[treeman79]

Doctors kept thinking I had a mental disorder. Several years of horrible experiences with medications were a waste Turned out it was a blood disorder. Proper treatment actually solved problems.

Depression meds just meant I was cool with my mind not working right.

I get some people are bipolar and such, but I think a lot of people have an underlying disorder they’re unaware of.

[pdonis]

Part of the diagnostic process is supposed to be checking for "non-mental" things like blood disorders, by doing blood tests and other evaluations. So it sounds like you went through a flawed diagnostic process. Unfortunately that is far more common than it should be. The best way I have found to mitigate that risk is to have an advocate with you (family member or close friend) whenever you talk to doctors or other medical personnel about diagnosis or treatment--preferably someone who isn't afraid to ask tough questions and be skeptical of what seem like cookbook answers.

[treeman79]

That was part of if. I had to bring someone to more or less break down in tears or yell at the doctor to get them to listen.

Had several years of only basic blood work run. Check kidney function and the sort. Mri were always clean.

This was across 20+ doctors. I had one that actually guessed correctly, but wasn’t his specialty. The specialist didn’t believe me.

Later I realized the specialist was using very outdated diagnostic criteria. As it turns out this is very common.