My autism spectrum condition diagnosis in early January of this year has shed bright light into every area of my life and one particular area of huge importance is my interactions with nhs psychiatric services. To cut a long story short …
I was diagnosed with bipolar affective disorder in 1999, then treated with mind destroying meds which had massive negative implications for my physical health too for over twenty years. Well it is now absolutely clear to me that the bipolar diagnosis was wrong, the symptoms they identified as mixed episodes in particular and which played a significant part in their diagnostic process I now understand were autistic meltdowns and even allowing for subjective interpretations of my behaviour in those times clearly weren’t in line the DSM5 criteria in terms of episode lengths.
I have initiated the process of challenging and then hopefully having removed the bipolar diagnosis with my psychiatric team though it’s very early days, I’ll update this thread as things progress one way or another as I’m certain I’m not the only person this has happened too. One member of my psych team has said off the record that they are concerned I might try to sue for medical negligence, it’s unlikely but I’m not entirely ruling it out yet
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