"John" continued...[John had suffered from fatigue and allergies for almost 20 years, but until five years ago, had always managed to “push” himself beyond the physical symptoms associated with [Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, or ME/CFS.]
Five years ago, I took on a promotion at work, and with it came an increased stress component An unreasonable level of expectation was laid on me and everything started to get more difficult. Eventually I had a "stress" breakdown, and was confined to bed. My ME had never presented this way before so I did not at the time consider its role in what was going on in my body and mind.
My GP saw me often, but didn't know what to do. When I talked of being unable to make sense of what was going on in my body and mind I was quickly referred to a psychiatrist, who labelled me as "clinically depressed and started me on Prozac. The drugs did nothing to help, so I demanded to see the consultant Psychiatrist. That Psychiatrist decided that I had Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) as a result of the stress at work, and I was given Citalopram (Celexa) anti-depressants.
None of my physical symptoms were considered or investigated and repeat visits were all about the medication. It was not helping, and the usual response was to increase the dose. Living on a high dose of Citalopram is the only time in my life when I have been a knife's breadth away from suicide, my thoughts and feelings driven from deep within.
I was not satisfied with the medication, the ignoring of my physical symptoms, and the ongoing pressure to prescribe SSRIs as the only intervention. The most useful thing that happened was that I was referred to a cognitive behavioural therapist for three years, and whilst he found he could do little to improve my quality of life, he was the only person who listened to me.
Five Psychiatrists later, thousands of dollars poorer, and physically more ill than I had ever been in my life, I had to eventually stop the current drug "Zoloft" due to signs of Seratonin Syndrome.
I eventually managed to get myself in front of a PTSD specialist, who runs the local clinic for Vietnam Veterans. He saw me for six weeks, declared the mental health diagnosis an error and referred me for urgent physical examination. I had suffered for five years because nobody had bothered to ask questions around what I was experiencing. Instead, they had merely accepted the original diagnosis, and wanted to feed me with SSRI's.
By this time I was doing a lot of research myself online, looking at my symptomology and trying to get to the root of things, which is when I remembered my history of ME/CFS.
Suddenly the picture started to come together for me. What had been treated and diagnosed as a mental illness was in fact severe neurological and endocrinological damage after years of living with ME/CFS. This was confirmed after two weeks of tests with a specialist working exclusively with ME/CFS as a neurological illness, and at last I am getting some relief from my symptoms.
Here I was telling them [the psychiatrists] I had sensory overload problems, adrenaline floods, cognitive dysfunction, balance and visual disturbances,blackouts, seizures, and two years of not being able to get to sleep, plus of course the post exertional fatigue, IBS, gastric reflux, hypoglycemia, unusual piercing headaches etc and they just wanted to think within the box that somebody years before had allocated me to.
None of the Psychiatrists I saw seemed to care about the physiological malfunctions in my body. None of them really listened to me outside of the box that I had been assigned to, and I was treated with anything but kindness. Not one of them cared enough to investigate my total experience, none of them really listened to me, and as a result none of them was able to intervene and help me.
Five years ago, I took on a promotion at work, and with it came an increased stress component An unreasonable level of expectation was laid on me and everything started to get more difficult. Eventually I had a "stress" breakdown, and was confined to bed. My ME had never presented this way before so I did not at the time consider its role in what was going on in my body and mind.
My GP saw me often, but didn't know what to do. When I talked of being unable to make sense of what was going on in my body and mind I was quickly referred to a psychiatrist, who labelled me as "clinically depressed and started me on Prozac. The drugs did nothing to help, so I demanded to see the consultant Psychiatrist. That Psychiatrist decided that I had Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) as a result of the stress at work, and I was given Citalopram (Celexa) anti-depressants.
None of my physical symptoms were considered or investigated and repeat visits were all about the medication. It was not helping, and the usual response was to increase the dose. Living on a high dose of Citalopram is the only time in my life when I have been a knife's breadth away from suicide, my thoughts and feelings driven from deep within.
I was not satisfied with the medication, the ignoring of my physical symptoms, and the ongoing pressure to prescribe SSRIs as the only intervention. The most useful thing that happened was that I was referred to a cognitive behavioural therapist for three years, and whilst he found he could do little to improve my quality of life, he was the only person who listened to me.
Five Psychiatrists later, thousands of dollars poorer, and physically more ill than I had ever been in my life, I had to eventually stop the current drug "Zoloft" due to signs of Seratonin Syndrome.
I eventually managed to get myself in front of a PTSD specialist, who runs the local clinic for Vietnam Veterans. He saw me for six weeks, declared the mental health diagnosis an error and referred me for urgent physical examination. I had suffered for five years because nobody had bothered to ask questions around what I was experiencing. Instead, they had merely accepted the original diagnosis, and wanted to feed me with SSRI's.
By this time I was doing a lot of research myself online, looking at my symptomology and trying to get to the root of things, which is when I remembered my history of ME/CFS.
Suddenly the picture started to come together for me. What had been treated and diagnosed as a mental illness was in fact severe neurological and endocrinological damage after years of living with ME/CFS. This was confirmed after two weeks of tests with a specialist working exclusively with ME/CFS as a neurological illness, and at last I am getting some relief from my symptoms.
Here I was telling them [the psychiatrists] I had sensory overload problems, adrenaline floods, cognitive dysfunction, balance and visual disturbances,blackouts, seizures, and two years of not being able to get to sleep, plus of course the post exertional fatigue, IBS, gastric reflux, hypoglycemia, unusual piercing headaches etc and they just wanted to think within the box that somebody years before had allocated me to.
None of the Psychiatrists I saw seemed to care about the physiological malfunctions in my body. None of them really listened to me outside of the box that I had been assigned to, and I was treated with anything but kindness. Not one of them cared enough to investigate my total experience, none of them really listened to me, and as a result none of them was able to intervene and help me.