That's an interesting scheme. I told my doctor about the symptoms and before I got to ask, she took one glance at me and said "It wont kill you, I dismiss you". (After that she told me that if any of my friends needed doctors, her clinique would like more young people.... ) =( I'm so upset
Even as the road of psychiatric disorders are on the other half, everything including my pulsatile t is waved over as a related to my depression.
They wont check for something latent until they see the tumour growing out of your eye, I'm too young.
Tenna,
Sorry to hear you're getting the "anxiety/depression causes everything" runaround. I've been through that. If you don't believe your ailments are depression related, and particularly if you think the cause and effect is the reverse (medical problems are actually causing depression), then as troublesome as it may be to find another doctor, I say do it. Don't even mention to the new doctor that you are suffering from depression; you might do that later and explain why you withheld that info, but don't mention it at the start, and don't have records forwarded from your previous doctor until later if you can avoid it.
I went through that stuff for 2 years before I proved the root cause of my so called anxiety was a real medical problem. I say "so called anxiety" because the doctors were interpreting my original symptoms as anxiety. After of few months of being treated like that when I knew better, I began to have real anxiety and depression because my medical issues were getting worse and I could not get any help with them. To make a long story short, that made things even worse from many perspectives. The more anxiety and depression I experienced, the more sure doctors were that all my problems were anxiety and depression. It became a self fulfilling prophecy for doctors. That is in fact how I got tinnitus: Against my better judgement, I took the Xanax one prescribed for the sole purpose proving that it would not effect my symptoms (thinking that would get doctors on the right track), and woke up an hour later with T. Then of course the T only heightened the doctor induced anxiety, which was then further exacerbated by Xanax withdrawal, and an idiot psychiatrist who would not listen to much of anything I said. I did not get on a path to getting well mentally until I got past all that garbage, and walked out of the shrink's office because I was literally on the verge of physically hurting him out of sheer frustration. At that point I just decided I would never get help from any doctor I had already seen, and I would have to simply start over. I wiped the slate clean and found new doctors.
This anxiety baloney even spilled over to dealings with my family. For the longest time my wife believed I was mentally ill because doctors said one thing, and I kept saying they had it backwards. I must admit, nothing ever hurt more than my wife siding with doctors in that matter rather than me. It is still an extremely sore point for me. I hope you're not having to deal with that sort of thing on top of everything else.
Based on the symptoms you listed above, I think an MRI is the right thing to do (full disclosure - I am not a doctor). If nothing else, anyone concerned about your mental well being ought to want to relieve whatever anxiety/depression you may be experiencing from not knowing what an MRI can tell you. An MRI without contrast is a very safe test: non-invasive, no radiation, absolutely no drawbacks unless claustrophobia is a big problem for the patient, or you have metal buried in your body that you are unaware of. Cost is the only reason to ration them. (MRIs using gadolinium contrast agents are another matter - free gadolinium can be very damaging to kidneys and causes an incurable disease called nephrogenic systemic fibrosis. It is a big risk for people with kidney problems, but despite the party line, it is also presents a very small risk to people with perfect kidneys. Free gadolinium is the problem. Sometimes the ligand that holds the gado in something akin to molecular cage breaks down quicker than it should due to quality problems, manufacturing problems, or improper storage. If that happens, it doesn't matter if your kidneys are healthy; if they are exposed to free gado for very long, they will be toast. I'm mentioning this because it is a risk factor doctors rarely mention. Doctors other than radiologists are notoriously ignorant of the hazards of all contrast agents including CT contrast agents.)
I hope I am not building up too much of a case for an MRI if you are not able to obtain one. I'm hoping some of my arguments will help you convince a doctor to order one if that is what you really think you need.
Note that anxiety and depression are just different sides of the same coin depending on whether your response to the perceived threat is fight/flight (anxiety) or give up (depression). You only mentioned depression, but some of the symptoms you mention sound they they could be symptoms of anxiety if they are not something more organic like in my case.
mick
Manager
Member
I'm sorry to hear your experiences really;( And yeah, despite what doctors say it's tough when your family goes along with the doctors credibility and authority, it's hard not to, but that doesn't make it right :/
Hmmm....
