Do you have a condition that no one believes you have?
 

Physical or psychological?


I didn't want to hijack the low blood sugar thread. I have a mild form of hypoglycemia too. However, NO ONE believes that I have it! :mad: :mad: :mad: Even my own parents. I belong to another forum where people say that their friends/family do not believe they have psychological problems like bipolar, adhd, or anxiety. A few days ago, someone told me that some of her family does not believe that she has Crohn's Disease. Eventhough she has had operations! :eek: :rolleyes: So, I guess this is somewhat common.

Yes, I can sympathize with you. I have irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), and while I've learned to pretty much control it my stepdad refuses to believe that it's really a real problem. He just cannot understand why I refuse to eat the foods he fixes that are fried in 15 pounds of lard and coated in butter...it's because my stomach can't handle it, not to mention the fact that it's gross! (And he wonders why he hasn't lost any weight.) He tries to tell me that I don't eat enough fat and that's why my stomach acts up, but that's just not the case...greasy foods are a no-no if you have a problem like mine. Sometimes I just wanna smack him... :p

Re: Do you have a condition that no one believes you have?
 

I think in some cases it may be denial. My daughter was recently diagnosed with MS and it took me a little while to accept it.

Ive been a lifelong Asthmatic and have it somewhat under control with meds. My mom still dosent get it. There are known, documented (via the painful skin tests) allergins that will set me off, (cat hair, mold, dust, peanuts or peanut products) yet my mom dismisses it. For instance, she got a cat, and when I go visit her, I cant go to her house. One Christmas I had to stay with her and I wanted to get a hotel room because I know I'd get sick. She told me then (and often does when I am around a known allergen) that if I "try hard enough" I wont have an attack.

LIKE ITS UNDER ANY OF MY CONTROL.

Then she gets all pissed off when I have to go to the ER.

Feeds right in to that whole never being able to please my parents thing. Nothing get sunder my skin more. "If you just tried harder, we wouldnt be in the ER right now and could be with the rest of the family enjoying ourselves"

Had some stuff documented through a psychologist at ISU's Student Counseling Services and through both a D.O. and a psychiatrist at ISU's Student Health Services.

Went to ISU's Disability Resources to ask for some information. I was friends with the then-director of the department (who was working on his masters while the above mentioned all have more training than he). After knowing it was documented by 3 professionals he basically dismissed everything as a possibility instead of a known fact.
I didn't feel like going through everything a fourth time just to get Disability Resources to document it despite having enough documentation from elsewhere to skip that step, so I gave up and then 2 months later cheered when he quit and moved away.

Depression. So many of us have been there, I am sure.

I've been battling with this on and off for a very long time. My dad, however, thinks that depression is a "middle class invention".

ADHD.
I become bored way too easily. I can't concentrate on one task for more than 20 minutes or else I get antsy. I guess that's why I'm on GC so much at work because it gives me a break every once in a while.
When I was younger, a teacher had suggested to my mother that I get tested for it because she believed I had it but my mother refused. My mom thought that if I had it, the doctors would just want to put me on meds. My mom being a teacher that, at the time, was teaching children with emotional problems, figured that she could teach me to overcome it myself. I guess I found my own ways of dealing with it but nobody believes that I have it. They just think I'm fidgety or that I can't focus when it's just that my mind will start racing with a billion other things.

I have a mild form of OCD. No one seems to believe it because they think people with OCD are clean-freaks & what have you. But I'm very obsessive-compulsive in the way that I live, everything is done a certain way at a certain time even down to how long I "oversleep" past my alarm clock. I'm highly superstitious & if my schedule gets off by more than a minute I'll practically hyperventilate.

Even though my room is a mess & so is my office at work it really is an organized mess to me. If someone were to move one thing in my room I'll notice it the second I walk in. And I can't relax until everthing is back in its place. For example, I recently moved into an apartment with two other girls. I leave my door open during the day or my room gets really cold. I came home last week & sat my things down on my bed & realized that one of my DVD's were gone. I only own 18 DVD's & they are on my computer stand (9 on one side of the monitor, 9 on the other.) I asked one of my roommates about it & she said she borrowed it to watch before bed but since she didn't finish it she wanted to hold on to it for a few more days. She kept the DVD for 2 more days & everytime I was in my room I couldn't help but stare at that empty slot where that DVD belonged. And I really don't mind her borrowing anything of mine, in fact I encourage it I really do, but its like the whole time my things are gone I can't relax.

I hoard everything & can't bear the thought of throwing anything away most of the time. I used to hoard everything from junk mail to napkins from the work cafeteria (I've got a huge stack in my desk drawer) but I'm now getting better about the mail & I've started throwing away junk mail w/ credit cards in them. The rest I still keep on my dining room table. I never throw away a magazine, especially my cosmopolitans & my Sigma Kappa Triangles, & I even keep the wrappers of some of the food I eat (like fruit leather.)

