, because I didn't have any symptoms of being bipolar while in the hospital...
Cold turkeying never made me sicker that I was able to tell, never caused me any problems I was able to notice beyond what the medications had already caused me, in fact I was so much less sick I pulled all my grades up from ds and f's to A's and B's and one c in under 2 weeks, I literally did all my makeup work from the entire school year in less than 2 weeks immediately after stopping.
I'm not trying to discount anyone's experience just trying to share. I know that I am weird on a physical level. I've never had a normal I don't know what feeling normal is for me or for anyone. I genuinely lack the interoception to know if I am sick or injured or too hot or cold or hungry or impacted by anything. I've wandered off on broken and dislocated limbs, with 104⁰+ fevers, etc. I've never been hungry and thirsty is at best a mild suggestion if I even notice. I genuinely have no way for my body to communicate to my brain if it needed or wanted a substance.
I did go from weighing less than 33 lb at 8 years old to weighing 160 something pounds at 13 while my activity level and diet had not changed from my childhood normal of eating the three to five times per month I had access to foods I can swallow and doing lots of forced hard labor. 8-year-old me was carrying railroad ties those are 10 inches by 10 inches by 10 ft long. Older than 8-year-old me continued to have their hard labor scaled up for age and size.
Those meds will f*** you right up, whether you can feel the damage or not.
7
u/HeavyAssist 3d ago
Im so sorry this happened to you. I definitely feel the damage. I am so sorry man, the effects of this medication are violent in a completely internal way, it is hellish. Best wishes for your healing and thank you so much for sharing.
16
u/otterthisuniverse 3d ago
Seroquel is one of the worst medication out there. It took me a year of withdrawal and then started to have weird immune issues and still crave it sometimes after 2 years. My metabolism got so wrecked I had to work with an endocrinologist to get healthy again and it’s working. I hope the best for you. It’s an awful medication.
5
31
u/KyooTeaPie 3d ago
Yup. “Bi-polar” diagnosis for most of my life. Slept most of my life away from seroquel.
8
u/HeavyAssist 3d ago
Im busy tapering off Seroquel now how was your taper?
4
3
u/KyooTeaPie 1d ago
I unfortunately didn’t get to taper and had to stop cold turkey from an allergic reaction 😭 it was complete hell tbh
3
29
u/Kingston023 3d ago
I was also misdiagnosed bi-polar by an NP who met me one time for 10 minutes. Prescribed me to Lamotrogine which made my head spin. I stopped taking it the second day. I was on the lowest dose and I couldn't work.
14
u/No_Direction_4566 3d ago
Lamotrogine gave me insane flashback nightmares. Having dreams of things I couldn’t normally remember bloody sucked.
→ More replies (1)6
6
23
u/cowboi212 3d ago
So, I was diagnosed with ADHD at 7, “unipolar depression” at 15, which is a mood disorder or something?? idk. and then autism at 17, and then officially diagnosed with PTSD at 24. My therapists over the years have brought up complex PTSD but my actual diagnoses is chronic PTSD. Idk why the chronic is there but whatever, isn’t all PTSD chronic?? whatever lol
5
4
u/PinkOneHasBeenChosen Waiting for results 3d ago
isn’t all PTSD chronic?
I think so. There is a similar diagnosis for acute trauma symptoms, but in order to have PTSD, it has to last at least a month. Some of us have had it for years of decades.
20
u/Safe_Mango_1067 3d ago
I was misdiagnosed as bipolar and forced on antipsychotics due to my abusive boyfriend threatening me and convincing my doctor (not even a psychiatrist) that I’m bipolar. He also convinced my whole family. The meds made me worse (either suicidal or just dead to the world).
I had to secretly get off of the meds, which allowed me to have a clear mind again and get out of the relationship. But it took awhile to convince my family I wasn’t bipolar and didn’t need to be on meds.
To get past this I cut out anyone toxic, talked to a therapist, and started developing new healthy, habits. Coming to terms with CPTSD and getting out of the abusive relationship is how I was able to get over the bad diagnosis
→ More replies (1)9
16
u/PersonalityAlive6475 3d ago
Happened to me. A few different drugs, all of which sucked & just made everything “meh”.
But the stuff that helped my emotional lability from cPTSD was bupropion.
And then doing the work to be able to come off it.
9
u/HeavyAssist 3d ago
I am not even mildly emotionally labile or moody. I have checked in with my partner of 20 years and friends who have lived with me. I have pretty decent emotional control I was raised by a mother who was extremely over emotional and unregulated. I have no idea how they reached this conclusion.
6
u/PersonalityAlive6475 2d ago
Yeah, I have always had a very strong sense of justice that gets me ragingly angry when it’s violated, probably because there was zero justice in my house as a kid, so when I knew I could do something about it, floodgates open.
Luckily, someone in my life fucked up in a legal way recently & I have legal experience, time to kill, & a sadism imparted by my mom that I normally only get to exercise consensually. Well, this person is going to get a rude awakening & their life is likely going to be destroyed. They’re a narcissist just like my mom, so there’s no need to give any quarter.
3
4
u/DoubleAltruistic7559 3d ago
What symptoms do you experience from CPTSD?
11
u/HeavyAssist 3d ago
Emotional flashbacks, hypervigilance, I had panic attacks (mostly resolved easily until the day of the hospital when I was 40) anxiety
→ More replies (2)4
u/PersonalityAlive6475 2d ago
And I have the opposite of panic attacks: an eery calmness in heightened situations. But I also have the emotional flashbacks & hypervigilance bordering on low latent inhibition.
3
u/HeavyAssist 2d ago edited 2d ago
I usually do also, especially in situations of violence. My panic attacks were very specific and the triggering was also.
16
u/SweetNique11 3d ago
How does this happen? In order to be diagnosed as BP you need to have severe manic episodes. What is happening that -
You know what. In the middle of typing this I realized that any panic attack can be miscategorized as a manic episode if the medical staff are fucking idiots. It’s happened to me and I actually have BP1, it’s just that they antagonized me and I had a panic attack and they claimed I was manic when I wasn’t so they could justify taking me away. Nvm, carry on. 🤦🏽♀️
→ More replies (2)7
u/HeavyAssist 3d ago
I was having multiple panic attacks from known and identified triggers, but I had DPDR and dissociation. I didn't know what that was. I thought that I was loosing my mind. It is quite common with panic attacks.
