Communication in Diagnosis

I am 28 and discovered I was BPD only last week. Ever since, the pieces have all been falling into place. The stories and the pain and the ups and downs and the black and white and the fear of alienation have all defined my life and sense of self all of my life. I finally found out who I am. I've been ADD my whole life as well, and have seen many psychiatrists and therapists over the years. I've discussed the pain from the symptoms before but I don't think I ever put everything together. I just saw a new therapist today who specializes in DBT. After about an hour, he seemed to be very confused about what my issue is. He said I may have paranoid personality disorder, but I don't identify with that. I do get many of those same feelings and thoughts, but only in situations where I'm highly stressed and have already felt caged in and like I am running out of options and starting to get more desperate for peace of mind that everybody isn't abandoning me. I don't know how to communicate this to the psychiatrist. I feel like I said it so many times. I have read 2 books and watched so many videos, shared them with my parents and ex girlfriend. Everybody is positive and we are all going through this revelation, then I meet with a therapist and he seemed to doubt that I was BPD. I understand if I'm not and I respect his position, but I just felt misunderstood the whole time, like he was grabbing onto the insignificant bits of my explanations and running with them, overlooking the important parts, and me thinking that is a result of my very real BPD!! Am I in the wrong to feel this way? I am generally a very methodical/thorough person so I understand he is the doctor, but if I'm approaching the meetings wrong, I'd like to know. Does anyone have thoughts or experience with this? Any advice for my next assessment meeting? I really like the therapist, but today's conversation seemed to stress him and myself out which does worry me. I'm not used to such emotional sessions.

In my experience, doctors / therapists / psychiatrists know sweet F.A. If it wasn't written in a textbook they had to study, they've got no idea how to process it or what it means. Most of the time they mean well, but they are dangerously incompetent.

My psychiatrist was refusing to dx me with BPD for a while. She still hasn't, but she seems to be coming around. It's hard when you only have 15 minutes with them every few months or so. But my real therapist, she's great, and I got lucky there. What I did was listed all my symptoms on the piece of paper. I took the BPD diagnostic criteria and wrote out how it manifested in my life. That seemed to help me get a dx from my therapist. I would try that. Sometimes it's hard to piece together everything someone is telling you, and it may take a few tries. Of course, if you don't feel like this person is helping you, maybe shop around for another t?

Good luck,
Ev

Thank you! Both of you! These forums are so great. I offered journal entries that I feel define my experiences and he seemed apprehensive. After posting on here last night, I made a very long journal entry that was written directed at him. I did that becuase, as a writer, that's one of my coping mechanisms to getting my thoughts out of my head but I decided I would print it out and take it into him. (My journal is in textedit, hehe) I hope he reads it so bad.

Anyways, I feel so much better now. I am so glad there are people here who actually understand me. This morning I was able to convince my nurse practitioner to write me a reference to the local DBT treatment center. So excited.

Glad you are feeling better about it and have a plan. I find writing stuff down (if the person is willing to read it properly) can help a lot in getting your thoughts out clearly. Can save time to, because it's hard sometimes to be clear/concise in a session.

Like I was saying in a similar thread, you know yourself better than anyone else, so if BPD makes sense then don't ignore that. The diagnosis mostly helps to get referred to the right type of treatments. If you are heading towards DBT you are on the right track for BPD irrespective of what that particular person thinks.

achilles88 wrote:In my experience, doctors / therapists / psychiatrists know sweet F.A.

Unfortunately that can be true. It sucks when you have to work so hard, as in with different doctors/therapists etc to get the right diagnosis. I find with psychiatrists particularly, they place so much greater importance on how you look (or how they interpret you from the outside) than what you say. I wish they listened more.

For example, I always present really nervous in appointments with new doctors, so always get it interpreted as anxiety and/or social anxiety. Even though when not in a psychiatrists office, I do not experience the same nervousness. Not matter how much you try to tell the psychiatrist that, they don't really listen. Or the other doctor who noticed I was swallowing a lot in one session and asked me why I was so anxious (linking the two together). I said I'd had a cold this week and my ears were blocked, hence the increased swallowing and apparent "anxiety". I was actually fairly relaxed. I started seeing a new psychiatrist. I didn't really need a new assessment, because I've had many and know what my problems are. He decides I have OCD???? So far off the mark. Treating that would be useless. My therapist agreed he was way off target with that.

I guess my point is, trust in yourself to know what is wrong. Diagnosis can be really hit and miss. If you get directed to a particular therapy and it doesn't feel like it's what you need or helping, seek another opinion. But DBT is designed for BPD, so you would be on the right track if you start that. Hope it goes well.