Just was ‘diagnosed’ with anxiety today after talking to a psychiatrist for five minutes (I’m using quotes because it seems a bit too preliminary to me to diagnose whoever with whatever after about 5 minutes of general talk).
Came asking for #ADHD and #autism evaluation. Was totally ignored on that regard) Of course, didn’t have courage to ask again.
Was it so obvious? Was I just a walking stereotype: middle-aged woman from a war-thorn country living alone who voluntarily came to a psychiatrist(doesn’t matter what else she has, she can’t NOT be anxious)?
Or is it just a general experience of most of #AuDHD female-passing folks: to be seen as anxious, to have most of their symptoms attributed to #anxiety (not like I was asked about any symptoms, but maybe have demonstrated some?)?
@olena@actuallyautistic don't give anything on this 'diagnosis' and look for another doc, some local self help groups can recommend good ones to you.
and it feels mostly how it goes for me and many people i know, but i guess there was an extra bit of dismissive behavior by the doc added on top because of your history. such an arsehole.
I think being neurodivergent in a world made for neurotypical people is bound to make us anxious. Hopefully the therapist is not done with diagnosis and just named the anxiety first because that's probably the clearest. Having said that, 5 minutes seem way too short for a diagnosis, no matter how obvious. CPTSD, ADHD and ASD have a lot in common and I don't see a benefit to be fast rather than thorough.
I hope you either get a new therapist or muster up the courage and energy to ask again until you feel heard.
🤞🏼
@olena@actuallyautistic
For many of us anxiety is the very lowest hanging fruit for them to grab hold of. Seriously sucks that they weren't even prepared to look beyond it. 😡
@olena@actuallyautistic ugh I’m sorry, it’s not ok to dismiss someone like that. Idk your location but way too many countries’ medical systems are so broken like this 💜
@olena@actuallyautistic Very unprofessional psychiatrist. Psychiatrists are supposed to do a full assessment over a 40 minute visit before they make a diagnosis on the first visit with them.
@ashleyspencer@olena@actuallyautistic Unprofessional! My assessment (in the Netherlands) took 4 x 1 hour meetings with me, with lots of questionnaires etc. to complete. This was with a psychologist. On one of the meetings my sister joined us, as a close member of the family. #ActuallyAutistic
@olena@actuallyautistic These (ahem) professionals are there to prescribe either antidepressants or anti-anxiety meds, because that’s what makes the pharmaceutical companies the most money with the lowest probability of liability payouts. So it took 5 minutes for them to decide to put you on the anxiety track. “Diagnosis” is just what they have to call it to keep the paperwork legal.
@olena@actuallyautistic Am I bitter that I can’t get anyone to even assess me for ADHD as a 50-something adult who has struggled with what she always believed was anxiety? Maybe.
@heartofcoyote@olena@actuallyautistic It probably is anxiety, maybe plus the ADHD, or what you deal with in trying to navigate a neurotypical world that won't recognize you.
If you have medical coverage, & haven't already, call your insurer for a list of ADHD therapists. schedule one (use the phone, say why you only need one appointment atm) they can either run the test/s, or refer you. That's how I got my autism diagnosis (which I'm not 100% sure is accurate, but...).
@janisf@heartofcoyote@actuallyautistic that’s basically what I am going to do next week with a help of a local coworker as phone calls are not something I am good in even in my native language, let alone in the one I’m not that good in
That's just really cool that you have a coworker who can do that with you! I struggle with phone calls, too, but I can't imagine adding language on top of that--wow.
If a doctor ever says you have anxiety after a 5 minute interview then prescribes you benzodiazepines, you need to look into getting them quietly murdered, as well as their children if possible, to prevent their tainted seed from staining this earth.
Passing out SSRIs like candy is really sleazy too, but thought I'd mention the genuine nightmare scenario.
They're uh... worse than meth? I've been told you can drop dead trying to get off benzos. Horrific withdrawal, incredibly addictive, people are desperate enough to put themselves into a coma rather than endure the weaning process. Relapse is extremely common, even after going through that torture. Any drug can be used safely in the right context, but benzodiazepines are some of the most difficult, and dangerous.
You sound pretty misinformed about them. I've taken my share, and know about pretty much all the recreational drugs. I don't like benzos because they last too long.
Addiction-wise, they're on the low end. Nicotine is the most addictive drug people do, the three powder drugs are all significantly more addictive than benzos...hell, I'd honestly say weed is more addictive.