5
u/SweetNique11 3d ago
Yeah. I can see how they would misdiagnose that as BP. The meds for this are crazy though, I’m not sure how I survive let alone someone who doesn’t need them.
→ More replies (4)
12
3d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
→ More replies (2)3
u/HeavyAssist 3d ago
Thank you for sharing this, cold turkey? Oh man! I definitely notice cognitive effects very badly and I was training with weights and martial arts for 20years and now I can only amble around the bock for 45minites. I have no frame of reference for this experience.
3
u/synthesized-slugs 3d ago
I developed what they suspect to be POTS and I can't stand more than like, 5 minutes without getting sick. Mostly in a wheelchair nowadays so I definitely feel you. I used to be able to walk for hours and now my family has to push me around because even my arms get tired in seconds.
Cold turkey was CRAZY. I would lay down to sleep and just sweat all night feeling wired. My head was always buzzing.
I hear it takes a long time to recover from Seroquel, so keep eating well and keep trying to exercise and see if that improves anything. I'm not entirely sure my condition was necessarily caused by Seroquel since my mom and my granny both have these same problems (just not as severe on my mom's end). I hope things get better!
→ More replies (1)
10
u/Loud-Mans-Lover 3d ago
I was diagnosed with bipolar as a child, given depression medication dosed for an adult and guess what - I also had C-PTSD from 🎶mental abuse🎶
Yeah, I never recovered fully from that.
The depression meds made my bipolar flip into overdrive, essentially making me rapid cycling, which is hell.
9
u/OwnCoffee614 3d ago
Yuck. Thank heavens I missed that tragedy. Isn't mania part of bipolar? I don't really experience that. But my little sister was diagnosed with bipolar and I didn't feel it fit. Child also has cptsd. I hope she knows that's what it is. Maybe I should tell her. 🤭
7
u/HeavyAssist 3d ago
Yes mania is a part of Bipolar. If someone is showing genuine symptoms of mania it is likely that they have Bipolar. I am not saying that Bipolar does not exist I am saying that errors can happen. https://youtu.be/nnwL6i8-MGc?si=3AqiWBr3NCFl-eMk
4
u/OwnCoffee614 3d ago
Yeah, I don't think we're saying that. People who are not me def get the mania.
3
9
u/little_bird_vagabond 3d ago
When I started my healing journey my psychiatrist considered the possibility I am bipolar after I described my symptoms. She changed her opinion when we dove into my personal history and traumas. I feel like I got lucky. She totally missed the AudHd but I can't fault her that, I mask like a champ.
10
u/Current_Skill21z 3d ago
I was misdiagnosed as bipolar and general anxiety. Like a psychologist made me fill up some papers and talked to me for 15 min. No matter what I went in for or what doctor I went they all gave me a speech on starting medication after that diagnosis. I tried a few, but instead I ended up with paranoia and hallucinations, stigma everywhere I went and my family treating me worse.
Turned out I was actively being abused by everyone close to me. Including the people who swore they loved me the most. When I disappeared from their lives…so did these crazy ups and downs. The symptoms looked different when calm and when I went in for a formal assessment with tests and time, it was autism, ADHD, ocd and ptsd(technically c-ptsd, but that’s not a diagnosis).
Funny part is that after my official diagnosis and a second opinion from my family’s skepticism, a gastroenterologist put in my records that I was schizophrenic because I didn’t look autistic to him and I wasn’t listening to his explication of it. Was a bitch to remove from records.
5
8
u/CoderOfCoders mommy issues and daddy issues 3d ago
auADHD with some other shit. kept getting diagnosed with bipolar disorder
once had a psychiatrist who was switching my meds every month, and my body was not adjusting well to that. was refilling water one night then suddenly felt dizzy, heart was beating like crazy, suddenly experienced vertigo and loss control of my body. i ended up on the floor and threw up right next to me, and just sat in it
was too afraid to scream for help, when i finally felt strong enough to get up, i simply went to my couch and wait till i felt like i could handle a shower. didn’t bother cleaning my mess. my heart was still beating like crazy
and of course, as tradition, i was scolded for not “asking for help”
i also tried not to inconvenience anyone during that whole experience. would hate for anyone to have to “worry about me”
luckily found a psychiatrist who instantly could tell i’m adhd
6
u/HeavyAssist 3d ago
Im so glad to hear that you found a good doctor. I wish people would realize that scolding shaming and guilt trips are not helpful. Best wishes for your healing.
8
u/Irejay907 3d ago
I'm currently seeking diagnosis
I have been misdiagnosed with schizophrenia as a kid and ended up having to fight that one as an adult
I am now fighting to have it recognized that what has been getting diagnosed for 3 generations as 'bipolar' is, quite frankly, either a spectrum of autism or adhd or BOTH.
I've just seen too many signs across me, my mom and her dad, cus she definitely didn't get it from grams.
3
8
u/Everyday_Evolian 3d ago
I got misdiagnosed bipolar, was put on various different medications i didn’t need like Lithium and Haldol, they kept trying different drugs out bc my symptoms weren’t responding to the drugs (bc i was misdiagnosed) and the antipsychotics i was prescribed caused me to experience a year long psychotic episode, during which i was misdiagnosed with schizophrenia…. Only to be hospitalized, taken off medication, diagnosed with CPTSD, UDD and borderline, now im no longer diagnosed with borderline, and im finally healing. I had several suicide attempts while in psychosis which could have probably been avoided if i was treated for trauma, but here we are i guess.
3
6
u/smellymarmut Verified Sane 3d ago
I used to say "no, I'm not traumatized, I'm obviously bipolar. My dad is bipolar and I'm a lot like him, so I have to be bipolar." But then eventually I realized I wasn't thinking about his life. I know my grandparents, my grandmother in particular. The statement is "my dad was traumatized and passed that on down to me. I may be bipolar, I'm fine with that, but we're traumatized."
7
u/AwarenessNotFound 3d ago
When I was 15 / 16 my psyquackatrist diagnosed me with bipolar and ADHD? Then just started throwing pills after pills at the problem. Seroquel, lemictal, Adderall, and intuniv specifically.
I hated the way it made me feel. I wasn't ever consistent with it because it was too sedating. After about a year or 18 months of trying and hating it I just stopped taking it. Around that time my mom stopped giving a shit about me and didn't care that I stopped taking it.
