Sensual.... yes, thank you for seeing my point. Bipolar Disorder can take up to ten years to diagnose.... and never ever after just one session, much less with a psychiatrist. Not knocking them.... but DX is not their area of expertise most times.

You can find several good articles on the conditions you listed on the Internet, but be wary. The "checklists" are not accurate, as there is a co-morbidity in many illnesses, such as with your friend's daughter.

Many times, people are diagnosed as a way to get money. If it is an MMI then they can bill for services at a higher rate. If they don't know what is wrong, then often dual diagnose. The issue is, it's rare that these folks who diagnose actually do testing and get historical records to confirm or deny their initial impressions, however accurate they might seem at the time.

Thanks scorpio! you gotta just keep movin!!!

Lily,

I mentioned psychiatrist. I believe that too many people are getting anti-depressants and diagnoses from Internists/G.P.s. It's one of my pet peeves. I believe that psychiatrists and clinical psychologists are both good.

I totally agree. GP's should not be prescribing psychiatric medications.

But... I think psychiatrists should not be either unless the patient has been evaluated by a diagnostician.

Would you accept being treated for diabetes if the proper testing was not done first? It is the same thing... without of course the death issue...

Psychiatrists test, don't they?

NO!!!!!

They do not. This is a common misconception. They do an oral interview and the DX is based on SELF REPORT. They do no clinical testing and obtain no prior treatment and background records from which to support or refute symptoms and self reported information. Clinical testing, only properly administered by ABPP Pyschologists.... this is scientifically accurate.

No way, no how can a self report to a psychiatrist be scientifically accurate. People lie. We all do. How accurately do we self report our own stuff to an MD? Are we medication compliant? Do we always finish our antibiotics? Nooooo

Psychiatrists test, don't they?

Bipolar Disorder the the most commonly misdiagnosed and overdiagnosed MMI, next to ADD and AD/HD.

The only way to determine if you truly have Bipolar Disorder (It is not hyphenated) is to see a diagnostician, which would be a clinical psychologist who is board certified, ABPP.

Here is an example of the overdiagnosing of Bipolar. In 1994 the number of teens diagnosed was around 40,000. In 2004 the number of teens diagnosed was 800,000. Thereabouts....(I cannot cite the article, it was quoted to me by an ABPP PhD)

The symptoms you listed....
1. I feel sad and empty.
2. Lose interest in doing things that I usually enjoyed.
3. Sometimes I feel unusually great.
4. I have alot of rage

Those can fit just about everyone at certain times in their life and you subscribing to those symptoms... it means next to NOTHING. Checklists for Bipolar are overlapping with situational depression, polysubstance abuse, alcohol abuse and/or dependence, antisocial behavior disorder, borderline personality disorder, impulse control disorder, conduct disorder, ADD, adjustment disorder, etc etc etc. Get the point?

that's an amazing statistic..i crunched the numbers..that's an increase of 34.93% per year..alarming, if it was an investment..it would beat any indexes..large cap/midcap/smallcap/value growth.ect..and i suspect even hedge funds can't outperform that for 10 years...let's sure hope that it is overstated..future US productivity can be at stake.