Depression And Anxiety "diagnosis"???? Don't Know What To Think...

[jenglynn]

Hello,

I had my appt. with my cardiologist on Monday. We are trying to coordinate an appointment with a specialist as "urgent" as my syncope right now is severe and blood pressure very low and heart rate very high. I will be seen at UW-Madison in WI and I have never heard of anyone in this forum who has gone there so I am not sure what to expect... but anyway on to my point...

When I left my cardio appt. I was given my post appt. print out as I always am, which lists details about the visit, current medications and diagnosis. I noticed that along with my P.O.T.S diagnosis and hypotension, migraines lalso listed was Depression AND Anxiety. These have never been on my list of diagnosis before and I don't know how they got there or who put them there. Should I worry about having those on my record? Is that somehow going to plague me when I am seeing the specialist or other doctors or with disability in the future? I don't see how anyone could go through all of this and NOT have some degree of depression and anxiety but I was just very taken aback to see it in black and white in my record!

Am I overreacting? Thoughts??? Thank you so much for your insight?

Jen

[lieze]

No you are not overeacting.

I met with a psychologist last week for disability.

The big hang up was something a GI CNP wrote saying I was anorexic, had anxiety, depression she told me I was suicidal ( crazy ) I am the opposite!!!! I have been afraid something was going to happen and I've called 911 every time I got really scared.

So all of this she didn't lay a hand on me I got no exam.

I went because I was having trouble eating and sought out help totally opposite of what I'm being accused of. Yes it feels more like an accusation than a diagnosis.

I went because I was having cardiac symptoms after eating that were very scary.

I ended up with a crackpot diagnosis.

And on her report it says my nurse therapist tried calling and calling and I wouldn't respond.

What false info no 1 I didn't know she was calling and calling. I use my cell and lived for the summer with my parents.

I had to stop seeing the nurse therapist because our insurance wouldn't cover her and I'm unemployed.

She knew that we discussed it I paid my bill and that was that.

Unfortunately we do have to worry about how medical staff view us interpret our condition and symptoms and what they report on to others.

I definitely feel I got labeled along the way.

A physical problem definitely is my primary diagnosis all the other as you say is secondary.

Even the weight loss.

The psychologist seemed to pick up on that right away so I was blessed with some support I just don't know if it was enough to undo the damage that some of the other practitioners caused.

I guess the advice I would give is emphasize the physical when anxiety or depression are brought up make sure you specify you believe they are secondary.

It's not that I want to be in denial that these exist it's not the cause is the issue.

Our physical concerns should not be overlooked as a result.

It's very much how I felt when disability called and said Uh I have to ask you about anxiety, Xanax, and anorexia....

I could have just broken down in tears.

There is so much more to the story than that.

I tried to work sick for close to 2 years.

I had horrible symptoms that supposedly I was supposed to just live with because labs were coming back okay.

From the way i feel now I think don't ever settle for less don't let anyone tell you oh it's just stress. An iron absorption of 3% is not just stress. I was not getting any oxygen! I felt like walking death.

I hope for everyone they can find someone that takes them seriously and don't give up.

[janiedelite]

If you have the fortitude (or you could have someone do this for you), you could call the dr's office and ask why they included anxiety/depression in your diagnoses. Perhaps it is just as Lieze said, that the doctor feels your terrible physical symptoms are enough to cause depression and anxiety. If they do feel you are depressed/anxious, you could ask them if they could specify in your chart that this is solely because of the severity of your illness. It may be helpful to have someone close to you (like a spouse or good friend) make this phonecall for you because they'll be able to advocate for you, that your problems do not stem from depression/anxiety.

[rubytuesday]

On the EDS forum I belong to, a similar thing happened to her. She posted about how the therapist had 'lied'. Anyway, here is a link to the follow-up post of how she learned to handle it. I hope it helps.

http://www.inspire.com/groups/ehlers-danlos-national-foundation/discussion/correcting-medical-records/

[HopeSprings]

This would annoy me and I personally wouldn't want it on there. What does this have to do with anything? I'm sure if you wanted an opinion on your mental health status, you would have seen a psychiatrist, not a cardiologist! I just think it lessens our credibility with other Doctors to have it in black and white like that. Of COURSE we're depressed and anxious, as are most people (like you said) with a debilitating, chronic illness - but it's NOT causing the symptoms. I'd go with Thankful's advice if you're up for it.

