Diagnosis problem

Trigger warning: bad experience with health professional

Hi, I have seen a psychiatrist some month ago, and what he had written on me make me really uncomfortable. He said that i am histrionic, because (thats the reason he had written) he think i'm talking about DID in a search of attention, my clothing was slightly gothic and i had bright red lipstick. Ours general practitioner and ours therapist has totaly ignored that paper, beside some joke, like "well if people wearing those cloth are histrionic, then all goth are too.". Even Alice, who have the job to deal with danger and are slighly paranoid doesn't see it as problematic. She say: "everybody that has been with us for more than half an hour can see that this psychiatrist is an incompetent fool". I agree with her, but i'm still very uncomfortable about that written in ours medical file. What should i do?

I'm not paranoid. Maybe a bit overprotective, maybe, but thats all. But the fact that you are feelling so uncomfortable about that paper indicate that i have failed. Well, thats hurt. I can take it, it doesn't happen very often, but it still hurt. Will not happen again, i promises.


Ari, 24
Alice, 25
Thirst, 17

usually a dx is based on more than one symptom. so its probably not just the way you looked that led to the conclusion.
we've spend considerable time in a unit for personality disorders. they struggle with their diagnoses. often it is not that easy to tell apart if someone has borderline or is histrionic or even narcisstic. often traits are mixed. and we witnessed them struggling with diagnosing dissociative people. they took a DID dx from someone and replaced it with HPD. I was never sure if that was right, because I did see OSDD in that person... they had us on their list for all kinds of personality disorders because they just couldn't figure out what was going on with us. same with the things we shared about our dissociative mother. one would say that she was narcissistic, another called it histrionic.
you are most definitely not the first one to have this problem.
we would demand a SCID for personality disorders and one for dissociation, there is professional testing for both. it could get you better results than an evaluation of someone who just looks at you.

Unforunately alot of psychiatrists and psychologist diagnose personality disorders instead of DID. Some of them believe DID is just a personality disorder on steroids.

Dnester wrote:Unforunately alot of psychiatrists and psychologist diagnose personality disorders instead of DID. Some of them believe DID is just a personality disorder on steroids.

This. Also, a lot of people in the mental health system are incompetent, arrogant idiots. (Disclaimer: we may be biased because of the overwhelming number of incompetent, arrogant idiots we have had to deal with. We are also aware that people don't believe us.)

birdsong87 wrote:usually a dx is based on more than one symptom. so its probably not just the way you looked that led to the conclusion.

Well, Ari's clothing that day and "faking" DID IS what are written as the reason for that diagnosis (if we can call that a diagnosis). All of Ari's family have read it and understood the same as us. Even our therapist didn't take it seriously. While talking about our therapist, we will see her tomorrow; by "we", i mean "you too Ari". This is not negotiable, and i know you are reading that behind my shoulder.

birdsong87 wrote:we would demand a SCID for personality disorders and one for dissociation, there is professional testing for both. it could get you better results than an evaluation of someone who just looks at you.

This is a good idea. We will see that with our T

Baldanders wrote:

Dnester wrote:Unforunately alot of psychiatrists and psychologist diagnose personality disorders instead of DID. Some of them believe DID is just a personality disorder on steroids.

This. Also, a lot of people in the mental health system are incompetent, arrogant idiots.

The only reason i've wanted to see a psychiatrist is to have access to a T, so i didn't care at that time what the psy would write. Now i know that Ari have some trauma about mental health system, which have worsened because of that idiot. In the future, i will assure myself of the competence of the health professionals before letting Ari or Thirst see them.

Thank you for responding.

Ari, 24
Alice, 25
Thirst, 17

Okay, so you got exactly what you needed from the psychiatrist even though he "doesn't believe in DID". See what he did there?

He named the DID for you and he gave you your official ticket to advance in the process of diagnosis and treatment. A psychiatrist who does not believe or does not dare to believe (!) DID is a legitimate diagnosis is put in a bind when a client presents with DID. And this labeling the client histrionic and "presents with DID" is a solution that satisfies all objectives. It confirms there is a problem, names it, and avoids the question of the psychiatrist's beliefs. It even positions the client to get appropriate treatment from a professional who accepts the reality of DID. Anyone who has experience treating DID, who sees that fence-sitting letter, will accept at face value that the client has DID. Even the psychiatrist's offending you so you never go back meets such a psychiatrist's objectives. Neat, huh?

Una+ wrote:Okay, so you got exactly what you needed from the psychiatrist even though he "doesn't believe in DID". See what he did there?

He named the DID for you and he gave you your official ticket to advance in the process of diagnosis and treatment. A psychiatrist who does not believe or does not dare to believe (!) DID is a legitimate diagnosis is put in a bind when a client presents with DID. And this labeling the client histrionic and "presents with DID" is a solution that satisfies all objectives. It confirms there is a problem, names it, and avoids the question of the psychiatrist's beliefs. It even positions the client to get appropriate treatment from a professional who accepts the reality of DID. Anyone who has experience treating DID, who sees that fence-sitting letter, will accept at face value that the client has DID. Even the psychiatrist's offending you so you never go back meets such a psychiatrist's objectives. Neat, huh?

Well, he didn't name it for me, i've done that job myself. Since the pubic health system is so slow, we hade much time to do some research by ourself. And i still find it a little too much offensive that he named my slightly gothic attire as a symptom for a "histrionic disorder". Beside the time-consuming aspect, the main reason why i do not go on full gothic attire is to avoid
to attract attention. And what i've got? Some stupid "professional" saying that i do that for attention! It would be as much offensive if he had said that i am transgender to attract attention! Which he would have probably said if he had known.Not sure about that. Nobody would do that surgery only for attention. Surgery aside, i'm pretty sure that my point is valid. Anyway, i was the only one on the front before the surgery, so you can't really know.I know that the surgery was painfull, and that you have no regret. Especially now that your here with me ˂3.

That said, i kinda see your point. I still want to erase it in my medical file, but i am a little less frustrated.


Ari, 24
Alice,25
Thirst, 17