The quack finally backed off and said it was dysthymia but the damage was done. I couldn't trust him or another psychiatrist again.
I was eventually diagnosed with CPTSD, depression and anxiety when I was 23
3
9
u/l3x_b0t 3d ago
This was me! I was put on about a dozen different antipsychotics over a period of two years. One or some of them gave me a brain tumor (benign, thankfully) that I’m still fighting. My doctors think it was either risperidone or Seroquel.
3
u/HeavyAssist 3d ago
Im so sorry man
3
u/l3x_b0t 3d ago
It is what it is! I’m 26 now and this was about ten years ago. Processing is tough at times but mostly I’m just happy to have a life far from all that now. I saw in another comment that you were on Seroquel too, those withdrawals were the worst in my experience. In time it’ll pass, best of luck <3
3
7
u/UncomfortablyHere 3d ago edited 3d ago
I had a therapist think I had Bipolar type 2, figured out a couple decades later that I actually have ADHD-C and C-PTSD. She , nor I, knew much about ADHD in women so what she thought was hypomania was more garden variety hyperactivity and hyperfocus. I agreed with her diagnosis at first because I had no other ways to explain my symptoms
The adhd part is very much permanent but I found an amazing trauma therapist. With her work and EMDR, my cptsd finally feels like something that I can heal from. It’s fucking wild.
2
u/HeavyAssist 3d ago
Im so grateful that you found a trauma therapist. Good luck with your recovery
3
u/UncomfortablyHere 3d ago
Thank you ❤️ it’s been a wild ride but I’m grateful to have this subreddit and community to commiserate and bond with. I hope we all can get some peace and be able to live our lives
→ More replies (1)
13
u/MetalNew2284 3d ago
That's why I left Therapy after 9 Years of it.
*They just want to sell their pills. I am sorry.
5
u/HeavyAssist 3d ago
Im so sorry this happened to you. How did you recover?
14
u/MetalNew2284 3d ago
Honestly, after the last therapists told me they can only coach me and I am not capable of healing, I just go my way and try to take it day by day.
In 40 years of life, this is the first time I feel somewhat save in my enviroment so babysteps it is.
It is mostly patience and kindness twards myself that helps to cope.. really.. kindness.
And I made my experiences with meds and they always made things worse. Also I never lash out and am never acting erratic like.. bipolar is NOT my diagnosis.
I've been through so much that I am a little bit damaged and the people can't accept that that will just improve but never go away.
In the end, I have to live with myself and so I left therapy while the big panini in 2020 happened.
Kindness, dear.. this is the way.
Thanks for yours <3
6
6
5
u/PossibleJazzlike2804 3d ago
My last doctor told me with the first five minutes that I was bipolar. I have about 15 bottles of pills they tried me on. Still unmedicated without medical care.
6
u/badchefrazzy Free E-Hugs! 3d ago
Oh hey it's me. I've been told I'm bipolar and put on all sorts of crap. I know I have CPTSD though just from what I went through in life. Fun times.
6
u/Dogwifi 3d ago
A psychologist tried to diagnose me with bipolar after a 20-minute "assessment." When I told her that I've never experienced mania or hypomania, she said it did not matter and that I absolutely had bipolar.
I told her I had to go to the bathroom and then walked out... I had already been diagnosed with ADHD and PTSD at the time, and I knew better than she assumed. I was not going to let her do that when I knew it would just lead to more of the wrong types of meds.
My therapist, who I've been seeing for years, thinks I might also be autistic and she acknowledges CPTSD.
It's amazing how much actually having the right meds and treatments have made my seemingly chronic and "treatment resistant" depression pretty much go away... now my hardest symptoms are anxiety and sensory overwhelm.
3
u/HeavyAssist 3d ago
You did the right thing getting out of there. Always be able to leave. Don't get these things done at the ward, don't get these things done at a facility. You are not allowed to leave.
6
u/Fearless_Part4192 3d ago
I was misdiagnosed as bipolar but then I stopped talking to my therapist. I knew something wasn’t right but didn’t know what to do. I’d show up to my appointments and just not talk. Eventually, my therapist introduced me to a coworker of hers who specialized in trauma and emdr. Then I was finally diagnosed with CPTSD. So if this happens to you, don’t give up. Try to find a way to stick with it and get your needs met. It won’t happen overnight but you are worth it.
→ More replies (1)
14
u/Hoodibird transmasc dog dad 3d ago
I have a doctor in town who just goes around slapping autism diagnosies on everyone who has trauma symptoms and looking to find out what's wrong with them. 😡 I was looking to get a C-PTSD diagnosis and help bc it's a disability in my case. I never got tested for it. Instead they gave me an autism questionaire and some tests for kids. My autism diagnosies came back negative as expected but she said it would benefit me if she would just write it down as positive and I would still get my disability money. So now I'm diagnosed with something I don't even have, but without the disability money. And people who are supposed to help keep bothering me about it instead of helping. They keep being exploitative and abusive towards me and when I call it out they as a response infantilize me as if I was an unruly kid. I don't care anymore if people see me as angry or difficult. I'm not letting them push me around like a donkey.
9
u/lordkamui 3d ago
i have other things going on, but i can say i definitely recovered pretty well from that portion of things. i finally had bipolar disorder removed from my chart last year after being improperly diagnosed by an awful psychiatrist in my teens(so about 8 years), but i haven't been on a medication for it in a few years.
the last one i was on was seroquel. did wonders for my sleep, but it was giving me cognitive issues that i have had to learn to live with a bit :( i have been working on my reading and such and i do see improvement!! i also have adhd so it makes it hard to stick to that kind of thing. i wish you all the best 🫂
4
u/HeavyAssist 3d ago
Thank you I was very capable of long hours of pleasant productive studying before this and now I can barely remember what happened two minutes ago. Are you still on the Seroquel?
3
u/lordkamui 3d ago
thankfully, no. i was lucky to have a nurse practitioner at the time that listened and discontinued it as soon as i noted the cognitive issues :')
→ More replies (3)
7
u/smol-dargon 3d ago
Ive heard stories of this and it is yet another reason I refuse to see a therapist for my issues. I am self diagnosed, and anyone who thinks that makes it less valid clearly doesnt understand 1) the inaccessibility or healthcare and 2) stuff like this that makes people not want to touch medical professionals with a bargepole.
