Richard Hendrie shares his 20-year experience with misdiagnosis and the impact it had on his mental health. He discusses the challenges of navigating the mental health system, the importance of trust with healthcare providers, and the eventual accurate diagnosis of PTSD, dissociative identity disorder, and major depression.
Richard Hendrie, a social worker and mental health advocate from Albury in NSW, has a history of diagnosis and misdiagnosis for his mental health conditions reaching back 20 years. He said he was initially diagnosed with bipolar one disorder based on limited interactions with a psychiatrist and mental health experts, and was left feeling suicidal when coming off the prescribed medications. He said it was like he was in a chemical strait jacket for a long, long time.
Richard said that some of his early diagnoses were reactionary, sometimes out of necessity. He said Police were involved where he was quite unwell and a significant danger to himself. Some of the misdiagnoses he can see in his medical records include schizophrenia, and he thinks that came down to a diagnosis of convenience in the triage department because it means that they could put him under the Mental Health Act a lot quicker. Under the NSW Mental Health Act, a person may be detained in a mental health facility for their care, treatment or control, including where their behaviour is considered so irrational that there are reasonable grounds for believing they may seriously harm themselves or others around them. He was almost non-verbal four or five years ago and incredibly dissociative when he was admitted for eight months. He was in and out of hospital for a good 10 years before he felt comfortable revealing his history of abuse. When he found a psychiatrist and mental health social worker that he was very comfortable with he ended up being diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Richard said he was able to build trust through regular interactions with a psychiatrist over a number of years that led to further accurate diagnoses of dissociative identity disorder and major depression. He said it was about being able to tell his story in a comfortable environment rather than just sort of a reactionary treatment and diagnosi
Mental Health Misdiagnosis PTSD Dissociative Identity Disorder Major Depression
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