do you think psychiatrists overdiagnose mental disorders?

personal things i dont really mind sharing and thoughts about the subject here

i've been diagnosed with ptsd, depression, psychosis, asperger's, anorexia and anxiety over the years by CAMHS, but i believe that two of these were probably falsely diagnosed and one is a 80/20.

with psychosis, i heard voices and hallucinated every night, i was incedibly paranoid and i had weird bits of amnesia, but in the end i pulled through it. the thing is, i did tell my psychiatrist that i only hallucinated and heard voices when i was very tired, but i don't think they listened to me. (pretty sure it's normal when you're tired your brain plays tricks on you) i also probably forgot things because i was very stressed at the time and i had a lot on my mind, i found myself not really listening to much around me. so i probably didn't have psychosis.

with anorexia, my councillor told me that he thought i had it because i was so sad i didn't want to eat, so he told CAMHS and they helped me with it. i lost a bit of weight back then and now that i'm the ideal weight i'd still rather be thinner. but i was incredibly self aware of my bad habit and i still ate enough, i told them this but they just ignored me and continued to make sure i ate a lot, treating me like i did very extreme things to get rid of my weight. i think i had a problem but i don't think it was bad enough to be treated as anorexia.

i'm 80/20 about asperger's. i've felt different all of my life and it explains a lot of my behaviours, i used to have a lot of imaginary friends i could actually see (which apparently is common with children who have asperger's). i also displayed quirky but also aloof behaviour and had a weird eating habit when i was younger. i'm also a little antisocial.
a part of me says that i may not have it at all. the spectrum is broad, there are lots and lots of symptoms for it, and every person on the autistic spectrum is different, some have these symptoms and some don't, i'm very able to socialise and act like a normal girl, so i just don't know what to think.

you don't have to share anything here about whatever you've been through to make a point, i'm just curious if you think that psychiatrists overdiagnose people.

I think it depends on the psychiatrist. When you're explaining to them you have symptoms of said mental disorder, they're of course going to treat that disorder whether you hear voices when you're sleepy or not. To them, if they don't treat it right away, it can develop into something more extreme. Anorexia is another story. Whether or not you prefer yourself thin, if you're not at a healthy weight and you show warning signs and withhold yourself from eating, they're going to treat you! You were showing symptoms of said disorders and they did their job and treated you. Whether you think they took an extra step or not, I'm sure their priority was to help you rather than harm you. I was mad at my psychiatrist for a long time because I felt over diagnosed. But when you take a step back, and you're telling them you have all these symptoms, they're going to try to stop the symptoms. Regardless if you say "it only happens sometimes".

It's not even hard to fake a disorder or mental illness (e.g: trans or whatever), so there's possibly a collection of people who don't actually "qualify" or whatever who have been diagnosed. Also not everyone's symptoms/issues match up exactly to the criteria (or other people's symptoms), so it can be hard to decide whatever problem they actually have

100% yes. But a lot of the problem is that the criteria for diagnosis in the DSM V are ridiculous. Are you eating too much or too little? Are you sleeping too much or too little? If yes then you have MDD! Good psychiatrists take those criteria with a grain of salt and use clinical judgement to diagnose more accurately.

i don't know much about the statistics of it or have enough personal experiences with it to say for myself if psychiatrists overdiagnose. though if anything, overdiagnosis is better than underdiagnosis. at least in my opinion. the only time it could be bad is if you're prescribed medicine you don't need and that could potentially be harmful. (just overall, there may be treatment methods i dont know about/i'm not considering that could be harmful if one doesn't have a condition that it's used to treat. but hey, at least lobotomies aren't done as commonly and recklessly as they were in the past amirite).

it mostly has to do with the psychiatrist themselves. they shouldn't just look at a checklist and go "check, check, check, yep! looks like you have x!" when it's really not that simple. they should look at your symptoms over a period of time, consider the circumstances, what's going on in your life, and etc. in your case, it sounds like they weren't really listening to you either. but also like what sin said, they're also trying to prevent things from getting worse. if they see warning signs for particular disorders, then they need to try to treat the problem before it develops into something more.

i really should stop here before i end up writing an entire essay lmao

Depends on who the diagnoser is. Sometimes yes, sometimes no. It also depends on how professional they are.
I've been diagnosed with a crap ton of mental disorder that has been scrapped later on (we've finally found the correct ones), and this was all from CAMHS, like you.
I was once diagnosed with OCD, but that was just regular anxiety that I was later on diagnosed with. Then I was diagnosed with autism, then that was scrapped and later diagnosed as schizotypal (which are very similar mental disorders), which has been the same to this day and the symptoms describe me like a T.
Like I stated previously, we've found the correct ones after years of observation and my mind maturing.

Honestly, a professional psychiatrist or counsellor should first check the symptoms, then observe behaviour (as like you said, everyone's experiences are different). They should study other cases with that disorder afterwards and see how different and broad the experiences are. It's really quite hard to diagnose mental disorders, but if they interview friends and family, observe behaviour, check symptoms, study other cases, etc., then they can probably diagnose it correctly.