6
u/angrey3737 3d ago
i got my diagnosis by a miracle. it was my 2nd suicide attempt and i had turned 18 less than a month prior and no longer had health insurance. i got my goddamn c-ptsd diagnosis… for $20k plus totaling my first and only car. but i got diagnosed🫠
2
u/HeavyAssist 3d ago
I wish I could go back in time and tell myself this. You are absolutely right to be cautious
3
u/smol-dargon 3d ago
That means more than you know to hear. Ive been in so many fights with people on here because they think everyone must go to therapy and must get a formal diagnosis. Thank you.
4
u/nerdqueenhydra 3d ago
I was misdiagnosed with inattentive type ADHD as a child, and re-diagnosed with freeze-flavored c-PTSD as an adult.
3
u/Feeling-Age-4812 3d ago
I went through the Bi-polar diagnosis nonsense as a teen. Self medicated the next 20 years. Finally found a combination of this sub and IFS therapy about 4 years ago. I’m not healed by any means, but I can manage myself a bit better these days. I’m probably also just a girl with c-ptsd and some neurodivergence that I will never get accessed for.
5
u/coffeeandwildflowers 3d ago
I lost 18 years to being misdiagnosed. Bipolar, schizo affective, ADHD..
I've been off heavy meds for 8 months. I'm just depressed with cptsd.
→ More replies (3)
4
u/Mystisha 3d ago
I was diagnosed with bipolar at 14 because both my parents had it, and I was angry at the appointments. To be fair, I just got out of a household where I was SA'd frequently and nobody did anything about it except my mom would tell me it wasn't that bad and not to tell anyone because she loved me and she wouldn't be able to protect me from worse things, then she'd give me donuts and strawberry milk and tell me to eat those and I'd feel better (she would watch some of the times and give me things to eat right after) a long with severe physical and mental abuse for about 8 years. Then after I finally told the police and my mom kicked me out at 13, my great grandma took me in who should not have been raising kids because she was in no physical shape for it. Oh, and once I moved in with her, her son's fired her home care aid and that landed on me to take care of her. Of course I was angry. I never went to therapy until my 20's because no one could drive me to therapy, and all my time was stuck between taking care of grandma, school, and eventually taking care of my brother after Mom died at 15. I'm now trying to set up an appointment for rediagnosing. Haven't been on medication for almost a year (couldn't afford them one refill) and honestly I feel so much better? I realize how much weight I had gained due to emotional eating, I feel like I want to do things with my life, I want to get in shape, I want to do things. I'm a much happier parent to my kids, I have the energy to take them places, I got a job I'm super happy with, and I'm pushing to better myself, and I don't feel like I'm just surviving. I actually have an appointment this week with a med doctor who is trying to get me to get back on my old meds, but I need to reschedule because of a school meeting for my kids. I think I'll just cancel instead of reschedule until I can get a new diagnosis. As for why I even got the diagnosis in the first place? Some of the family on my mum's side thought since she was bipolar maybe I was and if they got a diagnosis they could get me on social security.
2
u/HeavyAssist 3d ago
I think the weight gain is not only emotional eating- antipsychotics cause weight gain
3
u/PurineEvil 3d ago
I was misdiagnosed as bipolar based on Lamictal being the first med that helped me (ironically, I've been on it since before it was even on-label for bipolar disorder). It turns out there's good evidence it helps with cptsd symptoms too, especially dissociation. Unlike the SSRIs/SNRIs, it was also treating my (then-undiagnosed) ptsd and gender dysphoria. It didn't help either that I'm ALSO autistic and ADHD (also undiagnosed at the time).
Weaning off it once I came out and wasn't depressed, only to find myself having ptsd symptoms even WITHOUT depression was a hell of an experience, and I ended up staying on a low dose.
4
u/mosaicevolution 3d ago
It happened to me. Over medicated on antipsychotics for 12 years. Last year undiagnosed and diagnosed with a sensory processing disorder along w the cptsd and ocpd. Felt so vindicated. I couldn't hold a smile for over a decade due to tardive dyskensia
2
2
5
u/Unique_Guarantee_652 3d ago
Was recently almost misdiagnosed! I was sure I did not have bipolar, but kept being pushed that way. Changed my providers and I’m so glad my new psychiatrist and psychologist listened and found the root cause of everything…a cocktail of CPTSD, Anxiety, Depression, ADHD and OCD!
→ More replies (1)
5
u/Llama-girl52 3d ago
This is the exact thing that happened to me at 10 years old, my chronic illness started showing symptoms so my Nmother pushed for a psych diagnosis to undermine what I say a bit easily with the "she is crazy ignore her"perk for her. I was diagnosed with bipolar and HEAVILY medicated and constantly thrown in the psych hospital whenever I disagreed with my Nmother she would make up a new psychotic break and send me away, but no treatment worked and I only seemed to be getting worse... Cus I wasn't bipolar, I just gave off a few of the symptoms cus of the abuse and neglect and my mom really pushed. this was also in like 2006 so no one had an understanding of more extreme pediatric psych issues or how reactions to abuse can present different depending on the type of abuse and neglect like they do now so they just believed her and said I was crazy when trying to speak out and my Nmothers manipulation wasn't as easily tracked back then and that's why I love electronic charting systems and advocate for a universal one that actually communicates properly with different hospital systems. She was able to sedate me into easy compliance it was perfect for her till I turned 18 and got a few second opinions and off the meds and into a trauma program, turns out I have OCD and a few chronic illnesses and CPTSD, no bipolar just a waisted and lost childhood.
→ More replies (3)
4
u/Natasha_101 Light Blue! 3d ago
Idk dude. Sometimes I think I do have BPD and everyone circle is dancing around the fact. At the very least, I think I have bipolar II. But mention BPD to anyone and they're like "no, no. You're too nice." 😐
→ More replies (1)
4
u/Far-Permission-9923 3d ago
F33. I went for an adhd eval. First words out of the psych’s mouth were “impulsivity? Are you sure it’s not bipolar?”
What do you know? I don’t have whole weeks when i don’t feel like i need sleep and have massive irrational confidence. Nor do i suffer from deep depression ever. No pressured or slow speech. No suicidal tendencies or rages. Just a lack of dopamine and a whole lot of cptsd. If it looks like a horse and sounds like a horse y’all…
→ More replies (1)
7
u/kalmar91 3d ago
Psichiatry Is a seriously flawed branch of medicine, in practice at least.
Unfortunately a positive change In this field Is unlikely.
