Dear Lynn,
I agree with all you are saying.  I do believe, however, that in the beginning,
given the stress I was under just previous to my symptoms beginning, and my
symptoms being atypical at that, it was no wonder that everyone thought it was
just stress.  I dont lay any blame on those who saw me first because I was not
exibiting any clear symptoms of pd.  I was told it was psychological and I
believed it.  But, when things began to get worse, my pcp felt that what he was
seeing was nurological and he called a number of neurologists in the area for
advice.  All of them said it must be psychological so he chose to send me to a
psychiatrist.  That was when the heavy drugs started and things went from bad
to worse.  I had to see a psychologist there first and would see her on a
regular basis with only periodic 10 minute visits with the head shrink to check
on my meds.  The psychologist, after 2 visits told me to just call her if I
needed to talk.  She saw no signs of deep psychological disturbance.  She felt
that if stress was the answer, then I was handling things rather well.  I felt
the same way, but physically I kept getting worse and they kept giving me more
drugs!  When they put me in the psyche ward, I was so doped up I could hardly
communicate let alone defend myself.  I would do my best to write down my
concerns as I would see a shrink for about 5 minutes every morning.  The rest
of the time I was at the mercy of the nursing staff.  I asked on numerous
occations if there were no tests that could be run since I felt that there must
be some physical problem here that was being overlooked.  I was more or less
passed off as psycho.  That is wrong and that is where I lay the blame if blame
needs to be laid.  They tested me for epiliepsy and when that showed nothing,
they would not even humor me.  I was willing to pay for any tests they wanted
to run.  I was examined by a neurologist twice and I remember my husband asking
what could be causing the tremors and all he got was shrugged shoulders.  Now,
these people are asking me for alot of money, somewhere in the neighborhood of
$20,000.  I feel that if my husband had not pushed for getting me released, I
would still be there and probably in a whole lot worse shape than I am today.
These people were not paying attention to the problem nor were they seeking a
cause.  Panic disorder seemed to be a convenient label and it has had a bad
habit of sticking.
So, like you said, if the shoe fits, wear it.  Well I was more than willing to
do just that.  I had to be convinced otherwise by the time they were through
with me.  It took alot of tests and finally sinemet to convince me that it
wasn't all in my head.  The doctor that dxd me noted that he saw a number of
physical manifestations that could not be faked.  The one that convinced him
was that he noticed at one point that one pupil was larger than the other.
Anyway, thank you for your response and I appreciate your words of
encouragement.  I am keeping good thoughts that this neuro will be a good one
and things will work out just fine.
Jennifer

Lynn H. wrote:

> Another perspective:  it is extremely stressful to be "accused" of having a
> psychiatric disorder.  O.K., If the shoe fits, it may be in the patient's
> best interest to wear it.  But, the larger problem is, psychiatrists can
> generally always finds a diagnostic label that fits and can't be fought:
> how can the patient prove he/she doesn't have it?  Most degenerative
> neurological problems are accompanied by symptoms that fall within the
> realm of psychiatry:  anxiety, memory disorders, depression...It's a
> Catch-22.  If the neurologist is unable to come up with a diagnosis - and
> it often takes years for neurological problems to develop sufficiently to
> diagnose - psychiatry can
> always be moved in with a sure-fire diagnosis that is difficult to dispute.
>
> I have some very solid friends with no psychiatric history with very
> serious health problems that took some time to diagnose.  In every case,
> somewhere along the line they were falsely "accused" of having psychiatric
> problems:  "you're anxious...it's just stress...are you sure you're not
> depressed?"  These insinuations usually caused my friends some
> embarrassment, as if they were inventing symptoms & it was all in their
> heads.  One friend almost died - of celiac sprue - before receiving the
> correct tests & a diagnosis.  In the interim, her life was made miserable
> by the implications that she was inventing, or a psychiatric basket case;
> she was further weakened by the symptoms of her illness.
>
> "Physician first do no harm".  Well, loosely flung psychiatric diagnoses
> can DO
> great harm!
>
> I do not view the fact of having a psychiatric diagnosis as a cause for
> shame, at all.  But, when the patient is given a diagnostic label that
> frees the physicians from having to look further for physical causes of
> complex problems, there is something viscous going on.  And when doctors
> cling to that diagnostic label in the face of evidence to the contrary,
> i.e. psychotherapy and psychotropic medications aren't helping...that is
> even more viscous, oppressive and self-serving on the part of doctors.
>
> Your story makes me see red!  I hope you find your way to some very high
> caliber practitioners, and that you let the ones who failed you know they
> failed you, if that is the case, and that you hold in highest esteem the
> one who kept an open mind and stood by you and the possibility that
> something else was afoot.
>
> Lynn H.
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> ________________________