Reliability of diagnoses

Moving outside my typical rambles about concepts there's a real problem. Mental illnesses are like other illnesses in the concept and diagnosis are enduring, predictive of reduced prognosis (on whatever measure) and diagnosed the same by different physicans.

Not a lot of that stuff is true in mental health. Some is. In some people the DSM cluster of symptoms approach (at least in DSM-IV-TR) works to know their life will be worse based in a few out of a few more possibilities. It is the most effective way of predicting a person's future. It is still rubbish but better than any other system, ever. It uses science.

But it is not reliably used, at least the science isn't. I've seen 6 psychiatrists. One said I was sane so I ended up briefly in a children's home. I do wonder if my parents influenced this but won't ask. 4 gave me a diagnosis. One didn't but acquiesced to my request for treatment without a diagnositc label. Sadly the bint I saw at my initial assessment for treatment discriminated against me in my access to support because of her opinion on my lifestyle. I had indicated I wanted psychological therapies for my disorder and distress. My GP said yes. So did the associate specialist psychiatrist I persuaded to refer me for treatment without diagnosis - the one who didn't take a patient history from the patient and was either looked to prove a personality disorder or schizophrenia diagnosis very poorly. Fucking amateur. Lol. Inappropriate humour. :-) (That's a schizophrenia in joke btw - it's not inappropriate when you understand it.)

The person who was meant to assign me the right treatment didn't. She refused me treatment. My lifestyle is against her beliefs. The other professionals involved in my care had listened to me more in the short time that they'd seen me whereas the bint I saw at my inital assessment for psychological therapies chose to enforce her norms, her opinion, upon my life and my ask for help.

No diagnosis was required. I self referred. I knew what I needed. I don't go for help often. The NHS chose not to listen but in this instance it wasn't the doctors who used the psychopathology paradigm to deny me help, it was the psychologist I saw. If it were a man i'd refer to him as a cunt. Instead I call her a bint in the posts below. I may have a different use of language in communication my subjective meaning. She was a psychologist but she denied me help when I asked. She's a bint.