My friends & family just think I'm being a bitch when I want to do things a certain way, or if I ask them to not touch or move my things without asking first. But I'm almost wondering if continuing medication really would help. My family doctor is a weird one because he believes a lot of disorders, migraines, aches, etc. are all stress related. And although he'll prescribe medication for stress-related illnesses he won't continue to do it time & time again. Instead he'll try to refer you to someone that help "cure" your stress. So its almost like a tease that he'll give me medication that really helps but he won't prescribe refills.

For a long time I considered my OCD a problem but now its just part of who I am. I wouldn't mind being able to relax a little though, because my anxiety is constantly through the roof.


I have hypoglycemia as well. When I was first diagnosed with it I was in Paris, France on a trip with some friends. One of my friends (who used to live in Orlean) took me to see a doctor & he diagnosed me with hypoglycemia. I was so sick for so long that my friends almost admitted me to a hospital. Hypoglycemia is serious, and if those that are close to you don't believe that you have it you need to figure out a way to prove it to them. God forbid if you get sick like I did & no one knows whats wrong or how to help you.

Re: Re: Do you have a condition that no one believes you have?
 

Oh no. My former roommate in college was just diagnosed in February. :(

This is not exactly the same thing, but it is frustrating to me that I simply cannot get my husband to understand that lowfat milk is healthier for you than whole milk. He says whole milk is actually healthier because the fat fills you up and you drink less of it :rolleyes: He's an intelligent guy, too, but it's just a mental block or something for him.

Mine is not that severe but I am lactose intolerant. My family refuses to believe I have it b/c I drank lots of milk when I was a kid. They all forget though how sick I would get afterwards. I was diagnosed by a doctor but only my fiance & his family believe me. Go figure. Even the girls in the sorority don't believe me b/c they have seen me drink & eat dairy products. They forget that there are products out there now that make it easier for people like me to eat dairy.

Tendency to LI increases as you get older.... :)

Bette,

Me too!! My mom used to make me drink milk before school..and I would always get a stomach ache. She just thought I was nervous about school or something.

Fibromyalgia. It's a spectrum disorder (many symptoms across all physical/psychological designations) that features depression/anxiety, sleep problems, IBS, and chronic pain. I spent the first 22 years of my life being told by everyone, from my parents to my doctors, that the pain was all in my head. My father also believes that depression is nothing more than human weakness (I have no right to be unhappy-- I'm not poor or neglected or abused, etc.) and would not acknowledge my problems until I was in college.

I really wish that they would get on with identifying some sort of physical indicator for seratonin/norepinepherine levels in the brain so that people wouldn't think that depression was just some imagined problem.

I also have asthma, and I hate it when smokers (some of these my "friends") are rude and blow smoke in my face even after I tell them that I'm having trouble breathing. I wind up not going out with them much because they insist on going to bars and other smokey places. When I remind them that I can't be there for long periods of time because I can't breathe and ask that we go instead to places with friendlier air, they tell me I'm just being whiny and trying to ruin their fun.

:mad: That's really messed up. I've never had a problem telling friends, drunk or sober, that their smoking is interfering with my breathing. They've all been really accomodating.

It's not necessarily that people didn't believe me, but...

I actually have a heart condition, Wolff-Parkinson White syndrome. It's an arrythmia disorder, so sometimes I'll have palpitations and a rapid heartbeat, even when I'm just sitting around. Other doctors had always chalked it up to anxiety, but finally my current PCP did and EKG (really the only way to diagnose it), and found that something was wrong. Right now things aren't too bad; every once in a while I'll have problems, but nothing will be done at this point. In the future if it gets to be a quality of life issue, they would do an ablation, but that's not an option that either I or my doctors want to consider right now.

Have some other stuff going on healthwise, but I'm not ready to divulge my entire health history.

I have had this diagnosed as several different things, but I tend to get dehydrated much too easily. My enzymes get thrown off and it either affects my heart (much like your symptoms, KSigkid) or I pass out.

Most of my soccer friends didn't believe me until two summers ago, when I passed out during a game. They take me VERY seriously now!

PLEASE seek alternative help! If not for you, then for your friends and family! My mother-in-law is much like you just described, and has made life for my husband, his brother, and their father a living hell. From what I understand, it's gotten worse over the years. I'm sure if her OCD was under control, things would be much, much different (and much better)!

I'm the same way. I just thought that ment I was smarter than everyone else. :rolleyes:

Re: Re: Do you have a condition that no one believes you have?
 

First of all, I'm sorry. My mother was in denial for seven years that her mother had Alzheimer's. Denial, especially with more serious conditions, I understand. But when people confuse less serious conditions as a "lack of willpower" it gets my blood boiling.