As I'm pretty sure was stated in this thread earlier, it's very easy to fake being mentally ill (which could be a mental illness in itself: histrionic personality disorder). It's just a very complex thing to diagnose correctly. I don't get why people would want to be mentally ill unless they wanted it to be a label or be a special snowflake. I've seen a LOT of people fake being schizophrenic, bipolar and fake having multiple personalities. It's just royally ****ed up. :/ Being schizo/bipolar (schizoaffective), it's a hard thing and it appalls me to see other want to have those mental disorders.
Gawd, just talking about this makes me hate people even more lol.

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ams said:

100% yes. But a lot of the problem is that the criteria for diagnosis in the DSM V are ridiculous. Are you eating too much or too little? Are you sleeping too much or too little? If yes then you have MDD! Good psychiatrists take those criteria with a grain of salt and use clinical judgement to diagnose more accurately.

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I don't like the DSM-5 at all, but it is a lot better than the previous DSMs.

No, false diagnosis exist as well as bad psychiatrists and people should always consider getting multiple opinions and listening to themselves, but I think the fear of a diagnosis just comes from the stigma of mental illness and thinking it's the end of the world. Every body is different and we're all a mix of a lot of things and psychiatrists can only judge us by what they see. But we can judge ourselves more properly and I think people should tell their psychiatrists what they think their diagnosis is because it might reveal things they were too ashamed to admit beforehand.

Being mentally ill doesn't make you abnormal, "normal people" also have symptoms and illnesses.

It's already been said, but this really depends on the psychiatrist. I've seen some who refused to diagnose me with conditions I definitely have (had a guy tell me my sleep issues were just "because of my anxiety" which was eventually proved false by a sleep study), and I've had a psychiatrist who wouldn't change my diagnosis after I found out what was actually going on (I thought I was having panic attacks for a while because I would shake, my heart would race, I would be light headed and weak, and I felt like I was dying--because I literally was dying, I had undiagnosed Type 1 Diabetes and I was experiencing severe low blood glucose).

Studies actually prove that we’re pretty bad at telling if someone already has a mental illness or not if we’re told beforehand that they do. We expect them to, so we kind of find one. That said, psychologists and psychiatrists are professionals. I don’t think they’re overdiagnosing so much as we’re becoming more aware. Odds are, if someone is seeing a mental health care professional, there is something in their mental health bothering them. It’s like saying a family practice doctor is overdiagnosing colds. It’s just that healthy people aren’t going to visit their gp.

I've had the complete opposite problem. Everyone I've seen has refused to give me any diagnosis, especially camhs. I know that I have anxiety, depression, and anorexia, and have done for about 8 years. I've seen a fair share of counsellors and psychiatrists and all of them have either refused to diagnose me, or have just brushed it off with things like 'oh it's probably just hormones' or 'just go out more you'll be fine'
and for physical health problems i've been sent away many times bc doctors don't care and can't be bothered to find out what's wrong with me

in my experience in the past, psychiatrists just prescribe meds without really getting to the root of the problem. I believe that some people don't really need medication, maybe just someone to talk to. of course, there are people who suffer HORRIBLY from anxiety & depression, but, especially with the younger crowd, some just feel alone and need someone to assure them they're going to be okay. I went to three different psychiatrists and all of them maybe asked me three questions and prescribed some drugs. they seem to just want to get you out of their office half the time. -_-

Depends on the psychiatrist. I remember in school it was the time of "everyone has ADD/ADHD" so everyone was getting diagnosed with that left and right when I could tell it wasn't true for most of the people diagnosed. Literally kids in my class got MORE wound up because that's what the medicine does if it's not actually helping you. I know I have it for real, and I know other people who have it for real because I've seen the very very different them with and without medication, I had a friend who had to be sent home when she ran out of medication because nobody could handle her.

I only went to a therapist once, and I was diagnosed with things I had and didn't have, and not diagnosed for things I know I had. (Mostly due to me hiding and diminishing my problems because I didn't want help.) So I think it really depends on the person doing the diagnosis plus how the patient displays themselves. I know a lot of things, because their mental, are easily hidden and it's easy to misinterpret smaller things for something larger. So I don't really think that they're doing it purposefully, and they do want to help. But you have to take their advise with a grain of salt, because honestly you know yourself better than they do. If they diagnose you with something that you don't agree with and prescribe you treatment for it you don't have to accept that. I didn't accept being medicated because my ADHD is under control as is, I had spurts of hard times, but nothing that in my opinion would have needed medication for. I get really excitable on occasion and that's really the only time I lose control of it so I don't think I need the treatment.

