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Bipolar diagnosis overturned at last

Alice-nice-Alice

Some good news which might encourage others …

I was diagnosed with bipolar affective disorder in 1998, four suicide attempts later, an inpatient in a psych ward last November, it was appreciated at last by one of the team that my problems might actually be autism, not serious mental illness. They screened me on the the ward then soon after returning home I received the full assessment and was diagnosed ASC in early January. It felt so absolutely right, all those years they’d mis interpreted my meltdowns as psychosis/mania, and my shutdowns as depression, the treatment with anti psychotics and anti depressants consequential from the mis diagnosis being little short of abuse. So I set about getting the incorrect bipolar dx overturned, and just this August I succeeded. It’s a huge weight off my shoulders, truly validating and has revolutionised my treatments, I’m off all psychotropic meds and at last getting the correct interventions for several physical health conditions which had been swept under the carpet. It is also important legally as there can now be no question over my capacity regarding legal and financial decisions  

E x

Parents

  • Congratulations.  I am so pleased for you.

    And yes, so many off us have been through really dangerous misdiagnoses before we get to the truth.  The really sad part is that MH are often reluctant to admit that they were wrong.  Yours have and every victory of this type is a victory for us all and we hope that what comes out of it is that they won't make that mistake again for somebody else.

    None of that helps you of course with the trauma of the damage done, but I hope things look up for you now.

    Thank you for sharing.  It will encourage others.  The system is definitely worth challenging when they got it wrong.  It cost me a fortune, but I did the same and succeeded.  Because in my case the misdiagnosis arose from malpractice as much as ignorance, I have a complaint in with the Ombudsman.  I don't want this happening to other autistic people.

  • in reply to Dawn

    Thank you Dawn. As I mentioned above to Caelus Im not suing the NHS, however there are things I am doing which will help other autistic people. I’ve secured an F2F with the CEO of the local nhs trust (the primary but not only inflictors of damage) where I will calmly explain what happened and the huge positives of finally getting the right diagnosis, I will take the opportunity too to praise the individuals who have helped me so much this year. Also they are running a piece on my story on their in house magazine, Im being interviewed by one of their journos next week and I’ve made it clear the article will NOT be a cover up but a balanced piece which will both celebrate staff who saw and helped whilst admitting the damage done in previous years. There’s other things in time I might do to help our community. Thanks for your reply 

  • in reply to Alice-nice-Alice

    Wow!

    What does F2F stand for?

    I'm glad you've got dialogue going with them. That's what we need. To impact their organisational and professional learning so they get it right first time for the next person.

    I can forgive that which is born of ignorance. That's not deliberate and fixable through training. I don't forgive the guy who slapped an EUPD diagnosis on my file without any protocol or even discussion about my MH with me and then kept that secret from me. (I found out by accident two years later).

    It lead to a great deal of trauma while they blamed me for not getting better from a condition I never had. Whilst I thought they were treating a medical phobia, they were taking an EUPD approach. No wonder that went badly wrong and nothing they did made sense.

    Thank God, I've always refused meds. Could have been a lot worse.

    I know I've got clear grounds for legal action but I can't be bothered with the stress. Life is too short. I have got a complaint in with Ombudsman though. I can emotionally disengage from that now that they have corrected the record. Cost me a fortune to disprove the misdiagnosis though and I am hoping they might be instructed to reimburse that. Mostly, I just don't want anyone else to suffer what I did out of sloppy practice.

  • in reply to Dawn

    I agree with you about the difference between that born of ignorance and that which is deliberate and driven I think by 5he power games of some psychiatrists. There’s also serious incompetence in my case too with cut and pasted from other patient’s records into mine which contributed to the EUPD rubbish. I did a subject access request (SAR) and the several thousand pages are trauma on top of trauma, Having secured the diagnosis correction I’m not pursuing it though, it would only damage me. 

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