Dare I post....?

BusynMember

Well-Known Member
I don't like when doctors see real medical symptoms and send a kid to a psychiatrist with a serious diagnosis. Call me skeptical, but if he were my kid, I'd keep looking for a medical cause. Has he seen more than one doctor? Has he had a CAT scan to make sure nothing is there that shouldn't be? Has he been tested for epilepsy? Allergies? Low blood sugar? What sort of medical doctors has he seen?

I personally wouldn't do the psychiatrist yet. Actually, unless your son was repetitively abused as as child, I would probably blow off the dissociative identity disorder diagnosis and find a new set of medical doctors. I know a psychiatrist has an MD, but he is looking for mental health issues and mental health is not yet an exact science anyway. I'm not an expert by any means, but the little I know of DID does not include falling asleep, numbness, etc.

Have you ever heard of narcolepsy? Look it up. Has he seen a cardiologist to check his heart more than just listening through a stethoscope? There are so many things it can be. Sadly doctors often say "it's all in his/her/your head" when they don't know what is wrong or they can't find anything rather than, "I don't know. I will refer you to somebody else."

I'm sorry Partner is not feeling well, and I hope you get more solid answers very, very soon.
 

Malika

Well-Known Member
While I know absolutely nothing about the subject, MWM seems to be talking sense. How can all these physical symptoms translate into multiple personality disorder, with a child??? Makes no sense at all to me.
So sorry you are facing this extra challenge. My thoughts are with you. Please keep us posted.
 
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Josie

Active Member
When my daughter was 9, she started falling apart mentally and physically. She had a years long migraine, tremor, muscle twitching, POTS, cognitive issues, and more. There was a time when she could barely carry on a conversation, her cognitive problems were so bad. I was afraid she was headed for the psychiatric hospital for a long term stay. Instead, our therapist encouraged me to treat it as physical and to believe her when she said she felt sick.

Regular doctors were mostly unable and to a certain extent, maybe not very interested in helping her. I think they mostly thought it was a psychiatric issue. At one point, I was told that she had a mood disorder and needed more exercise as the answer. She could barely walk at the time!

Long story short, she is much, much better today at 15. She plays sports and goes to school. Her headache is gone. We did not treat her as a mental case but found doctors who treated her medically. We had to go to out of mainstream doctors. If your son has medical problems as well as psychiatric problems, I would encourage you to look for answers to those before thinking the whole thing is mental.

In my experience, physical problems have been the cause of mental problems and not the other way around.
 
S

Signorina

Guest
I am so sorry to read this. Please head straight for your nearest Children's Hospital. I know he had had a lot of tests, but an absence of diagnosis leading to a conclusion of mental illness is simply not acceptable and makes absolutely no sense to me and I am guessing it doesn't make sense to you either which is why you are posting. You need physician to take a whole child approach and coordinate specialties and testing. There are so many things it could be and I would not accept that it is dissasociative disorder "just because" they can't find a medical explanation. Are you in an area where Lyme is prevalent? Has your son had an MRI? Autoimmune disease comes to mind but I am NOT a dr or even a medical person.

I am so sorry you are going through this. Time to put your warrior mom armor on... I know this must be really scary. XOXO
 

InsaneCdn

Well-Known Member
Like some of the others... there's a whole list of medical possibilities that come to mind here, and while I'm sure you haven't posted an exhaustive list of tests and possibilities, I'd be VERY wary of the fast spin-off to a psychiatrist. Had it happen to an adult in our extended family... and they missed all the medical symptoms until it was too late to do anything. Hers ended up being brain cancer. I know OF someone who had some of these symptoms, and it ended up being a leaking aneurysm. Any of the possibilities are scary, unfortunately.

I'd be seeking 2nd and 3rd medical opinions before accepting a brush-off as a psychiatric problem.
Here's some key words from your post that make me believe there has to be something medical:
- last few weeks rapidly got worse
- major headaches,
- panic attacks,
- sleeping spells (literally collapse in the middle of class),
- extreme confusion,
- memory loss,
- complete loss of sensation in his limbs
- The episode intensify every day

Panic attacks and memory loss can be psychological, but can also be physical if the problem is in the brain in any form. Most of the rest... I'd expect to be more likely to show up on the medical side of the equation.
 

DDD

Well-Known Member
I did not read your posts before you edited them so I can't offer specific support. on the other hand I can send you my most caring thoughts of support. I'm sorry you are having such a difficult time. Prayers and hugs coming your way. DDD
 

Tiapet

Old Hand
Like DDD, I didn't see your posts before editing either but given the replies I can kind of see some idea of it. If you look around you will see I've had a few struggles with something similar with ms emo. Again, I don't know specifics so this may be far reaching but it seems similiar. Just offering support.
 
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