Title: The Dangers of Mental Health Misdiagnosis: Why Accuracy Matters – Bridges to Recovery
Headings: The Dangers of Mental Health Misdiagnosis: Why Accuracy Matters
The Dangers of Mental Health Misdiagnosis: Why Accuracy Matters
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Prevalence of Mental Health Misdiagnosis
Causes of Misdiagnosis
The Effects of Inaccurate Diagnosis of Mental Illness
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Content: she didn’t have major depressive disorder. Sitting in her psychiatrist’s office with tears in her eyes, talking about her sense of dread, her lethargy, her pervasive sadness, she certainly appeared depressed. But the psychiatrist wasn’t there on the weeks of elevated energy, the nights she forewent sleep, the days her thoughts raced with excitement, nor was she ever asked if she experienced such episodes. Magda never mentioned them because she didn’t recognize them as part of the problem. Those times were when she felt most alive; they were a respite from the pain of her depressive episodes, not something alarming that needed treatment. And so her bipolar disorder went unrecognized, her hypomania remaining invisible to both her and her physician, and the resulting mental health misdiagnosis prevented her from healing. Begin Your Recovery Journey. 877-727-4343
Prevalence of Mental Health Misdiagnosis
Magda is hardly alone in her experience of mental health misdiagnosis. A 2012 study by Bipolar UK, the Royal College of Physicians, and Bipolar Scotland found that “people with bipolar disorder wait for an average of 13.2 years before they are diagnosed, and often spend years receiving treatment for other conditions.”