Psychotherapy, Psychiatry: Not to be Trusted

This has been my experience with psychotherapists including psychiatrists. I don't trust psychotherapists and I'll tell you why. This includes general practitioners who dabble in psychiatry.

People with introverted temperaments are diagnosed with Avoidant Personality Disorder. Those with anger management problems are diagnosed Intermittant Explosive Disorder. Anyone with an uncommon personality trait is diagnosed with a disorder.

Normal, active children are being diagnosed with ADHD and prescribed potent mind-altering drugs with dangerous risks, including heart failure and suicide. Drugs are offered without trying less evasive strategies such as removing food additives from diet (many have been proven to cause hyperactivity in children). Scary? This really happens?

It's happened to me and it's happened to many other unsuspecting individuals.

Pharmaceutical companies are unethical - they are driven to make big money and offer big incentives to those who sell their drugs. Why else do parents with young children get sold a lie that their children need drugs?

Many in the pharmaceutical industry are legal drug-pushers. They con uninformed people that they are sick or disordered and need drugs.

First, some definitions of what some "psychos" are:

We were required to see a psychiatrist to have our son assessed for Asperger's Syndrome (AS). I was mis-trusting of psychiatrists because of prior experience. We also saw a psychologist that worked closely with the psychiatrist. We went private, as waiting on the public system meant a wait of over a year.

I had suspected my son had AS and had read extensively about it. My husband was hesitant for him to receive a label, but he was having major issues at school, so we decided to go ahead.

I was apprehensive about seeing a psychiatrist because of previous experience.

Without much history and before meeting my son, the psychiatrist immediately locked into a diagnosis of ADHD. I told her that while he had some characteristics of ADHD, he was able to focus and achieve at school, and we had found certain foods made him behave worse.

She recommended ADHD medication, which I refused, as I was not convinced of her diagnosis, and was concerned about a young child ingesting potent medication that was most likely inappropriate and potentially dangerous. She also recommended a psychoactive medication for his tic disorder. Again, we declined, as we didn't think his tics were causing him severe enough difficulty to warrant powerful, mind-altering drugs.

I'd had enough bad medication experiences as an adult - I didn't want the same dangerous game of Russian Roulette for my son.

We eventually ended up with a diagnoses of Asperger's Syndrome, and the psychologist consultations were recommended to teach him social skills.

He also had an IQ assessment by a guidance officer at school. When her report arrived, it combined her findings, what I had told her, what the school said, and information from the psychologist and psychiatrist. There was an odd statement in the report: "...in addition to his diagnosis of Asperger's Autism and Tic Disorder...as well as a differential diagnosis of Reactive Attachment Disorder."

What? I jumped onto Google and looked it up. It described a child that had been abused and/or neglected that raged against their mother and attached better to strangers than their caregiver(s). A child that was an expert manipulator, trying to harm their caregiver. Certainly not my child.

I contacted the guidance officer - had she mixed us up with another child? Copied and pasted onto another report? She insisted it was clearly in the psychiatrist report and said she could send me copies.

I read more about Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD) and talked to other parents in forums. One forum was started by a mother whose child had been misdiagnosed with RAD, eventually followed with a correct diagnosis of AS (a neurological developmental condition). She started a forum, because she was upset at the number of children that were getting misdiagnosed with RAD.

RAD is blaming the parents for abuse and neglect. Apparently it can occur rarely, most often with children that are adopted from harsh circumstances.

I felt insulted that the psychiatrist had written such a thing. How did she come to that conclusion? My son has never been abused or neglected.

Attachment theory has its roots in the idea that some mothers are "refrigerators", and to blame for their children's behaviour - as if mothers need displaced guilt heaped upon them.

Also, diagnostic criteria for RAD state:

• the criteria for a pervasive developmental disorder (like Asperger's autism) isn't met;
• there is a history of significant neglect;
• lack of identifiable, preferred attachment figure (prefers strangers over parents)

So the psychiatrist was wrong to "diagnose" him with both AS and RAD, and I am baffled at how she even considered he might have RAD, let alone state it in a report.

I don't want to see her again, nor will I recommend her. I am not sure yet whether I will write her a letter about her ridiculous assertion.

This experience was in Australia.

My previous experiences with psychiatrists were in New Zealand. The first psychiatrist I saw for "treatment resistant depression" decided within 5 minutes that I had Bipolar and insisting on prescribing me medication. She kept asking about "highs", but I didn't have "highs". But she had the idea in her head and I was trialled on lithium, suffering poisoning effects.

The second time my GP made me go back to her, I told her that I wasn't happy with how I was treated and she was wrong. She apologised. However, she was unable to help me and my condition baffled many doctors, including general practitioners who doled out psychoactive medications, all of which had unpleasant side-effects, and some that made me sicker.

Turned out my depression was a symptom of many years of undiagnosed autoimmune disease and AS.

I have read many accounts of people treated disrespectfully by arrogant health "professionals" They seek to pathologize neurological conditions, keeping themselves in work. I have read about many children dying from potent drugs like ADHD medications.

When one's mental health is in a vulnerable state, they can be taken advantage of. I was prescribed potent drugs by many physicians who used me as a guinea pig.

One doctor even told me to close the door and tried to hug me - he freaked me out and I escaped and never returned. The drugs he prescribed me could have killed me (they caused negative changes in my mental state, personality and lowered my blood pressure dangerously). I could have been a statistic - death by prescription drugs - taken as the doctor ordered.

Other doctors told me I was a hypochondriac. The very real pain disorder I had was "in my head".

So I don't trust doctors. Thanks to Google, I do my own research and see if their diagnosis matches up. Doctors hate patients self-diagnosing - it's part of their arrogance. Not many of them do thorough investigative work - they just dole a pill out for symptoms, and never uncover the root cause.

I know someone that endured rage episodes for a year, because a psychiatrist prescribed inappropriate drugs. The family noticed that the rage episodes started with an increase in dose of a psychoactive drug. They questioned the psychiatrist and were told the drugs had nothing to do with it. They reduced the dose, and the rage stopped. Turned out the patient had other underlying medical problems.

I figured out I had celiac disease. I have a doctor now that isn't arrogant and he was willing to listen to my findings and confirm that I was correct. I had already been misdiagnosed for nearly 20 years. Once the inflammation went away, so did the pain disorder I suffered for years.

I figured out my son and I have Asperger's. I'd already been given a misdiagnosis of Avoidant Personality Disorder (a personality disorder that made me feel even more defective) and my son would have been misdiagnosed with ADHD if I had just accepted what the psychiatrist said initially. After several sessions (at great expense) we were officially diagnosed. There is no medication for AS. Interesting that the psychotherapists took time to diagnose AS, but were hasty "diagnosing" ADHD and recommending drugs.

I could have had unnecessary surgeries recommended by doctors - turns out my symptoms were from my food sensitivities.

I wonder how many people have had similar experiences. Too many people trust their doctors too much without questioning. I am no longer one of them.

What also irks me is the amount I've spent on doctors, specialists and medications. Many doctors run behind schedule badly, and don't care about the poor souls that earn much less money than them.

Because my health was poorly managed, and I was chronically ill, I was unable to work at times, or below capacity. My income was significantly reduced over the years. Some doctors told me that my husband needed to work less (he works long hours trying to hold our family together).

Some have simply no concept that our real incomes don't come anywhere near theirs and an idealistic "life-balance" is not realistic.

Many had over-inflated egos - very arrogant and dismissive. Many so busy giving "advice" that they failed to look and listen.