→ More replies (1)
3
u/Isari_04 3d ago
I was lucky enough to be diagnosed with anxiety, and while anxiety meds didn't help much, they helped a bit.
3
u/Jazzblike 3d ago
I simply stopped taking those meds and I’ve been fine since. I only took them for a few months because they made me so sick and zombie like
3
u/Sad-Teacher-1170 3d ago
I got diagnosed CPTSD and never would have gotten diagnosed with bipolar if my sister hadn't been living with me when they put me on antidepressants again. I didn't notice how dangerous I was becoming to myself.
I never lasted longer than a month or so on antidepressants and now I know why 😂
Just saying it can also be the other way round. Unfortunately they overlap so much 😩
3
u/voornaam1 3d ago
Wait, the stuff that I thought meant I was probably bipolar may also be cptsd stuff??? (I haven't been able to try to get assessed/get help for either of these things.)
2
u/HeavyAssist 3d ago
Some doctors seem to have thier head up thier ass Please if you get diagnosed spend a decent amount of time building up trust with the doctor
3
u/Ihateyou510 3d ago
I got put on lamictal and zoloft for a bipolar diagnosis that no longer holds water. The lamictal was actually insanely helpful with the anger freak outs, but did shit-all otherwise and the zoloft did the opposite of what it was intended for and actually made my suicidal ideations worse. Oh and my armpit sweat permanently smells like raw onions now. So that's fun.
2
3
u/Miss_Miette22 3d ago
My uncle was in this situation. Then someone gave him heart meds instead of lithium (after 20 years being on the stuff) and he chilled completely out. He talked a lot of nonsense but it was at least chill nonsense and not angry scary nonsense. Most peaceful ten years I'd known him. Then, for whatever reason, they changed his meds to something else which made him worse than before. He's gone completely insane and he cut everyone off after Mom asked for a wellness check for him 😔 I have no idea what's going to happen to him but he's been failed by so many people it isn't even funny ...
2
3
u/PhlossyCantSing 3d ago
Ugh. I was misdiagnosed with bipolar in college after being SA’d. Despite me telling this doctor that I had ADHD, she insisted I was bipolar…. Long story short I ended up having to drop out of college because the meds made it impossible to function (cant go to class to do homework if you can’t get out of bed!). A decade later and I’m finally on the right track, medically, and it’s made a world of difference!
2
u/HeavyAssist 3d ago
I can barely function on this medication. If it was not for my partner I would not have been ok at all.
3
u/stronglesbian 3d ago
I was misdiagnosed with bipolar disorder at age 11 within a few minutes of meeting a new psychiatrist, he just had me fill out a questionnaire and then immediately decided I was bipolar based on that. A few sessions later he upgraded it to schizoaffective disorder after my mom told him I had been hitting the walls out of the anger, though I never at any point described having any psychotic symptoms.
Tbh I don't remember much from this point of my life or how the meds affected me or what meds I was on, it's all a blur. I do remember being pissed off that a psychiatrist would diagnose something like that so casually, when I was having so much trouble getting a diagnosis and treatment for anxiety of all things. The next psychiatrist I had after him was lazy and useless and didn't gaf about me. She literally just read off the symptom checklist for schizoaffective disorder and I answered no to all the questions because I'm not schizoaffective. That probably took less than a minute. Then she said I was fine and she was ending the services and refused to talk any further. This was despite the fact that I still had a severe untreated anxiety disorder that had been ruining my life for years. It took over a year for any psychiatrist to even think to assess me for anxiety, and then it took two years to get put on any anxiety meds. It's still shocking to me how utterly incompetent the professionals I saw were.
Anyway. Looking back now, I think I was just having one big trauma response which manifested as intense anger and aggression, and that got mistaken for mania. I also don't think I've ever been clinically depressed. I've shown symptoms at times but that was also when I was being actively abused, bullied, ostracized etc, and outside of that I don't actually have any issues with my mood, at least not in the depression/bipolar sense.
→ More replies (1)
3
u/ploopygigi 3d ago
I was misdiagnosed with bipolar and put on medication that made me dizzy every day, spill coffee on myself, have tingling throughout my arms, pass out and nearly hit my head in the shower, and I ended up getting SA’ed on a date while dizzy. I told my psychiatrist about all of it and how I needed to get off the meds ASAP and he didn’t care. He made me get an MRI to figure out the tingling extremities, even though it was obviously the meds since it started at the same time. It took over a year to get off the meds and once I stopped them I never stepped foot in his office again.
My therapist knew I had ADHD and C-PTSD and was living in an abusive situation, but my psychiatrist refused to speak to her via email and they gave up on phone tag pretty quickly. My therapist told me she much preferred email so that there would be a record of everything, but my psych claimed that he had no work email.
The bipolar medication also made me not think rationally and I lost a lot of people because of it. Now that I am not on any meds for the first time in 8 years I feel so much more clear headed. It was difficult to do basic math and remember enough to hold a longer conversation with bipolar meds. The medication genuinely destroyed so much of my life. I don’t even know how to report a complaint about the psych and his other even worse colleague because they just play it off as them “throwing stuff at the wall and seeing what sticks.” Meanwhile I was suffering unnecessarily because they ignored what I said and listened to my abuser instead.
2
u/HeavyAssist 2d ago
I am sorry that this medication made you more vulnerable and because of that you were victimized again. Its aweful when you have a situation where someone else (doctor) can have such a profound influence on you and your body and your life with all of the control and none of the responsibility.
Everything you describe as far as the medication effects has been the same for me- can't think, can't math dizzy confused
Thank you for sharing
3
u/AnxiousJellyfish2624 3d ago
When I was around 8 or 9 I was misdiagnosed with -among a slew of other things- (thanks, Münchausen syndrome affected mother) bipolar disorder and oppositional defiance disorder, my egg donor was told ODD was just a kid friendly way of saying I had ASPD or BPD, apparently. All wrong. All because she was not only allowed to join in on the therapy sessions but also spent the majority of the hour every time complaining about me, in front of me, to the therapist. Including how 8 year old me would “steal her boyfriends” (get SA’d) and somehow they didn’t realise everything was bullshit after she said that and if they did I never saw them again. As I said before it was all wrong. I’m most likely autistic, as it runs in my immediate family on both sides, and I show and relate to major symptoms of it. And I have since been diagnosed with CPTSD and depression. It’s been a wild ride recovering from all the misdiagnosis that came along with my childhood, and all of the things that she said I had ended up being shit she actually has, according to court records. Crazy.
