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

Dionysus · #1 03-15-2005, 01:43 AM

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!

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!

So, I guess this is somewhat common.

AchtungBaby80 · #2 03-15-2005, 01:59 AM

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...

ladygreek · #3 03-15-2005, 02:53 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Dionysus
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! 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! So, I guess this is somewhat common.

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.

lifesaver · #4 03-15-2005, 04:43 AM

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"

IowaStatePhiPsi · #5 03-15-2005, 05:06 AM

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.

winneythepooh7 · #6 03-15-2005, 08:28 AM

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

Taualumna · #7 03-15-2005, 09:30 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by winneythepooh7
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".

ZTAngel · #8 03-15-2005, 10:17 AM

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.

_Lisa_ · #9 03-15-2005, 10:57 AM

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.

Quote:

Originally posted by Dionysus
I have a mild form of hypoglycemia too.

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.

AKA2D '91 · #10 03-15-2005, 11:01 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by ladygreek
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.

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

KillarneyRose · #11 03-15-2005, 11:30 AM

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

He's an intelligent guy, too, but it's just a mental block or something for him.

BetteDavisEyes · #12 03-15-2005, 11:42 AM

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.

sageofages · #13 03-15-2005, 11:48 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by BetteDavisEyes
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....

_Opi_ · #14 03-15-2005, 01:32 PM

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.

KappaKittyCat · #15 03-15-2005, 02:24 PM

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.