You’re feeling extra sad, maybe you have depression.  Your teenage daughter’s mood is all over the place, maybe she is bipolar. Your boyfriend is a clean freak, maybe he has OCD.  You just can’t concentrate on doing your taxes, maybe you have ADHD.

There is a reason why diagnosing mental illnesses requires years of very intense study.  It is not easy, and it is very important to get it right.  Doctors go to school for a minimum of 11 years after high school to learn what they need to know to properly diagnose and treat diseases.

The Diagnosis process

When doctors approach a patient with a possible disease, they start with the person’s symptoms and look for patterns that could suggest a series of possible illnesses.  They then ask more targeted questions and do specific tests until they are certain of the diagnosis.

Self Diagnosis doesn’t work very well

When patients self-diagnose, I notice they often work backwards.  They start with a diagnosis that they think they have, then read about the symptoms, and then agree that they have all of those symptoms.

For example, just looking at the first part of the diagnostic criteria for ADHD:

1. Inattention
   • Often fails to give close attention to details or makes careless mistakes in schoolwork, at work, or with other activities.
   • Often has trouble holding attention on tasks or play activities.
   • Often does not seem to listen when spoken to directly.
   • Often does not follow through on instructions and fails to finish schoolwork, chores, or duties in the workplace (e.g., loses focus, side-tracked).
   • Often has trouble organizing tasks and activities.
   • Often avoids, dislikes, or is reluctant to do tasks that require mental effort over a long period of time (such as schoolwork or homework).
   • Often loses things necessary for tasks and activities (e.g. school materials, pencils, books, tools, wallets, keys, paperwork, eyeglasses, mobile telephones).
   • Is often easily distracted
   • Is often forgetful in daily activities

Literally everyone has all of these some of the time.  

The point is, if you start with symptoms and go backwards, you will decide that you have a lot of illnesses.  Let’s hope you don’t have secondary syphilis, but most people experience most of those symptoms at some point every winter.  There is a reason why doctors have 11+ years of training before they let us see patients.

Bipolar Symptoms

Let’s look at the symptoms of the most common type of bipolar disorder and think about a teenager near you:

Hypomania:

1. Exaggerated sense of well-being and self-confidence
2. Decreased need for sleep
3. Unusual talkativeness
4. Rushed/scattered thinking, racing thoughts
5. Attention/focus issues, distractibility
6. Psychomotor agitation, which is an increase in purposeless physical activity (e.g., restlessness, pacing, tapping fingers or feet, abruptly starting and stopping tasks, rapidly talking, and moving items around without meaning)
7. Impulsivity, poor decision-making, and risk-taking 

Depression:

1. Significant changes in weight and/or appetite
2. Sleeping too much (hypersomnia) or too little (insomnia)
3. Restlessness or sluggishness
4. Loss of energy
5. Feeling extreme worthlessness or guilt
6. Attention difficulties, indecisiveness
7. Thinking about, planning, or attempting suicide

They need four of the seven in each category to meet the criteria for Bipolar 2, but as you can see this takes wisdom and discernment as all teens have most of these some of the time, and they are not all bipolar.  

Healing Grove can help!

If you or one of your loved ones is suffering from something that might be a mental health problem, please bring them in to see us!  We have extra training in mental health at Healing Grove and we are eager to help you get the help you need.  We are not over-eager to diagnose things just to slap a label on them, and often we tell our patients that they are normal.  We can tease out what symptoms are related to stress, trauma, or too much Tik Tok.  Often we write prescriptions for more hikes, meditation, and sleep.  We also have onsite counseling services and we can prescribe psychiatric medications if needed.  In the South Bay, we provide extremely affordable mental health care, especially for those who are uninsured or whose insurance does not cover mental health care well.  For $200 per month you get a primary care physician who is an expert in mental health, access to a pastoral counselor, and access to our larger community of mental health experts!

Try Healing Grove out! Schedule an appointment today!

Questions?  Call or text us at 408.459.4443.