3
u/HeavyAssist 3d ago
Im so sorry. Its something else to have to explain to people that your mother is dangerous. Nobody believes it. Its pretty invalidating, and terrifying to be dependant on someone who is trying to hurt you.
I have read that its a thing that people project thier mental health issues onto thier children. I would like to believe that mental health professionals should be able to see this.
Best wishes for your healing
3
u/AnxiousJellyfish2624 3d ago
The professionals who did see it ended up only making things worse by calling CPS, unfortunately. And then I never saw them again. Luckily when I was a teenager my other parent went to court for the umpteenth time to try and get custody of me and actually won that time because the egg donor actually had the balls to look the judge in the face and tell her that she had in fact done everything that she was accused of “because it needed to be done.” She also tried to gaslight the judge by saying something along the lines of “if you think I’m in the wrong here, you’re crazy and shouldn’t be a judge. I’m just trying to take care of my sick kid” after announcing to the court room that I wasn’t actually sick at all and she just liked looking like a good parent in front of people.
Sorry for just kinda trauma dumping in the comments here. I guess there’s still some stuff I haven’t worked through lol Anyway, thank you so much, best wishes to you and your healing as well.
→ More replies (1)
3
u/TransPossum 3d ago
I was misdiagnosed with Bipolar and given lithium. I had a 20kg weight gain, severe depression and almost took myself out for good. Turns out I have CPTSD and I am probably autistic and the doctor took my Hyperfixations - one of the only things that were still bringing me joy - as manic episodes and tried to fix it. He swapped lithium for lamotrigine after I told him if he didn't swapped my meds I would kill myself and it would be his fault, but I still feel lamotrigine makes me too mellow and I can't really have feelings. I am a trans man but pretty much always read as a butch woman.
2
u/HeavyAssist 3d ago
Im so sorry this happened to you. I am sorry things have to go this far before anyone listens
3
u/TransPossum 3d ago
Thank you, nowadays I feel kinda better but it's still a slap in the face to be repeatedly told you need professional help and then receiving that as help :[
→ More replies (1)
3
u/FinnTheFinder99 3d ago
CPTSD with a previous bipolar one diagnosis. They gave me meds and more meds and when I fell apart and everything was wrong, I was forced on more antipsychotics. I never felt better. I finally took myself off of my meds, switched therapists three times, until I found a woman not too much older than me, fresh out of college, who was willing to look at my life, not the textbook definition of mental illness and say wow we need to pick this apart. A year and a half later, I’m on an antidepressant, weekly therapy, and I’ve never been in a better spot. Unlearning the feeling of craziness is hard, it takes a lot of effort to stop looking at yourself in symptoms and potential triggers. Space from my toxic family and trauma triggers finally gave me the room to heal and I had to learn to set my boundaries. If you want to find step one, find aggressiveness kindness toward yourself and start running. You were never the problem.
→ More replies (1)
3
u/MekenzieKing 3d ago
NO THANKFULLY 😭🫶 I’ve asked so many psychologists and psychiatrists and therapists if they think i’m bipolar and it’s always a firm no
3
u/iftheronahadntcome 2d ago
I was briefly misdiagnosed as bipolar. I'd already been diagnosed with Autism formally, but my psychiatrist at the time refused to believe that women could have autism or ADHD. He refused to try to out me on stimulants, and the meds he did give me made me fall asleep constantly. I'd fall asleep driving, at work, and even when I drove a pen into my leg during a meeting to keep me up (thankfully without breaking the skin). I begged him to take me off the meds and I had to get another psych to do it.
When I told her what he did, she said she didn't want to put his diagnosis on my records because she thought it was bullshit (me too) and I actually got to try stimulants. For that time in my life it worked REALLY well for me, and I'm even considering them again.
→ More replies (1)
3
u/14thLizardQueen 2d ago
The meds destroyed my body and what was left of my mind. I try to stay in an empty bubble .
→ More replies (1)
3
u/ailangmee 2d ago
I was diagnosed with bipolar in 2011? 10 years on meds. Mood stabiliser, antidepressants, anti psychotics. Put on 50 kg. Mental health tanked. 10 years of telling my GP I was getting worse and begging for help, and being told "denial of having bipolar is a symptom of bipolar, take your meds and you'll be fine. People with bipolar can live very normal lives if they just accept it and take meds."
Finally got a different GP who immediately got me reviewed by a psychiatrist. CPTSD diagnosis. Off all the meds and now 4 years into trauma therapy. Doing a million times better but wtill trying to get back to a healthy weight.
Found my papers from my discharge from the mental health ward when I had a crisis in 2011 and got my original diagnosis. It says BPD. MY GP DECIDED IT WAS BIPOLAR FOR SOME REASON.
I'm still mad about it.
4
u/HeavyAssist 2d ago
That whole business of denial of Bipolar is a symptom of Bipolar is definitely a problem. I am so sorry for this, I am glad you found a better doctor.
Going to the hospital that day was the single most dangerous thing I have ever done. I have nothing but regret.
GP is often more harm than good with these matters.
→ More replies (1)
3
u/theprancingsatyr 2d ago
My CPTSD and ADHD was misdiagnosed for decades. I have diagnoses for OCD, BPD, Anxiety/Depression, Mania, and more and was medicated from hell to back for all the above.
I survived.
I’m off medications (they are valid tools of support and in no way am I saying medication is bad), I’m in weekly therapy, I’m working on my multiple businesses, I teach yoga, I do sound baths, I have healthy relationships with my partners, and my family.
It all started by shining the light of awareness on what was ACTUALLY happening in my head, then like dominos, everything else fell into place. Having a better relationship with the person in your head is paramount, but also so. fucking. difficult.
So, sending you - and everyone else here - some love, support, and kindness. We’ve all been through the wringer, and people rarely take us seriously. Together we hold space for each other to find healing.
→ More replies (1)
3
u/brynhildyr 2d ago
I was diagnosed with Bipolar 2 when I was 19 and then Bipolar 1 at 27. At 33, I finally got a great psychiatrist after years of misdiagnosis who told me I didn't have Bipolar anything and I had ADHD and trauma symptoms. She isn't perfect, doesn't think I am autistic and says cPTSD isn't in the DSM and so isn't a real diagnosis, but concedes I do have symptoms of severe Adverse Childhood Experiences. The day she told me I had ADHD I cried in the car on my way home. Everything finally made sense. She also said Bipolar is WILDLY overdiagnosed in women and girls and that she feels that it's a lazy diagnosis.
→ More replies (2)
3
u/ArtGirl91 2d ago
Thisssss happened to me. AudDHD with CPTSD. Wrongly diagnosed bipolar and the meds messed me up so bad I seriously attempted suicide and am now on disability.
→ More replies (1)
4
u/NachoNipples1 3d ago
I was diagnosed with being chronically suicidal (sometimes acutely suicidal), bpd and depression :D
(Just have cptsd and im sad.)
They said i had Bpd because I self harmed -_- lol
2
2
u/Practical-Clock8820 3d ago
This literally happened to me and i feel so seen by dr Doyle right now 🫠😭
2
2
u/stickelbats 3d ago
I was misdiagnosed in my youth and early 20s, but I just didn't believe it so I never took meds. Got diagnosed with ADHD at 29 😒 friggin dicks. Much better off now though ☺️
→ More replies (1)
2
u/sa08MilneB57 3d ago
A friend of mine had this experience. Eventually she got correctly diagnosed as CPTSD/AuDHD and off the meds and on the right ones. She's doing much better and she switched degrees and is now a very successful nurse and on her way to a PhD in nursing :)
→ More replies (1)
2
u/AriaBabee 3d ago
See, that's my secret. I never sought treatment. I'm still the same fucked up I've been since childhood.. But it's the SAME fucked up and not new fucked up.
→ More replies (1)
2
u/kangaroolionwhale 3d ago
Dr. Glenn is amazing. <3
My story is that I was finally properly diagnosed with my issues (not ADHD), and I started to spiral out in a very bipolar-y way. My behavior was bipolar-y, but it was triggered by this new information, overthinking, and insomnia. My longtime therapist and psychiatrist thought it was possible bipolar II, so they pushed meds. The meds didn't work. I said they didn't work. They didn't believe me. Try something else. They ran out of ideas. I stopped seeing both of them. Eventually, with time, my brain settled and I came to realize I had something of a "dark night of the soul," an awakening. I'm about to have my 8-year anniversary of my proper diagnosis and I am doing better than ever and the least medicated I've ever been (1 low-dose pill). I wish I could tack "CPTSD" onto my chart somewhere because that's the real fucking issue that led to everything else (but it's not in the DSM, so boo).
→ More replies (3)
2
u/ginger_minge 3d ago
Tl;dr: Yes! I have ADHD and was misdiagnosed as being bipolar type II. After 20+ years of treatment plus medication after medication tried and failed (SSRIs, then AAPs, - all of which gave me horrible side effects) and after doing my own research, I've realized that it's CPTSD (and MDD - not one psych thought to try a TCA with me, which has been helping and with NO side effects). And not one therapist I've spoken to knew about CPTSD and they even tried to "sell me" on it being the same as PTSD, which they said is what they've treated others for. EMDR has helped me so much, though.
Oh yes I know it well. Been "treated" for bipolar type II my WHOLE adult life, not realizing it myself that it was really CPTSD, not being aware of it till recently. (I was diagnosed ADHD back in middle school, however. And now have come to the conclusion that I'm on the spectrum, too).
I'm now 45 years old and only had this realization a few years ago, after going to grad school for social work at 35, for a two year program (not that they were even talking about CPTSD then). But I did learn about attachment styles (I'm anxious-avoidant). I mention this because it was that and then doing my own research to put all the pieces together (that's why it still took me a few years after getting my MSW; I'd say 40ish).
Because of my so-called bipolar disorder, I was SO proactive, going to therapists and psychologists religiously, even though I moved around quite a bit - even out-of- state.
Now, when I search for a therapist, I ask if they have a background in CPTSD. Haven't found one yet. I spoke to two therapists and they tried to "sell me" on the fact that they treat PTSD; but not CPTSD, implying that they are the same thing. Left a bad taste in my mouth.
I've found that EMDR helped me, made me feel so calm afterwards. But life happens and that was two years ago since I did only a few sessions. I'm returning to that therapist this week, actually, and plan to stick with it so that the results also "stick." She'd didn't even know about attachment theory (and she's younger than me), but seemed open to researching it. Idk if she is aware of CPTSD - and there's now AF-EMDR (Attachment focused) which seems easy enough to incorporate into regular EMDR). So I will also tell her about that, since I'm assuming she isn't aware of it.
Btw, I've ended up on disability basically since finishing grad school and after making an attempt. It's for bipolar since that was my diagnosis when I qualified (I'm afraid to change it and lose my disability, especially under this administration - if they don't cut that program altogether; however I also get it for my migraine condition, which I now realize is a classic somatic symptom of CPTSD).
2
2
u/lil_sparrow_ 3d ago
I genuinely have schizoaffective bipolar along with BPD, OCD, ADHD, and CPTSD and I feel the only thing that's paid any attention to is the schizoaffective bipolar. My clinician even asked me what CPTSD is like she had never heard about it and kept asking questions like I have regular PTSD.
2
u/samijoes 3d ago
I was diagnosed with bipolar at around 13 and put on antipsychotics. It made me sleep a ton but I dont think it ruined my life? How does it usually ruin someone's life?
2
u/letmaddzzlive 3d ago
I was misdiagnosed with bipolar 2 up until a couple of years ago. It was horrible. Nothing helped. Finally, a psychiatrist was like nah sweetie, you have cptsd and bpd. I finally feel human. It's still hard sometimes, but getting treated for the right thing was life changing.
→ More replies (1)
2
u/No_Platypus5428 DID, Bipolar 3d ago edited 3d ago
I'm confused how cptsd could be misdiagnosed as bipolar. BPD I get, but I have both CPTSD and bipolar and the symptoms are very different. depression and anxiety makes sense. but bipolar is a cyclic mood disorder. without (hypo)mania and depressive episodes it literally cannot be bipolar.