[lieze]

You know the horrible thing is if anyone else is like me you are just shocked out of your mind by this whole health crisis and it leaves you so vulnerable.

When I went in to see that nurse practitioner I was so gullible when she started saying everything she said I half believed her.

I was looking for any explanation as to what I was experiencing.

She did not help me at all though and charged a huge fee. We ended up paying her $200 besides what insurance covered.

The thing was I was leery to go to that appt in the first place but I felt like I had to follow my doctors orders.

I feel like my doctor wrote right in the referral-there is nothing wrong with this patient she just has anxiety based on how I was treated when I got there.

I really need to change doctors but I don't know when timing would be best.

I almost think as soon as we start getting the anxiety talk or the brush off when we talk about our symptoms that is a sign right there that we need both for our own health and for the future of our health care and any other issue that may come up related such as disability to find someone who takes our condition seriously.

[Katybug]

Because I was treated way back in college for depression and my PCP treated me for anxiety 4 years ago (before we knew that it wasn't anxiety, it was Lyme and POTS) these notes are in my medical records. I had several specialists blow me off because of these notes instead of trying to find a dx and I also ended up having to meet with a psychiatrist for my SSA Disability claim. The psychiatrist was honest and told me flat out that he didn't know what POTS was and found me "able to maintain meaningful employment" because I didn't give suicidal, homicidal, or psychotic answers to his questions. He, in fact, noted my above average cognitive skills. Great...how many employers will let me work 2-4 days a week for about an hour when I feel like I can because I never know which days and times these will be??? (P.S. This was the only doc SSA had me see...no Cardio, no Neuro. So off to the appeal process we go.)

So, I'm not telling you this to be negative, but, it has definitely affected my treatment and my disability claim, and, if it isn't true, it shouldn't be there.

[lieze]

I denied depression when the psychologist asked.

I said I get discouraged at times but I have never been in a true depression.

To me as discouraged as I can get- by the next morning or several hours later I can get distracted and forget all about it and be smiling or laughing. To me that's not a true depression.

[Brye]

I would want to know why they came to that conclusion. Did they have another med record from another place that they looked at. It seems strange for a cardiologist to make that diagnosis? I think it may be worth a phone call. Maybe you can ask if he's concerned this is truly a valid diagnosis he could recommended an appropriate specialist to help you deal with it. Sorry you're having to deal with that. Hope the UW appt goes well. I miss Madison!!

Brye

[Chaos]

I would want that off my record if it wasn't accurate. I think a lot of docs see that and want to blame EVERY symptom you have on that diagnosis. Since so many of our symptoms mimic anxiety and depression that's what the majority of docs want to label you with but it's frequently NOT the correct diagnosis. However it's SO common that the cardio I saw at Cleveland Clinic Autonomic Lab said she had NEVER had a patient arrive in her lab that DIDN'T have a diagnosis of anxiety and depression slapped on them at some point in the journey thru the medical system.

[ramakentesh]

Most POTS patients cop something like this at the beginning especially. But chronic illnesses can cause depression - high sympathetic activity correlates with increased serotonin reuptake for a start.

In other medical conditions like RA people are fine with the notion that these patients have increased incidences of anxiety and depression because its an accepted illness with a severe pain. Its just as likely to occur in something like POTS where impacts can also be severe. But patients tend to worry about it for fear that their POTS will be just labled as being a psychological condition rather than a true illness.

Ive met POTs patients that are totally isolated and that have a family that reject their diagnosis. If that isnt a recipe for depression Im not sure what is.

When my ankylosing spond flares up I tend to get slightly depressed or grumpy. My doc said that was normal. Who knows whether the same can apply to POTS - particularly given the abnormal sympathetic, epinephrine and norepinephrine levels churning away...

