Skip to main content

Holidays and a potentially scary new diagnosis in the DSM-5

Christmas and Hanukah are over but New Year's Eve and day are still to come!  I worked Christmas Eve and Christmas Day but had Christmas Eve and most of the day with my mom and siblings and Christmas night with my dad.

I got a present I've been wanting for a while from my brother and sister - a Clarisonic!  I can already feel a difference in my skin, it seems so much cleaner.  I got new black boots, a new sweater, some more skin care things,fleece lined leggings (something I was extra excited about given my lack of body fat this winter) and pajama pants.  I am relieved that Christmas is over, every year it is stressful due to my divorced parents and my work schedule.

For NYE, I usually go up to NH with some friends.  I happened to get sick right around Christmas this year so I was hoping I would be well enough to go.  I love sitting by the fire and seeing the snow, and being with such great friends that have supported me through the last few years of bad health.  

Something was brought to my attention today - a new diagnosis in the new DSM-5 that will be released in May 2013.  It's called Somatic Symptom Disorder and patients have to meet these 3 things to have this disorder

1. disproportionate thoughts about the seriousness of their symptom(s);

2. a high level of anxiety about their symptoms or health; or

3. devoting excessive time and energy to their symptoms or health concerns.

This has to go on for just 6 months before you can have this diagnosis.  If this had been around in 2009, this means I may have been denied an appropriate diagnosis of Cushing's Disease, which took over 5 years since I knew I had symptoms to an official diagnosis.  This could be devastating to people who struggle with diseases like Cushing's which are hard to diagnose and usually take years for people to get help.

Psychology Today has a good article about the implications of this diagnosis that I suggest you read.  It also has a link where you can go and voice your concerns about this new diagnosis.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Talk About the Sh*t you Don't Want to Talk About

I haven't updated this blog in a very long time.  I actually deleted a ton of posts while I was applying for social security disability. I posted about Cushing's Awareness day earlier this week on facebook, so I guess I'm in a sharing mood. Anyway, for anyone who even reads this, I was watching a documentary on Netflix about a teenager with anorexia and mental illness who found meaning in her life through yoga. (It's called I Am Maris). It's kind of the reason for this post. To start - let's go back to June 2018. My grandmother died.  She lived a wonderful long life, but it was especially hard on me.  She was the reason I got out of bed every day, my best friend, and so much more. I actually don't remember how I got through most of the summer. In the span of two weeks at the end of August, my mom turned 60, we went on a family vacation to the vineyard, my best friend got married, and I wanted to kill myself.  Yeah, you read that right. The day after re
Post a Comment
Read more

Happy New Year!

Happy 2018!  I hope this year is a good one for everyone.  2017 was not the best year for me, and it seems like a lot of people relate to that, either for personal reasons or global ones. 2017 started off with me being in the second month of unemployment.  I had just been denied social security disability for the first time this go around, and was feeling sicker than ever. Over the last year, I've faced more challenges than I ever thought I could, and somehow made it to where I am today. In 2018, I'm looking forward to finally being approved for disability.  I am also looking forward to some resolved health issues, or at least next steps in figuring out what is wrong. I hope 2018 is a happy and (relatively) healthy year. Happy New Year!
Post a Comment
Read more

10 days at MGH

It's been 10 days, and I am still in the hospital.  I walk two or three (very short) laps around this floor and my heart rate is upwards of 130, my lips, fingers, and toes are increasingly blue-tinged.  My oxygen saturation levels are even lower now, after sitting here for over a week.  So what have we accomplished so far?  Let me tell you. I had the arterial blood gas sampling done on Sunday.  It took a couple more tries but success!  It was of course, painful but nothing that I couldn't handle, especially if it meant an answer and an easy fix.  My arterial blood looked very dark as she was drawing it out, not the bright red oxygenated blood you usually see from arteries.  The doctor commented on this, and said that it was very interesting. Unfortunately, I did not have an abnormal level of methemoglobin.  So that ruled out methemoglobinemia .  The plan was to have an echocardiogram on Monday.  After waiting most of the day, I got pushed to the next day's schedule
2 comments
Read more