What's your diagnosis?

[laconicsax]

Sorry if this duplicates an earlier thread, I'm more or less new here.

If you feel comfortable sharing, what's your diagnosis and how long have you lived with it?

I'm dysthymic with regular bouts of MDD. For those who don't know what dysthymia is, it's basically a persistent, low-level depression that never goes away.

I was first diagnosed as a child and what's "feeling normal" for most people is being overjoyed for me.

[Betsy Ross]

1. Depression at age 31

But I suffered from youth. At 50, I was diagnosed as bi-polar type II. I'm fairly open about it in hopes of helping remove the stigma from the disease.

[laconicsax]

2. I have a close relative with bi-polar.

I wish I could say they weren't deliberately helping promote the stigma...

[momto3]

3. Depression originally, then bipolar II.

I was not officially diagnosed as "depressed" until after the birth of my first child. Looking back at my childhood, I realize I suffered from depression most of my life. I was diagnosed as bipolar II about 2 years ago. This diagnosis fits me better.

My daughter was diagnosed as bipolar I with psychoses about 2.5 years ago when she was 10 years old.

I do not disclose or discuss my diagnosis, except occasionally, here. I want my daughter to freely accept who she is, but am not mush of a role model for her since the stigma is something I have not yet over come.

[Tobin S.]

4. Bipolar I

I'm 39 and was diagnosed 9 years ago. Onset was when I was 20. Those 10 years of suffering were hellish.

[Odin2005]

5. Autism Spectrum Disorder, Panic Disorder, OCD, Obsessive-Compulsive PD.

I was diagnosed with all but the last when I was 15. The OCPD dx came a year ago.

[hunter]

6. Major depressive disorder & autism spectrum disorder

With a good helping of OCD.

It's all quite complimentary, however.

I can be depressed to the point where most people would be jumping off bridges, life is HELL and there is no good in the world, but the OCD is telling me I still have to do something and the autistic me allows retreat.

I've met homeless people like me and that may be my ultimate fate.

[EFerrari]

8. I have a beloved family member that showers with plastic gloves on.

It seems to me that, of the folks in my extended family, most of them have some portion of OCD but not enough for a DX. There's a whole in-between thing happening in this family.

As far as jumping off bridges, I was there in 2007 for about a year and no one noticed which is funny to me because my family can be very lovingly and annoyingly intrusive most of the time. The vestigial OCD really did keep presenting me with things to attend to so, I never did walk into the ocean. Plus, I'm afraid of deep water. I can't kill flies easily. It's going to have to be major organ failure because apparently, I can't do that.

I'm going out to plant some corn right now. I expect to be around for the harvest. This is putting something in the future to be around for.

[EFerrari]

7. Anxiety disorder but in the absence of good testing, I think that's wrong.

Imo, it's more like PTSD as a consequence of alcoholic parent with a side of genetic heirloom depression. Whatever.

I'm still here.

[GreenPartyVoter]

9. Bipolar 2 with anxiety issues. I have a son who

has pervasive developmental disorder/almost Aspergers and another one who is currently labelled ADHD but looks like he is heading down the same road I am on with the bipolar.

[Bradical79]

10. depression, social anxiety disorder, and possibly adhd (in my 30's and kicked out of school)

My therapist thought I had a form of adhd too, but I couldn't afford the official testing. I also have have really severe sleep apnea which likely has not helped things. Unfortunately, I was diagnosed with everything after failing school and I was told the university "doesn't believe in" reinstating someone or changing past decisions based on new evidence or diagnosis.

[ejpoeta]

11. Hello. I just joined this group as i didn't even realize it was here.

I was diagnosed with depression at 22. Recently I was diagnosed with bipolar. It sure is a struggle sometimes. But it beats where I was before I finally got diagnosed. It is tough when people think you should just snap out of it and 'if you act happy you'll BE happy'. that last one was a (what i call) psychoshrink. I only went to him twice. Not having people believe you, at least for me, made it worse. Made me think it was me that was the problem. Then I ended up in the hospital for 10 days. After that they believed me, I guess.