Good luck angel! Are you trying to be a Disney princess maybe?

Oh that would be awesome.

It would be awesome. But it'd be far too many kids for my taste.

oops i'm late. thanks, hummy :p

didn't disney land use to have mermaids? that would have been an ideal job... just lying around splashing in the water all day haha

Oh god, I hope I'm not doing anything wrong by posting here, so sorry if I am, I promise I won't do it again...

But I've been lurking here for a while and I really just wanted to wish Phantom the best!
Auditioning for Disney World must be awesome, and I really hope you get the job! :) I used to want to be Chip or Dale at Disney World because everyone else is too tall for me, but I don't live at all near a Disney World, so I'd never get the job anyway haha.

Okay, again, so sorry if I shouldn't post here. I just... I just wanted to say that little bit. Okay, I promise I won't do it again. Don't hate me!! D:

Originally Posted by Kirin Rosenbaum

Phantom that's awesome.

Originally Posted by The Wandering Poet

Good luck angel! Are you trying to be a Disney princess maybe?

Thank you! Angel wants to be a princess but she is to short. Angel could be a fairy though! Angel likes fairies

Hello....how is everyone?

Ava The Vampire: Silly, there's nothing wrong with posting here. From how you're acting you aren't any of the 2 people blacklisted, so according to the title of my thread, All others are welcome. So feel free to post here ^^

I can totally see you being a fairy angel... run around sitting on people's heads :D

Oh good! I just wasn't sure if this was meant to be a private hangout or not. I always feel bad posting in threads where I'm not sure if they're open to everyone or not.

Do I have to introduce myself, or is it alright if I just post? :o

Well... the title does say "Open, All Welcome" :)

You can introduce yourself, you can chat, anything you feel like doing. Nothing but the rules are mandatory, and that is to keep this thread a safe environment.

Oh my goodness, haha. I didn't even read that far into the title! xD Or maybe I did, I just didn't think about it when I read it. The only thing that stuck out in my mind was, Disabilities and Differences.

I guess it wouldn't hurt to introduce myself, I did just sort of pop in here really randomly. It would be rude not to introduce myself. And maybe it would be a good chance to get to know some of you as well? c:

I'm Ava. I don't consider my illness to be a disability, and I don't know if it's really a huge difference as it's not that unique of a thing, but I'm diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder. I've had it probably for a lot longer than I think, but I was diagnosed officially three years ago. I don't consider it a disability, mostly because it's under control now and I'm doing pretty well and it's not stopping me from doing regular things like working, or enjoying hobbies and talking with friends. c:

Well everyone is different in their own unique way.

Schizoaffective? I've not heard of that before. I've heard of Schizophrenia, but this is a new one. What is it if I may ask?
It's great that it doesn't affect your life.

Schizoaffective is basically a mixture of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
Schizoaffective Disorder explained.. It supposedly is very similar to schizophrenia, as apparently people with schizophrenia can also be affected by depression.

It's really hard to explain the difference between schizoaffective, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, it's basically all about how the symptoms overlap that determine the diagnosis.

I'm not sure of how new it is in the DSM, but I think it might be pretty new. I haven't heard of it before I was diagnosed.

From what I read, they basically said "This can literally have any symptoms"...

Yes, it can have any mix of symptoms but the biggest factors of the illness is definitely psychosis and mood issues. It's incredibly hard to explain to be honest, even I can't really tell the difference between schizophrenia, schizoaffective and bipolar disorder.
Psychology is a really weird thing and the DSM is also confusing!

In the beginning I was diagnosed with so many different disorders that seemed like the same thing to me. Like, psychotic depression, mood disorder with psychotic features, schizophrenia and depression, lots of stuff before I got this diagnosis, so it's super confusing but basically all of those disorders have the same set of symptoms, just different overlap.

It always amazes me at how bad we are at diagnosing things.

I had a doctor that tried to diagnose me with things I didn't even have the symptoms for once.

That is so true! That's why I think if people suspect they have something they should definitely get it checked out with a professional. There's so many different overlapping symptoms and so many different names for them, it's pretty much impossible to diagnose yourself.

I like to get second or third opinions on diagnoses if I get one that doesn't make sense to me, like the time I was diagnosed with schizophrenia, it didn't make sense to me so I got another opinion. I think sometimes psych doctors just diagnose people based on like two symptoms and then they try to shove you in a box and treat the illness and not the person. You know? I've had that happen to me a few times when I went to the hospital, that's where I got the schizophrenia diagnosis, which, they basically diagnosed in two days of me being there because of the fact that I 'heard voices', you know?

Diagnosing people is definitely a science up to interpretation, I don't think anyone can give you the "perfect" diagnosis since everyone is so different that there's really no way to completely, correctly label a group of symptoms. I do think that they can get pretty close, though.

