Do you have the same thing?

[JennyorAlice]

Has there been an instance where someone close to you was diagnosed with a mental health disorder and you soon realized you have the same thing? Like, did you take your child in to have tested for ADHD and then realize you have the same thing yourself? If so, what did you do about it?

 

[Zeesi]

Yes, I had this happen years ago when I was doing office work for a school, and they were doing learning disability testing on certain students. I learned that I had similar types of things going on with myself, but since I was out of school, what that information did was give me insight as to why I do what I do, or why I don't do certain things that I need to do. Even though that happened years ago, that insight still comes in handy to this day.


I've had certain family members have certain things going on, and it makes me aware of how things could be for me, so that's makes me pay attention more to my own needs and health concerns.

 

[hades_leae]

ME and my little brother were diagnosed with ADHD, and ADD many years ago when we were younger, and I think it started with me. Now all of a sudden we don't have it, I think we were just being kids, and nothing was wrong with us. It might not be anything wrong with that person who also thinks they have the same thing, but there is nothing wrong with going to see a doctor.


I don't always think that conditions like ADHD is always accurate anyway.

 

[HappyKoi]

Sometimes I've wondered if I have BPD. I've been reading quite a lot about it, and I seem to have a lot of the symptoms. However, I am not going to self-diagnose because a lot of the symptoms of BPD can also be found in other disorders, and it seems like it would be something that would take a professional to determine.


When I was in college, our professors warned us about "Psych Student Syndrome", where students would read about a disorder and believe that they had the same thing. It happened to a few of my classmates, especially when studying anxiety disorders. I think that a lot of these things do occur in more than one family member, either genetically or as a learned behavior, and having a child diagnosed might be an indication that you might have the same thing, particularly if you had the same symptoms as a child. All the same, it's better to have a neutral professional make these decisions.

 

[Aree Wongwanlee]

Now that you mentioned it, I think I have recently experienced something similar. My mother, at one time, has some problems with her memory. She would go out and then forget what she went out for. She would go shopping and forget what she wanted to buy. A couple of months ago, I went through a phase like that. I found it hard to hold on to my memories, or to retrieve something from my memories. I just know that there is something which I wanted to recall but I couldn't get it out. I think I have got back on track again like my mother did. It's good to know that I have not permanently lost full use of my memory banks.

 

[Surrender]

Yes I have noticed my son has anxiety, and I had a lot of anxiety while pregnant with him. I feel horrible for it too, because I feel I passed it onto him. He also absolutely has some issues with performance and perfection that he also got from me. I have read perfectionism can be passed on and run in families. Now I am no longer a perfectionist and I just hope my new example and "just do the best you can" attitude will rub off on him and give him some relief.

 

[Novelangel]

ME and my little brother were diagnosed with ADHD, and ADD many years ago when we were younger, and I think it started with me. Now all of a sudden we don't have it, I think we were just being kids, and nothing was wrong with us. It might not be anything wrong with that person who also thinks they have the same thing, but there is nothing wrong with going to see a doctor.


I don't always think that conditions like ADHD is always accurate anyway.

This is quite often the case with these relatively 'new' disorders. They've existed for eons, but we've only recently given them names. I think a lot of this started with that "no child is a bad child" movement. When your kid acts up and gets into trouble, it's not really his fault. He just has a disorder and we should give him drugs to calm him down. That calming sensation has existed for quite some time but it used to be caused by a few taps on the rear from daddy's hand. There used to be rules that children had to follow... or else. These days, however, the children make the rules while the adults hide in a corner hoping the drugs take effect soon. 

 

[Peachdejour]

I started working with Autistic clients a few years ago and realized I had a very similar sensory sensitivities. I know now that it's due to my chiari malformation and PTSD hypervigilence. Both conditions cause heightened sensory sensitivity and I researched and learned how to sooth myself. I use many similar methods that kids on the spectrum use. My daughter has some similar sensitivities to light  and sound.

 

[Choochoo]

This happened to me lots of times but I try to prevent myself from self diagnosing. I can't help it though as when the symptoms sound the same my brain automatically just goes there. If I did feel like I needed to pursue it further then I would get myself checked and see for real if I get the same diagnosis, but thankfully I don't have anything too extreme yet that I would feel like I needed it that much. 

 

[fuzyon]

This happened with me with OCD. My grandmother got diagnosed with it when I was a teen and I noticed that I have the same symptoms. I was an extreme control and cleaning freak, even a small bit of dust used to set me off. I'm glad I got treatment at the right moment.

 

[Peachdejour]

I also think sometimes it's in our nature to worry that something is wrong with us. While it is completely normal to have mental health issues run in families, it does not always mean you will have all the symptoms or any of them at all. Sometimes the behaviors are learned and you can unlearn them. We tend to pick up on the behaviors of people we are around a lot. I always worry that some of my daughter's anxiety habits are because I haven't noticed how anxious I've been in front of her for her whole life.

 

[sidney]

I don't think that has happened to me yet, but I was speaking to a psychiatrist last year and they found nothing wrong with me though. I actually have never interacted with someone who has those types of problems, come to think of it.

 

[AngelaMc]

Yes this has happened to me, my family has a history of depression and anxiety, and I found out, I, for quite sometime have had it. Not to the extent there's was but I was diagnosed with the same thing.

 

[janemariesayed]

It's not really the same thing, but my biological Dad has a mental disorder. He is angry and violent and has spent his life in and out of prison. I think he has to suffer from some kind of mental health disorder to have done the things that he has done. My mental health disorder, however, is down to depression because of trauma. Maybe we all have depression because of abuse of some kind. But it affects us all differently.