My Quora Answer to:
What was the most incorrect self-diagnosis you've encountered in your practice as a doctor?
My own. Any doctor who treats himself has a fool for a patient.
After my 5 muggings in Nicaragua over the Thanksgiving weekend in 2013, I developed a well-deserved diagnosis of PTSD. Which seemed to be fairly well-controlled until October 1, 2018. A few panic attacks here, occasional night terrors there, but I still maintained the ability to think and act rationally until then. And the next 6 weeks were pure Hell.
Mid November I finally came out of it. Here were my problems: hypersexuality, drinking, spending sprees, racing thoughts, weeks on end of “blacking out,” legal problems, and most distressful, loss of short term memory. I got on a bus 4 times to see my psychiatrist at the time, and 3 times I failed to get off the bus because I forgot where I was going. The 4th time was a disaster anyway because my psych couldn't see past the alcohol issue. I rarely, if ever, drink when I'm not psychotic, but her reply to my plea for help was, “go check into an ER.” That was the last time I saw her.
It wasn't until the first week in February that a more astute and compassionate doc diagnosed me with Bipolar Disorder. It was a bumpy road until then because I still believed (self-diagnosed) that the 6-week episode was PTSD. Once I got the correct diagnosis, everything fell into place. It was as if she shook a container of puzzle pieces and rolled out a finished masterpiece.
All is good now.
