WHAT do I have?

When you head to the hospital with an illness, mental OR physical, you know that something is wrong, and you just want to know what and have it fixed. Chest pains, or hearing voices, you and your loved ones want to know. But here's the thing about illnesses. Sometimes the doctors just don't know. In the case of mental illness, where the symptoms come and go, and overlap, and the doctors are relying on the patient to accurately describe their symptoms and history, well, the diagnosis is difficult if not impossible. Yet they guess. The psychiatrists making their once a day rounds briefly observe a patient, then a nurse or case manager may report some observations, and boom! They prescribe medication, or a cocktail of medications, and head back to their offices.

Admittedly, and fortunately I might add, Brian has only gone through one hospitalization, so these are my observations based on just that one experience. Your experiences may be different. We're learning that many psychiatric patients go years before getting a correct diagnosis, and take untold amounts of drugs that may or may not really be helpful.

While his first hospitalization was December 17, 2010, it's possible that his symptoms began appearing as early as late 2008. Maybe even earlier. By the spring of 2009, his freshman spring semester, he knew something was not quite right, and began researching his symptoms on webMD. He came to his father and I, and told us he thought he might have ADHD. We had him tested by a psychologist in the city where his university was, and he asked him about his family history, and if he had had any symptoms of mania, because some the ADHD symptoms are similar to manic symptoms. Brian said no, a diagnosis of ADHD was made, and while it was too late to save his spring semester from disaster, during the summer we hired an ADHD coach, and he began to take Vyvanse.

To be continued...

Wondering,