Q. I am a 17 year old girl who has just gotten out of my 5th hospitalization. I have been diagnosed with anorexia, BPD, OCD, Schizophrenia, psychosis and others I can’t even remember. What does all this mean? Is it possible to have all these problems at the same time? And why are they problems at all? I’m fine with it if everybody would just leave me alone maybe I could have some kind of normal existence. And why do therapists and psychiatrists think they know everything. And what is with all the medication? I’m on paxil and risperdal and ativan right now. Could you please make some sense of all this or should I give up on ever being normal?
A. First and foremost, since you are responsible for your life and your happiness, you need to determine if the diagnoses are correct. Schizophrenia makes those other diagnoses very, very hard to diagnose.
Many borderlines are incorrectly diagnosed as having bipolar because of the mood swings and schizophrenia can be incorrectly diagnosed because of psychosis. Schizophrenia is a brain disease where the thoughts are separated from the emotions, and includes psychosis. Get some good opinions regarding your symptoms and find out what the correct diagnoses are – all but schizophrenia are extremely manageable at this time, and schizophrenia will be treatable in the future (and already has much better medications).
Try to concentrate on your spiritual side, you are here for a reason – even if it’s not readily apparent.
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