Yeah. I know Autism is one that is commonly misdiagnosed. Sometimes they try to call it ADD, ADHD, then maybe it's depression, but maybe they're bipolar, antisocial. I think it's the spectrum based things that are the hardest, since they can be any combination of things with any combination of severity within it.

Oh gosh so much yes. "Oh hey, you are coughing... take this omeprezole pill". He said I might have acid reflux disease (I don't), and unfortunately for him, in my job I administer medications a lot, so I'm familiar with certain ones.... and I swear they pass out omeprezole like it's candy.

True there is no perfect diagnosis every time. I've wondered for years what made me so different from my peers.
Some things though I guess are best not known. Every time I've tried to check symptoms doctors have tried to medicate me with "see if this helps".

Oh yes, I definitely agree. The spectrum ones are the hardest it seems to diagnose! I find it so sad that in the system of mental health, it seems to take years to find the right diagnosis, if a diagnosis is given at all. Which, usually means that the person needing help goes years struggling through the system because they're misdiagnosed and nothing is being done to treat them, not their illness.

That's awful. I hate it when doctors hand out medication, especially ones with a lot of side effects, like it's candy. Did you ever find out what the issue was? It really breaks my heart when I see people who are on tons of medication and half the time they don't know what the medication does or why they're taking it. They just go by, "Well, the doctor said I needed it", but doctors make mistakes too! They're human before they are doctors!

I can understand that feeling! Doctors are an interesting bunch of people, sometimes they are very helpful, other times, not so much. But I guess that's true for anyone!

I'm not a huge fan of doctors - I went through a really bad bout with depression awhile back and the doctor I went to see basically didn't really seem to care about actually finding out what was going on - just wanted to prescribe meds to 'help'... I didn't take them. I didn't like how they made me feel. D:

The biggest reason that doctors can't diagnose well I think, is because our system is so set on rushing to the cure that they don't watch, observe, and look to see what it might be, doing various tests to be certain. But of course... most people only want the quick fix.

I actually did. It was post nasal drip or something... basically I'm just choking on my own spit

Yeah, sometimes you can find an amazing doctor. I'm still looking. I've had to drop doctors for refusing to do certain things because they "don't believe in it"... so progress is slow.

@ Livi - That's awful. People seem to ignore situational depression, it's kind of sad. For chemical based depression, meds might help, but so would diet and exercise. But for situational based depression, it's a lot harder, and meds aren't the solution.

Poet: Yeah - it just upset me, and mum as well. Like I wasn't worth their time - we were paying him - quite a lot actually, and yet he wasn't even giving me the time of day. Thankfully the woman I see now is 10 times better than him and she listens to me. But that other guy just pissed me off. D: *sighs* I question how some people become doctors/therapists, etc... When they have no people skills.

I agree with you, Poet. It seems a lot of people just want a quick fix for their problems, they will willing just accept any pill the doctor gives them because they think it will solve all of their problems in the first time they take it, but it doesn't work like that. Medication helps over a period of time, and medication is an add on to other treatments like therapy and lifestyle changes.

Glad that you found out what the issue was! I'm assuming that the post nasal drip is being treated now?

My mom has had that issue of doctors refusing to do something "they don't believe in". My mom has high blood pressure so she changed her diet and started eating more fruits and vegetables and she started exercising and lost a lot of weight and her doctor originally told her if she lost weight she could come off her blood pressure medication, now that she's actually losing weight he refused to lower it because he felt she was losing weight too quickly! :/ so she's seeing another doctor now.

@Livi
Oh yes! It's so crazy how some people are therapists! I once had a therapist who tried really hard to convince me that I was never sexually abused, (and I was.) I was like 13/14 years old and he was like, "You don't act like you have PTSD, so it's obvious that it never happened." I totally relate to your experiences!

I think a lot of psychiatrists don't look at the cause of the illness, they just look at your illness and hand out whatever medication goes along with it, it's hard to find one that treats actual people and not just labels.

Ava: I totally agree with you. Oh wow! O.o Ugh! People.

That does seem to be a very valid observation. My depression started when I lost my twin and then had to learn to live without my other half... and they thought that they only way to treat it was with medication... -.- No.

The question isn't really how.... it's why. Sometimes the parents harass their kids to be the best paying job they can get.
I remember one of my parents once told me "I'd rather you be successful than happy." So I think it's people like that who cause such things.

@ Ava - Tried to convince you tha- what? What is wrong with them? O.o

Well no, it's not being treated. It's just a hereditary problem really. Nothing with any sort of risk.

Yeah... I've been through 2 doctors so far and I'm very hesitant to go back for a third doctor. I mean Honestly I want answers not pills.

As someone who works with "labels" sometimes it takes time to see them as real people (Like a day or two), but we are very heavily informed to never treat them any less than human.