My mom believed that I had it as a kid and even let them medicated me starting at age 13. However, since I started college she thinks that I somehow outgrew it. I'm not as nearly as hyper as I used to be, but I'm still having LOTS of trouble concentrating. She can't undertand why I need to turn down the TV/radio/computer in order to listen to her. My dad has never believed that I have had it. He also doesn't believe that there is a such a thing as ADHD - or any other neurological conditions. He just think they are nothing but laziness, bad morals, selfishness, and DEMONS. :rolleyes:

Regarding other posts...that is just really fucked up how people deny your physical conditions. :mad: If someone blew smoke in my face after telling them I have asthma, someone else would have to HOLD ME! Regarding those with digestive problems, have those cynics follow you around after eating your trigger foods. You can't fake excessive flatulence, the squirts, or vomiting. That will teach them. :D

i've got a problem where my blood likes to clot...very quickly. i can't donate blood. but my mom thinks i'm crazy...

the only other thing wrong with me is nerve damage in my right arm, but most everybody believes me on that because they've seem my arm totally spaz on me/them to where i can't hold things...

-marissa

As I was growing up, I had to watch my dad go through "spells" where he became physically ill and needed to lie down. He had lots of different symptoms that went with it, and was eventually diagnosed as having anxiety and had to start taking meds for it. My mother, to this day, swears it's all in his head. There were times when she would get angry and scream at him b/c she didn't think there was anything really wrong with him -- she thought he didn't want to work/mow the lawn/whatever and mentally forced himself to become ill.

I know now that it's not just in his head, as I've experienced some of the things he was experiencing when he was having these spells. I haven't been diagnosed w/ any sort of anxiety disorder as of yet, and lately things have been okay, but I think I sort of know what my father was going through.

It's just so incredulous to me that someone could deny that someone they love is truly ill.

I guess I just don't see how it effects my friends & family besides the occasional disagreement?

Physiologically I have a bad case of hypoglycemia and asthma that has not acted up in a long time :D (happy face cuz my asthma has been very good) My hypoglycemia is a pain in the ass. I am on a strict diet because it falls so easily...have to keep a very strict eye on the carbs (can eat all the complex carbs I want, I have grown to like wheat bread...it's the carbs in white bread...simple carbs... that my body doesn't handle so well) and simple sugars and absolutely no drinking whatsoever anymore (drinking drops a normal person's blood sugar...when I drank it caused my sugar to crash...it used to suck to go to a bar or a club with friends and have to drink sprite but it's not worth getting sick over...plus I get to laugh at my friends making fools of themselves and not deal with the hangover in the morning ;) I have to test my blood sugar with a glucometer too which isn't so bad anymore. I have never had the problem of nobody believing I had the problem. My sisters all know I have it. I've had problems with it before when they were around.


~Sissa :)

Does a hangover count?

-Rudey

After my first knee surgery, I was in EXTREME pain. The doctor told me that I couldn't e having that much pain with the epidural. He found out two days later when I passed out because of the pain when he cut the stitches to pull out my drains. That was just the beginning!

I tried to return to school, but couldn't stand to wear a shoe (sometimes even a sock. I couldn't stay in school all day. My mom actually threatened to pull me out of school, because I was "just trying to get attention."

I had another surgery to break up scar tissue a month later (couldn't bend my knee more than 30 degrees...after I bit my physical therapist in pain...Doctor realized something was up.) I got out of the hospital the day before Thanksgiving. The pain was so bad by 8 PM, my father tried to slap me out of it.

It wasn't until two and half months later we found out I had a nerve disorder, Refelxive Sympathetic Dystrophy. Hard to explain, but VERY painful. I was lucky that I had a doctor who had two other patients with it. He recognized the symptoms but waited because he felt I was too young to get it.

Now the biggest problem I have is when I start falling because that knee collapses. It usually takes me a good six months of going to my orthopedist before I can convince him that I have another buil-up of scar tissue that is causing my knee to lock and collapse. Each time he has done surgery, he comes out and tells my mother (or my boyfriend last time)....she really needed that surgery. I should have done it sooner! :mad:

On top of that, I have been struggling with depression and anxiety from this injury. It has been VERY hard on my parents and brother, but I am very lucky to have them.

I would love to an insurance adjuster for Workmen's Comp. I would probably be too empathetic. I know there are those few out there that do ruin it for those of us who are truly sick. BUT...MAN has my adjuster put me through hell since I got hurt!