[vemee]

Unfortunately this is quite common, I've been through it almost to the extreme . A lot of doctor's (not all) do not believe their patients unless they can see results on their first round of tests. Most do not want to take the time to look deeper into the problem because the more patients they can see the more they get paid. If they have to spend time on one troublesome patient then they lose money. I have been dropped as a patient a couple of times because with all that is going on with me I am considered too complicated. It is easier just to tell the patient to go to a psychiatrist.

I know of one woman that was trying to find out what was causing her to feel bad and she was committed for 2 weeks because the doctors did not believer anything was physically wrong with her and they said she was on drugs. It turned out she has lupus. People with chronic illnesses, especially those that look healthy get the psych diagnosis all the time.

[ramakentesh]

http://globalmedicaldiscovery.com/key-scientific-articles/norepinephrine-transporter-net-knock-out-upregulates-dopamine-and-serotonin-transporters-in-the-mouse-brain/

[puppylove]

My cardio thinks my POTS symptoms get severely worse when I am anxious (which is true) and he recommended that I see a physiologist. It is kind of weird that your cardio would diagnose you with anxiety- could it be a mistake?

[ramakentesh]

NET deficiency could be connected with chronic stress in some individuals - particularly those with essential hypertension. Let me know if you want the study on that.

[vemee]

From what I have seen; pots can cause severe depression in some people when it first appears or even later on if the condition worsens. My daughter suddenly became severely depressed when she first got pots. At the time we didn't know if the increase of the standing heart rate was due to the meds she was on or to pots. We had to wait a couple of years before we could get her diagnosed with pots. I went through a less severe episode the year I first started showing pots symptoms.

[jenglynn]

I did call the clinic and found out that it wasn't my cardio doc who made this diagnosis, but my general doctor. This was just the first time I had looked at the diagnosis list since I had seen her (which was only 3 days before). She noted the DX on that date. She is out of the office for the next week so I can't speak to her right now.

The only thing I can think of is that she put it on there because I do take Paxil and an anxiety medication which was meant to treat P.O.T.S, not specifically depression. I guess I am not really denying that I am "depressed" but to me it is more of a situational depression because of how poor my health is right now, not really clinical depression.

I go see a specialist at an autonomic department on Monday at Univeristy of Wisconsin at Madison. So the depression diagnosis is there and isn't going anywhere before Monday. I guess we will see what happens.

[lieze]

If you are on any medication your doctor has to justify the use of that medication with a diagnosis so yes if you are on an antidepressant and antianxiety agent you will see those diagnosis on your record.

[HopeSprings]

I think it'll be ok. Hopefully you'll get a Dr. who won't jump to conclusions. If it comes up, just explain as you did above. All you said makes perfect sense. I'd still see about getting that info out of your chart though when the Dr returns.

[mully2014]

I've had lots of issues about this... doctors were telling me that it was all in my head and I was making it up and at the time I had recently lost all of my memory so I started to believe them. It was terrible I still have issues with this because people really doubt that I have these problems. I even started to see a pyschologist but every time I went in I would leave feeling worse..not a good thing. My doctor was telling me it was in my head and we just needed to figure out why I decided to do that. It was an extremely hard time for me but now I'm doing soo much better. I have confidence in myself (that started to come when I was learning more and able to remember a couple of things). I would suggest getting this cleared up because doctors WILL treat you differently because of someone saying that. I hope you are able to get this figured out.

[lieze]

Yes I was told I had done this to myself.

Chosen to be helpless and dependent.

Good grief-it's the last thing I want.

And she was yelling at me as she said it.

Scary stuff.

[puppylove]

Before I knew I had POTS I went to three different psychologists and none of them helped. The last one said he didn't know why it was so hard for me to get up in the morning, but everyone feels bad in the morning and I just wasn't pushing myself. If you don't know what you have it is very easy to be persuaded in to thinking it's all in your head. I felt worse after a lot of times too and actually started to think that everyone feels like me and I had just become lazy or something.