They're pretty harmless, health wise. Alcohol is far, far worse than benzos. Really, the only thing I know that's wrong with them is the duration. They linger about 36 hours, but you forget you're on them. This can cause problems, especially if you're drinking the next day.
Oh--it's barbiturates that have the potentially lethal withdraw, but barbiturates were supplanted by benzos a long time ago.
@Uair@cy@heartofcoyote@olena@actuallyautistic you’re wrong. My doctor had terrible trouble weaning women hooked on them when they were handed out like sweets to women in the sixties and seventies. My cousin was on huge dosage. I don’t know if she’s ever got off them. She’s like a zombie even now all these years later. Suspect she can’t be weaned off them. Doctors in my Country are very careful how they prescribe.
@CarolynStirling@Uair@cy@heartofcoyote@actuallyautistic afaik, benzos have really different consequences short-term(relatively easy to wean) and long-term(hard to wean, raised suicide rate), and are known to have more(and more serious) side effects in older people. Though, my concern with depressants is not about side effects and weaning, it’s about their direct effect. What they did with my mind is something I want to never experience again: I’d better have more anxiety than I ever had(and I had times when I couldn’t eat or sleep) than feel how I felt on depressants. No, thanks: I don’t even take alcohol because losing control of my body feels so awful - so no, I’m not giving up my consciousness voluntarily.
I lose my consciousness like every 20 seconds every time I get distracted, so I can't really speak for you, but they put me on fluoxetine once (old school SSRI) and it didn't take away my consciousness or anything. I'd just be going about normally, and stuff didn't seem all that important anymore. It took away all my fucks to give. That and I gained a bunch of weight.
@cy@heartofcoyote@actuallyautistic in my youth, I was once prescribed barbiturates+piracetam combo as a treatment of headaches (which later turned to be hormonal migraines) and faints (the best I had in diagnosis was vasovagal syncope, but might have had something to do with autistic shutdowns, eating disorders and some anatomy issues as well) by a neuropathologist. Taken how it messed me up, zero chance I’d ever take any depressants voluntarily
Yeah I was really only talking about benzodiazepines. I personally think SSRIs suck, and can give you some metabolic problems, but they're easy to get off of, without any really alarming side effects. And don't trust what I say I'm just some Internet rando.
Unfortunately, the majority of MH professionals don't know about masked autism, only see the consequences of it (social anxiety, PTSD, exhaustion...) and don't care about learning about it. Took me 6 tries to find a therapist who knew about masked autism, and who is a great resource now.
@olena i'm sorry to hear you had such cursory and dismissive treatment. five minutes is not enough to understand a person and come up with a psychiatric diagnosis. it has also happened to me that a doctor, not even a psychologist necessarily, spontaneously assesses me as having anxiety or depression based on their impression of me rather than a structured evaluation. it's not an appropriate way to diagnose people in my opinion.
@miaoue@olena@actuallyautistic Yeah, I've had a general practitioner not only jump straight to "diagnosing" me as anxious within minutes on my first visit, but actively trying to pill-push because of it. I switched primary care physicians immediately.
(Mind you, I probably actually do have something of a nervous temperament, but I hired you to do a physical, truth damn it, not try to convince me to drug myself into being someone else you'd rather existed in my place.)
@olena@actuallyautistic yyyup... that behaviour is not professional at all, sounds like psychiatrists from the 50s... white, chauvinistic, dismissive.
Bear in mind, most of what's known about autism dates back from the past 20 years, so I try to avoid any professional that haven't been to school since.
@pa@actuallyautistic well, a doctor was a white(well, I might look whiter, but I am an immigrant with maybe about B1 level of the language we used to speak) guy that looked about my age, so probably is somewhere in 35-50, so kinda not so old - but, on the other hand, I’ve heard it’s hard to get diagnosed with either ADHD or autism here as an adult because local medical system considered them to be childhood developmental disorders till quite recently
@CarolynStirling@actuallyautistic I am not saying I don’t have anxiety, I most certainly do) The thing is, that’s not what I came for, and what I came for wasn’t addressed, and I was given a diagnosis in five minutes (maybe even less), half of which was asking things needed to fill in my patient card. Imagine you came to an ophthalmologist saying you’re worried that you may have cataract or glaucoma and without any formal test, just after asking something like ‘can you see what I wrote here?’ they write ‘diagnosis: myopia’ and set an appointment for getting glasses - and never addressing or even acknowledging your concerns tell you “well, see you in two weeks”