how did your therapist diagnose you?

how did your therapist(s) diagnose you?
did they use SCID-D (full version or only a part of it? )? or did they use DES? or...how?
wish to hear someone shares experience
thank you

Well for a while I was diagnosed as having psychosis and I'm still with a mental health service for psychosis even though I don't have it. The doc there had trouble diagnosing me as I had a lot of symptoms similar to psychosis but I was high functioning and for the most part able to tell the difference between fantasy and reality.
He proposed maybe it was a dissociative disorder so I read up on them and I went to him a few months later and said "I think it could be DID" and I explained why and he said that it was probably true and that was that. We've agreed to call it a working diagnosis for the time being until we do more work regarding it. It was pretty straight forward and simple really.

may i ask and make sure... psychosis is the early form(model) of schizophrenia, right?

So, you mean, your diagnosis was done (only) by the discussion between you and yr doctor, am i right?
any other tool used?

They did a full scid-d, they did a voices interview, they did a des, they did an extensive general psychological assessment, they talked to me for ages, they saw me switch a few times, so I guess one of those things was used to diagnose..

TheCollective wrote:They did a full scid-d, they did a voices interview, they did a des, they did an extensive general psychological assessment, they talked to me for ages, they saw me switch a few times, so I guess one of those things was used to diagnose..

Thank you!! Your therapists sound quite kind, right?

Nah, just the one we have now. But yes, she's awesome

Yeah psychosis is related to schizophrenia and they had done a lot of work with me over the years involving that but could never come to a solid conclusion. They knew I heard voices and saw things but when I suggested to them that the voices represented parts of myself we started to head more towards a dissociative disorder. They didn't use any other tools as such. They just took everything I had said over the last 3-4 years and we came to the conclusion together.

Yes, full SCID-D & DES which involved a very careful watching of us to highlight any switching. This wasn't done by my therapist though, but a specialist in the UK.

-B

woodreus18 wrote:psychosis is the early form(model) of schizophrenia, right?

No. Psychosis is the loss of adequate reality testing. Psychosis has many causes. Schizophrenia is one cause. Schizophrenia has many symptoms. Psychosis is one symptom. Most people who are experiencing psychosis do not have (and are not developing) schizophrenia, and most people who have schizophrenia are not experiencing psychosis.

Some authorities on psychosis refer to our typical DID visual and auditory hallucinations as pseudo-hallucinations, reflecting that our experiences are real, not psychotic. One way reality and psychosis can be told apart is that someone with DID knows and can say they are "seeing things" and "hearing things" that are "all in their head" not actually there in the environment. Someone who is psychotic is not able to make that distinction. Someone who is psychotic does not think they are going crazy (but they are); someone who has DID does think they are going crazy, but they aren't.

Interview and history alone are enough to diagnose DID, if the therapist is familiar with the condition. If not, the usual sequence of assessments is the DES followed by the MID, SCID-D, and/or DDIS. The therapist who formally diagnosed me used the DES and MID.

Una+ wrote:Some authorities on psychosis refer to our typical DID visual and auditory hallucinations as pseudo-hallucinations, reflecting that our experiences are real, not psychotic. One way reality and psychosis can be told apart is that someone with DID knows and can say they are "seeing things" and "hearing things" that are "all in their head" not actually there in the environment. Someone who is psychotic is not able to make that distinction. Someone who is psychotic does not think they are going crazy (but they are); someone who has DID does think they are going crazy, but they aren't.

Then, how about the hallucinations of patients with PTSD? When they face flashback, they also "see", "hear" or "feel" something "unreal"--maybe replaying the traumatic experiences. Would it also be considered as psychosis? Or, what are the differences?

And, when facing someone who has "hallucinations" (is it the only term? Are schizo's hallucinations called "hallucinations"? Are psychosis's hallucinations called "hallucinations"? Is there any other academic term? ), how to determine it is PTSD (from flashback), DID/DDNOS(from inner), psychosis, or schizophrenia or paranoia(delusion?)?

Thank you very much~!!