Why is There Difficulty in Diagnosing a Mental Illness?

Being a carer for a person with a mental illness iswhat they might go through. All this information will
difficult to deal with at the best of times, but whenhelp in dealing with the coping situation.
you don't know what you are dealing with then it isIf you are a carer and have not had to deal with a
even harder. Sometimes it is years before a person ismental illness before you are going to go through a
given a diagnosis in regards to a mental illness theyhuge learning curve in coping with this new situation
may be suffering.and coming to terms with what the patient is
One of the problems a carer faces is trying to findsuffering and experiencing.
out what type of mental illness they are dealing with.One of the most important things to understand is
It can often be a very long period of time before athat, what they are experiencing at the time of being
mental illness is diagnosed because so manyunwell is very, very real to them. By understanding
symptoms can present the same and sometimes athis, you can take on a different perspective. Instead
person can suffer from several symptoms of severalof arguing the point about reality, you can take a
illnesses.stance of 'agreeing to disagree'. This keeps the
Also, there are other issues, such as the person thattension out of the situation for both of you and the
is ill may not, at the time of assessment, be able toproblem can be discussed at a later date when the
communicate that well, and therefore the doctorpatient is in a better space.
cannot get a clear picture of what is happening.At first, a lot of what is going on may be perceived
Because of this it may take several psychiatrist visits,as plain bad behaviour, or an extremely introverted
or hospitalisations, to fully understand what exactly ispersonality depending on the effects of the illness.
happening.Once you have a diagnosis you then know what you
Another situation which arises is that, the person withare dealing with. On the one hand, a diagnosis can be
the illness may be quite lucid during the interviews, soa bit horrifying in itself, but on the other hand, it can
the doctor may have difficulty making any analysis atexplain a lot of what has been happening and that
all of an illness until he views the symptoms at a latercan be a relief.
date.Fortunately, these days there is a lot of information
Because of these scenarios there are usually severalon the internet, but remember, a psychiatric illness is
assessments before doctors are prepared to label annot a 'black and white' illness, so don't expect the
illness. It also becomes very difficult to put thesituation you are dealing with to present exactly as
patient on the best medication when a psychiatristyou read about. You may find the internet beneficial
cannot assess all the symptoms due to variousin finding out more about symptoms of the illness,
circumstances. This is one of reasons whyand how to cope, but it is not a good idea to try and
psychiatrists often have to change medications at adiagnose an illness from the internet.
later date.It needs to be stressed again, that often when
It is so important though, that you get an accuratesomeone is very unwell they DO NOT EVEN KNOW
diagnosis as soon as possible so that everyone canTHEY ARE UNWELL. When we, as carers, are dealing
start working on the process of getting life back onwith them, we are dealing from a rational point of
track.view and they are dealing from their own reality,
Once a diagnosis is given, get all the information youwhich quite probably will be nothing like our
can about that particular illness so that you can startperspective.
understanding what the sufferer is going through, and