Something that really sucks though, I know a bit off topic though, is when doctors will attribute everything to ONE problem, and wont even open their mind to it being caused by something else, namely, for me, it's my weight, I know my weight is a problem but XYZ problems are not due to that and it sucks finding someone who will actually find out what's wrong besides telling you you can't be helped unless you lose weight when I know for sure it's not attributed to that... mini rant aside... -_- But yeah both sides of the spindle suck, getting diagnosed with things you don't have, and people unwilling to acknowledge real problems you have both really suck. I have a good friend who has horrible endometriosis and her doctors ignored it forever, trying to blame other things like her weight, and her stomach, and even her kidneys (which they gave her 2 unnecessary surgeries for) due to her pain, when she was telling them it wasn't in her gut but in her reproductive organs... -_- She literally had to go to 7 different doctors before she had a room full of specialists and the gyno was like "yall are idiots." and she finally got a proper diagnosis. So yeah, it's not always wise to just believe what your doctor tells you, I mean, to an extent obviously.

happyhailey said:

in my experience in the past, psychiatrists just prescribe meds without really getting to the root of the problem.

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one of the meds they've prescribed me, which was quetiapine, has ruined my sleep. it's normal to wake up in the night but they were like "no it's not take them" and now i have to rely on them or i get no sleep at all. my body literally won't let me sleep unless i take it. it's ****ing ridiculous.

I am so very lucky I have such a good family doctor / general practitioner. She manages to find the right stuff for me

I've never had the issue of being over diagnosed, but I was diagnosed wrong by a different doctor. He diagnosed me with seasonal affective disorder, and gave me an atypical antidepressant - Wellbutrin. It was suppose to give me energy. He didn't take into account that I was experiencing anxiety with my depression and I just turned hysterical.

I just think that there are just bad doctors that don't really listen and try to understand

cammy said:

now i have to rely on them or i get no sleep at all.

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unfortunately this happens to so many people, including myself. this is why I struggle with psychiatrists because most just seem like they don't care. it's like their brain process is to just get people in and out of there & not actually help the general public. I feel like this is what they adjust to after working in the field so long, they started out with a heart to help others, & now it's an everyday job... so that's what they see it as now. :c

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I think it also differs between countries. I have no idea what the psychiatry is like in America, for example.
For me personally, I've had a lot of different psychiatrists who all thought different things. Some wanted me to take meds whilst others strictly advised me not to. It goes the same way with diagnosis, around the time I was kind of hopping between a lot of different people and they all had different ideas about my diagnosis. I've been diagnosed with autism, but I've had psychiatrists telling me I had an anxiety disorder and the other person would tell me I didn't and that depression was largely to blame for my mental health problems.
I don't do therapy anymore, as for now. Imprimis because it didn't help me a whole lot (this is just my personal experience, I very much encourage people to seek help and think therapy can be beneficial when the right people are involved) and secondly because I'm also doing better now. (My last therapy session was 2 years ago).
In conclusion, I think it's also good to keep in mind that in every field you have people who are good at what they're doing and people who aren't. Same goes for psychiatrists. At the end they are the professionals and it's hard for me as a layman to judge whether someone should or shouldn't be diagnosed. I just hope/think most of them know what they're doing.

Yes and no. I'll take myself as an example here(I've aspeger/asd and that I am incredible anti-social, shy and can probably appear as rude not wanting to attend stuff according to normal people and especially if I don't click with them. I think a lot of it had to do with my childhood and bad mental abusing parents like my dad and my mom just playing along with him at times (although this is an aspie trait; if it's the only thing that agrees with you you first and foremost need shrink/talk help with it). I mean I don't like being small-talk social with people and just talk about job and weather and random news, so yeah it does have to do with that, and then I have other issues like being clumsy, bad co-ordination, must be prepared etc.

I think that as time goes by, mental health officials get more and more information about mental illnesses as there is more research on it. It's one of the reasons that things like ADHD are diagnosed more often now - because we know more about it. The same with autism. We know more, so it's being properly diagnosed more.

However, from reading your post, it almost sounds like your psychatrist is looking at symptoms/effects of one illness and deeming it as another. Undereating/lack of hunger is a very common symptom of depression. Hallucinating can be from the PTSD, and so could anxiety. If your psych isn't listening to you properly and you're concerned about your diagnosis, you can always see another doctor and get second opinions. There is no shame in that, and you really want to, especially if they're giving you medications. You don't want to be taking things you don't need and end up being over medicated.

I'm actually on the opposite side of things right now. I'm unable to find a doctor to diagnose me formally with anxiety and autism. I've only ever been diagnosed with depression, but my insurance changed, now I can't find anyone. Not to mention that getting diagnosed with autism as an adult is nearly impossible, but it's very, very clear I have autism even without a formal diagnosis. My whole family knows I am. They took me when I was a child to get tested, but they said 'no' that I wasn't. However, back then, it was much less commonly diagnosed and not as well known as it is now. I'd say asperger's is more of a term for me than autism, however, asperger's has now become autism in the DSM, so...

Anyway, I'm rambling. But yes, in your case, it sounds like they may be overdoing it instead of looking at issues as symptoms of existing conditions.

I have no no no idea about the psychiatrist thing. I think to have an opinion on that, I'd have to have more knowledge about that profession as a whole.

But as a general idea, I think it's definitely possible.