The words one hears when receiving a diagnosis or diagnoses, like:
- Schizophrenia
- Obsessive compulsive disorder
- Borderline personality disorder
- or something else
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can come as a relief, a horror or anywhere in between.
Depending upon the situation, one may choose to believe or not believe what one is or isn’t being told. How one feels is how one feels. It is just the way things are.
After receiving a diagnosis there are different ways you can respond:
- Seek a second opinion
- Accept the diagnosis, take medications, do nothing else
- Find out more about the diagnosis
- Wait a while and then choose to do something
- Research what the diagnosis means and find out what it means to one’s lifestyle and employment situation
- Or choose a different path entirely
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When one receives a diagnosis, it can be important to ask questions about why that diagnosis was given, what it means, and what can be done to improve the way things are going in one’s life.
If one feels one might have been misdiagnosed, it is or can be important to ask for a second opinion. The medications and treatment one receives are based on one’s diagnosis or on one’s signs and symptoms. Some people may be misdiagnosed because a psychiatrist or another treatment professional didn’t see signs and symptoms, or because they weren’t showing up at the snapshot in time when the observation for the diagnosis was being done.
One example of this is when a person is diagnosed with major depression because no symptoms of mania were showing when the diagnosis was made.
Some people choose to accept the diagnosis they receive, take meds, go to group or to Assertive Community Treatment (ACT or whatever treatment was assigned), and have that be it.
Some people choose to not accept the diagnosis. Depending upon the severity of the symptoms, other people may make a choice to force treatment upon the person not accepting the diagnosis. Or there may not be any help available until the diagnosis is accepted.
Others may accept the diagnosis and want to research or read about the diagnosis. One problem with the internet is that anyone can put anything they want up anywhere about anything. Some of the information on the internet is good and some is not so good.
Places you can use to research further information about your illnesses are: