I have a diagnosis - now what?

My therapist has diagnosed me with PD-NOS, with strong scores for narcissism, antisocial, and OCPD on an MMPI-2.

But from I gather, PD-NOS isn't a specific disorder, it's just a label that says that no "standard" disorder fits.
So I'm not really what use this diagnosis is in treatment?

What do you after you're diagnosed PD-NOS?

To be honest, I never saw the 'point' in these NOS diagnoses. There are a few of them around but they don't seem to be of much help. You should of course go back to your doctor to ask him/her what to do next, but I seriously doubt that there is any specific therapy for any NOS diagnosis. Perhaps ignoring the NOS diagnosis and diverting your attention to the narcissism and antisocial PD ones would be more 'fruitful'.

As a side note (and as humour), when I read narcissism and antisocial PD in the same sentence just now, I said 'Oh God' in my mind!; and I'm sure hoping that you see the funny side to this.


Kevin

I suggest you enter therapy for disorders of the symptoms you have. So it to work best though, describe your diagnosis to the professional.

Get self help books, CDs, and movies, that give you advice on how to deal with the symptoms you have.

Oooh Oooh! I know this answer!!!!

Research what you scored high on.
NOS things are used when you're not personifying enough of a single (or multiple) diagnosis.
ED-NOS, for instance, is used when someone is exhibiting anorexia and bulimia symptoms.
It's more of a starting place than anything, because they're acknowledging a problem that you're not showing them all of.

If you look into your high score areas, you'll be able to tell your shrinky dink which symptoms and attributes you exemplify as well, what you don't seem to think of when you're with your shrink, etc.
That's how I managed to lock down MY diagnosis.
The only other real definite way to go about it is hospitalization...

PD-NOS is your starting point.
Now go figure out the end point.

Chucky wrote:To be honest, I never saw the 'point' in these NOS diagnoses.

In the case of Personality Disorder NOS, that means that you obviously have a Personality Disorder (your personality causes you distress and/or impairement in functioning), but you do not fit any of the predefined flavors; or you fit too many of them.

SmileXx wrote:Oooh Oooh! I know this answer!!!!
Research what you scored high on.

That's true. I self-diagnosed (incorrectly) with NPD a while ago, but the books written on the subject have still been helpful because there's a lot of overlapping traits between myself and a true NPD.
I'm also going to do the same with OCPD, treat myself as if I had it as a full-blown diagnosis and see if it helps.
Theodore Millon's book has been helpful with it's overview of all personality disorders and what they have in common, as well as sections on each one.

Oh and I'm already in therapy (that's how I got an MMPI-2, I took it because of my own request) and I'm going to keep going as long as I think it's helping, which currently I do.

sfguy75x wrote:I self-diagnosed (incorrectly) with NPD a while ago, but the books written on the subject have still been helpful because there's a lot of overlapping traits between myself and a true NPD.
I'm also going to do the same with OCPD, treat myself as if I had it as a full-blown diagnosis and see if it helps.
Theodore Millon's book has been helpful with it's overview of all personality disorders and what they have in common, as well as sections on each one.

I always knew that I had strong schizoid traits, and when I received a diagnostic of Schizoid with traits of OCPD, the OCPD element came completely as a surprise. I had to ask the psychiatrist why he came to such a diagnostic. The worst is that in retrospect the OCPD side of my personality was extremely obvious. He said that my OCPD traits "reinforce" my SPD side. I complained of feeling emotionally dead, unable to enjoy anything, etc (that is SPD), but that on top of that I had an obvious (though I didn't notice at the time) anti-emotion mentality (that is OCPD) which of course couldn't do anything but encourage me to be dead and stay dead.