(sorry so long....I will end my rant.)

i am so glad i found this thread....

my family has been a bit in denial that i have suffered from depression. they somewhat understood when i broke up with the guy i had been nearly engaged to because i had a reason. they didn't get why i needed to take meds because i should just get over it. it didn't help when i would tell them that i was so depressed i couldn't put my shoes on to go out. anyway, they saw that it helped, but really focused on the "time heals the heart" thing. when i told them that i had gone to the doctors for meds again a few years later becuase i was depressed....they thought it was bc of the guy again...lol. no, i was just depressed.

i have also been told by a doctor at my college health center that i didn't have a uti (even tho i heard her and the nurse arguing about the white blood cells in my urine sample right outside my door). she told me i was irritated bc i had sex. when i told her that i hadn't she told me i was lying. ummm, why would i lie? it is not like my mom was sitting right there.

then another time this same doctor flat out told me that there was nothing wrong with me and i was making it up. there were 5 people living in my house who had all been to the same doctor and had bronchitis. i had the exact same symptoms and went in a few days after they did and she told me i was lying. i didn't know what to do, so when i went home for thanksgiving, my parents brought me to my family doctor. well, i had borderline pnemonia bc my bronchitis had gone untreated. he was HORRIFIED when i told him what she said. from that moment on, i went to the emergency room whenever there was something wrong with me. it was better for my parents to pay for me to get good health care than get crappy free health care.

finally, is anyone else completely annoyed by the commercials for orlando, fl???? the one that says since so many people don't take their vacation time, they have to take pills for happiness??? and if they just went to orlando, they wouldn't need pills? i want to throw something at the tv everytime it comes on.

I have ADD--- recently diagnosed and prescribed meds. My mom is convinced I just have too much stress and that is the reason for the symptoms. And a close family friend flat out told me the only reason I sought the diagnosis was because I wanted to take ADD meds since it is such a "popular" thing to have right now. I just nodded and smiled.

Please keep an eye on this as you continue to age. My mom's baby sister was born with this condition. Died at 44 when her heart stopped as a result of this condition, my then 18 year old cousin watched her mom die on the side on the road.
Not trying to scare you, just trying to save someone's else family from the heartache that ours went through.

Yup, been there and done that. I also suffer from PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). It is some rough isht! This has been a bone of contention within my family (mother, sister, etc)

People ( mainly teachers and professors ) didn't believe i had a learning disbaility all my life. Made Jr high , HS and even college hard until one professor my jr yr of College said you may have a learning disability and pushed for testing....well she got me the testing and I have LD's and still even with documentation some don't believe me, but it was great to come back home and rub some teachers from HS faces in it that i wasn't lazy and was not applying myself! VINDICATION on all those HS and Jr High and even college professors who didn't believe me

Yes, I have cateracts. Yes, I am only 24.

Yes, I know that it's usually something that only old people have.


They are very small right now though.

I was lucky enough to be introduced to "disability services" which is available at every school apparently. They have been a godsend when it comes to my depression and anxiety. I have been told that I have ADD, because during tests I can't concentrate. Spend too much time listening to everything around me. There I get to take my tests in a quiet location, with extended testing time. I am allowed to take breaks when I get to the point that I am drifting off.

I highly recommend this if you have a disability that affects your school work. I have introduced several of my sisters to Sharyn (disability coordinator), much to their relief when they realized they weren't alone.

As far as my depression, there is such a social stigma attached to it. I actually was featured in an article about it in our quarterly magazine Themis. I didn't tell any of my sisters the back story behind the depression, but wanted people to know that it is okay to have it treated - rather than to treat it on your own. As my mom said, but you don't have typical depression?!?! HUH? My father just tells me that I have to work things out with my doctor. He can't help me. So I go to my psychiatrist, and my boyfriend has been wonderful. I just bypass the parents. David was the one who actually explained to them recently how BAD things had gotten lately. I think they are getting an idea. It is hard because I was SO different in high school, and that want the "old me" back.

Definitely; I know it's something that requires surveillence. I don't want to be caught offguard by anything.

I'm good about letting my cardiologist know if my heartbeat starts getting irregular (goes up to 150-160 for no reason). The scary thing is that it's not exercise-induced. I could just be sitting on the couch watching TV and my rate will go out. Most of the time though it's not bad at all.

Luckily my cardiologist is one of the best in his field, so if anything comes up I know I'll be in good hands.

Well...I don't want them to have to smell me or my problem in order to get them to believe me but it would be nice to not be ignored & ridiculed. My niece (9 months) has the same problem & of course everyone knows Aimee is lactose intolerant b/c she's a baby. I've tried to tell my family that like me, she will likely have it all her life. They think she'll grow out of it. :rolleyes: My fiance is also lactose intolerant. It should be interesting if and when we have children. Is it a condition that's passed down? :confused:

I don't know if it's passed down, but I think so. My daughter was breastfed until age one and the first time she had cow's milk she threw up violently and she only had about a teaspoon-enough to wet the cereal. I don't push milk on my kids though, so I don't know. For me my LI was gradual, first milk, then ice cream and finally cheese. Now the smallest amount makes me ill. My dad used to say if I ate more of it, the condition would go away. I haven't tested that theory. Parents are fun-huh?

It would be great though if I could get my partner to understand and accept that I am. I am offered milk products at least once a day!