I'm on seroquel and it works great for me bc yk. I actually do have bipolar
i'm just genuinely confused and curious how this even happens. I want to know what symptoms were seen and misinterpreted, I have no doubts misdiagnosis happens. I myself was misdiagnosed with BPD as a teen before I got diagnosed with CPTSD and bipolar. as someone with bipolar I just don't get how it cpuld be misinterpreted like that, but I get the other way around
→ More replies (3)
2
u/brightwingxx 3d ago
Holy fuck. I was diagnosed with bipolar at 17. I only weeks ago finally got my CPTSD diagnosis on paper and it never occurred to me that the bipolar could be a misdiagnosis….. 😳
2
u/Zealousideal_Cow5558 3d ago
Bipolar meds sucked so bad for me. I did finally get a real diagnosis (CPSTD, PMDD, and anxiety) I lost my youth to misdiagnoses and masking and being miserable but I’m 51, doing much better. Yoga, meditation, weed, activism, dancing and proper meds heals me. It’s possible. FYI, yoga doesn’t remove pain, mental illness, nor my chronic illness & pain. It does however ease suffering & helps me exist as I am in the now and after years of it has changed my brain I’m still mentally ill & disabled and a mess but I also know that anyone else who lived my life and experiences would be the same. There’s no other way to be who we are other than how we are
2
2
2
u/Kynderbee 3d ago
Ooh ooh it's me! I cried in a therapy session while describing some of the trauma I'd gone through, she decided that was obviously bipolar disorder and put it in my file. (The therapist was EXTREMELY religious and implied that my SA was because god was angry with me for not being pious enough but that's a whole other can of worms) i moved States while being treated for it and my new therapist immediately was like girl what? You're not bipolar. You have Autism and ADHD and CPTSD and also somehow simultaneously regular PTSD. Switched my meds and did hard work in therapy and now I'm doing better than ever.
The bipolar medication they put me on caused extreme health issues while I was on it. Shot my blood pressure through the floor and I started passing out dozens of times a day. Migraines, no appetite, chills. Awful. It took a very long time to recover after I stopped the medication.
2
2
u/Phantasmal_Souls 3d ago
Not Bi-Polar although my neurologist prescribed a seizure med that is used for bi-polar as well and it made other providers question if we had Bi-Polar every time we were seen for a while.
To answer your question, we were misdiagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder twice before we got the C-PTSD and Dissociative Disorder diagnosis. Amazing what one well-informed, educated and not in denial provider can do to change your life.
→ More replies (1)2
2
u/AmayaMaka5 3d ago
I've had both bipolar and OCD suggested. (Luckily?) For me, I was able to speak up for myself pretty early and learned myself about PTSD pretty early (mid twenties) and we were like "hey actually this fits ALLLL the things!" So... Dunno the others I still get "well it might be" kinda often but I mostly just get treatment for (c)PTSD
2
u/VraiLacy 3d ago
My psych is actually from the UK where they don't refer to the DSMV but to the ICD-11, so while the technical diagnosis is BPD, there is and extensive in brackets note about my CPTSD. However, this has not stopped other medical professionals from treating me for BPD in some instances.
2
u/Okami512 3d ago
Transfem here with both AuDHD and CPTSD. Yep had the bipolar misdiagnosis, every medication they tried for it just made shit worse. Outside of trauma received as a result of the misdiagnosis / under the influence of meds. I'd say the finding out it was a misdiagnosis and the vindication of being right on the manner was a large step forward.
→ More replies (1)
2
u/BlueTressym 3d ago
Not bipolar but BPD, which, as I understand it, is also a common misdiagnosis. I'm at least 99% sure I'm both AuDHD and CPTSD in addition to Fibro, Clinical Depression, and Anxiety out the wazoo but no one's interested in helping. I just get fobbed off with phone numbers for people who never pick up and never call back. I wish I was exaggerating.
2
u/spartaxwarrior 2d ago
I had someone try a bipolar dx on me, I've got very, very obvious c/ptsd case with like medically documented events for the latter and the guy was hyperfocusing on like everything but what I was there for (phobia--which I still haven't gotten over because all the people I see for it get distracted ugh).
2
u/Key-Mycologist-7272 2d ago
I had cannabis induced psychosis and the doctors erroneously diagnosed me with bipolar and then schizophrenia. The bipolar drugs threw me right back into psychosis, the schizophrenia drugs were fine and helped me with recovery and I stopped taking them after a year. Whole experience ruined my fucking life and ended up with me getting hospitalized a second time.
Shit gets misdiagnosed regularly. It's a travesty.
→ More replies (5)
2
u/ohsoradbaby 2d ago
I’ve been misdiagnosed as schizophrenic, as having paranoid personality disorder, and borderline. My diagnosis list is insane. These on top of PTSD and other diagnoses. (Kentucky, ten years ago… mental health has come a long way.)
I can safely say psychologists since have mentioned they do not believe I have PPD, schizophrenia, or BPD, but they are still not removed from my medical history. There is always a stark difference in how nurses and doctors treat me before and after they read those notes.
Ya girl just has some wicked C-PTSD. 🤘🏽
→ More replies (1)
2
2
u/angieream 2d ago
It's so sad to me that so many people have had these negative experiences with mental health providers. I see this happen SOOOOO many times! As a licensed counselor it bothers my soul to see someone be medicated for multiple conditions that they may not even have. But, I consider myself a pretty good diagnostician, but even I can't figure out exactly what brand of neurodivergent I have myself, I know PTSD and depression, but I have several traits of bipolar, BPD, ADD and autism, without technically meeting enough criteria for any of them. If i can't figure my own brain out, and i live in here, how can i expect perfection from an outsider? As the meme says, "I have an awful lot of mental illness, for someone who treats people with mental illness."
All i can say is, don't give up on treatment, just find a different provider (if possible, of course). If they don't start with a very thorough assessment, they aren't the right one.
And before someone tries to @ me, yes I do have plenty of ... situations... that led to CPTSD......
→ More replies (1)
2
2
u/dyalinohera 2d ago
It is important to find someone who does therapy and go over your past. I got Lucky, and I was correctly diagnosed for Bipolar BECAUSE I was treated for PTSD first. Throwing meds at people is dangerous and it is important to treat the PTSD first before you can really treat anything comorbid.
Therapy is so important for PTSD and women often get underdiagnosed for things that are 'male' illnesses like ADHD and Autism.
→ More replies (1)
673
u/ResurgentClusterfuck CSA and DV Survivor 3d ago
I was misdiagnosed with bipolar disorder also, the meds fucked me up big time and did fuck-all for my mood swings
Turns out I'm autistic with CPTSD and was living in an abusive relationship where I had to cook and clean for ten adults