Mental Illness

[Wesley_33]

Who else has been diagnosed with a mental illness other than myself? Not talking about GID but other disorders? I have been diagnosed with bipolar type 1 disorder and add. Is it normal maybe for trans to have other underlying mental illness?

[RyGuy]

I was diagnosed with extreme depression, but that was a direct result of "being trans". I believe that trans people have higher incidences of "mental illnesses" because we live higher stress lives than the average person and face generally more in terms of identity issues, body dysphoria, family rejection, employment issues, etc. I'm not a man with a female-appearing body BECAUSE I have a mental illness though. Never.

[JungianZoe]

Who else has been diagnosed with a mental illness other than myself? Not talking about GID but other disorders? I have been diagnosed with bipolar type 1 disorder and add. Is it normal maybe for trans to have other underlying mental illness?

How ironic... I went to my doctor yesterday for an antidepressant followup appointment.  I kept the appointment though I went off the antidepressants three weeks ago.  And even though I felt immensely better after only 6 days on the pills, they gave me other side effects that I couldn't deal with.  At the appointment, I told her about my lifelong suspicion that I was ADD given all of the evidence throughout the years (not to mention the fact that every born male on my mom's side of the family has it).

She concurred with the ADD diagnosis and told me that my response to the SSRI (not to mention my patterns of depression over the last 24 years) indicated that I may also be bipolar despite my never having a manic episode in my life.  So she put me on Ritalin to find out if my intensely creative and hyper periods were ADD taking over when my depression goes away, or if I've spent years cycling between depression and hypomania, which would mean I'm type 2 bipolar.

REALLY hope that I'm not bipolar, but she's the third doctor in my life to give me that diagnosis.

[Luc]

Bipolar type 2, and what I'm pretty sure is OCD, though it was diagnosed as GAD (generalized anxiety disorder). Was on meds for both for awhile, but am currently off all meds, and doing fine. So who knows... perhaps the T did the job, or maybe I'm just better at self-regulation now than I was before.

[dmx]

I have a mild form of OCD. It's not to the degree that you see on the show "Obsessed", thank god. But it does interfere with my daily life in the form of intrusive/repetitive thoughts, perfectionism and random obsessions.

I also believe I have Social Anxiety Disorder or something similar to it, though that is a self-diagnosis.

[insideontheoutside]

A couple doctors diagnosed me with panic/anxiety disorder as well as depression. I knew something was wrong, but I wasn't down with their plan of putting me more pills (had a bad experience on Xanax) so I sought natural and alternative treatments and cured myself.

[SandraJane]

Who else has been diagnosed with a mental illness other than myself? Not talking about GID but other disorders? I have been diagnosed with bipolar type 1 disorder and add. Is it normal maybe for trans to have other underlying mental illness?

I was diagnosed with extreme depression, but that was a direct result of "being trans". I believe that trans people have higher incidences of "mental illnesses" because we live higher stress lives than the average person and face generally more in terms of identity issues, body dysphoria, family rejection, employment issues, etc. I'm not a man with a female-appearing body BECAUSE I have a mental illness though. Never.

Agree with being Trans... have been DX'd with Major Depression, BiPolar 2, no GID. Funny, seen the Therapist twice, told my Psych the other day. He sat up in his chair instead of the GAF look he has given me last 3 months, didn't write a thing!

Found Dr Anne Vitale's website the other day, she's Trans also, retired Therapist, and in her latest book The Gendered Self, Further commentary on the Transsexual phenomenon, she proposes the term "Gender Expression Deprivation Anxiety" instead. Makes sense to me...what do "ya'll" think?

[Arch]

I have depression. I'm not sure how much is related to GID. And I still get SAD every winter (well, it starts in the fall); I suspect that I'll never completely get rid of it. But time will tell.

[Arch]

Oh, and one of my closest buddies is trans, and he is bipolar.

[Elijah3291]

I have been to therapy for obsessive compulsive disorder, and also depression.  saw a doc for a while and she got a lot of my compulsions knocked off, and I was on antidepressants for a while, but I stopped them because they made me feel very sociopath-ic and they made it hard to orgasm, which therefore made me depressed lol.

I still have both of those, im just not on any medicine.

[RyGuy]

she proposes the term "Gender Expression Deprivation Anxiety" instead. Makes sense to me...what do "ya'll" think?

wow that makes complete sense. right on!!

[N.Chaos]

Anxiety and depression here. Used to be on Zoloft for it, which actually helped a lot, but I stopped taking it because I had a bad habit of trying to OD whenever I got pissed/really depressed/bored.  So now I just take whatever I can get hold of through friends.

[Joelene9]

  Depression.  Four different prescription pills used.  All ineffective.  The score sheet:
  Zoloft caused me a Mike Tyson type of rage attacks, the same complaint from Mike who was on that stuff at the same time.  It didn't help my nephew either, the U.S. Army enlistment sure as hell did though!  He is in school and will go to OCS when he graduates.  I weaned myself from that after my doctor (the good one) died in an auto crash.  My other doctor gave the 3 others: 
  Efflexor was somewhat effective, but wore off. The doctor increased that dosage and it did not do much better and did some damage to my liver.
  Remeron:  ineffective.  Cause a sense of "why am I doing this?".  Some rage attacks.  I did not get many things done with that, the house turned into a pigsty!
  Serzone:  Somewhat effective, but leg cramps were a problem.  It gave me a charlie horse while I was out in Florida. I ended up trying to walk off that charlie horse instead of enjoying that walk on the beach!
  Herbals: Didn't work at all.
  Herbal Feminization:  Wee progress here, waned after 3-4 months.  Did more damage to my prostate the herbs claimed to heal.
  HRT, E, P, S:  It is repairing the damage to the prostate as expected.  Cancer is still a possibility though.  HUH???  What happened?  Why am I not having this depression now?  This stuff was NOT supposed to do this effect!  Ask me in 3 months. 
  Joelene

[SandraJane]

wow that makes complete sense. right on!!

Here's a link to Dr. Vitale's site, and the presentation she gave this past April in SF on GEDA.

http://www.avitale.com/

[Electric Wizard]

I am diagnosed schizoaffective. Am on Seroquel and Zoloft for that, and Elavil for clinical insomnia. I was diagnosed when I was around 15 or 16 (I am now 25). I've gone through months of inpatient and outpatient CBT, so I have a very good handle on it. I recently got my GID diagnosis (which is mandatory here to be considered for SRS).

[SandraJane]

That's good, how do you feel these days on "T"?

[Electric Wizard]

That's good, how do you feel these days on "T"?

I feel good. I'm not sure if it's the T itself, or the fact that I know I'm on T. It could be both though. Either way it's a positive thing I think it will get even better once I start seeing changes.

[SandraJane]

Better than a lot of Nuclear grade antipsychotics!

[skakid]

I've been officially diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder and ADD, but I've heard from many doctors (though it's never been officially diagnosed) that I could have some form of schizophrenia. I've been on so many different meds and in and out of hospitals since I was 14.

[Natkat]

Who else has been diagnosed with a mental illness other than myself? Not talking about GID but other disorders? I have been diagnosed with bipolar type 1 disorder and add. Is it normal maybe for trans to have other underlying mental illness?

being transgender IS a mental illness in my country.