Was my Psychiatrist Wrong?

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All throughout my childhood and adolescence, I was diagnosed as bipolar, psychotic, emotionally unstable, and schizo-affective. I took medication, but I still had a mental breakdown and emotional disturbances anyhow.

So I recently transitioned from female to male. I am still taking the same medication as always at the same amount. But I notice I am a lot happier and emotionally stable these past two years than I have my entire life. It is like the difference between night and day.

I am starting to think psychiatrists and doctors are idiots. I am having a hard time trusting them now. I have been saying "I was male" during my breakdowns and they didn't connect the pieces. I feel betrayed and angry. Anyone else?

Well that does seem a little ignorant on their part...I would think they would maybe look into why someone of the female gender physically would feel they are male. That would make things rather hard to deal with...I have experianced simular things on a lower scale as in I have never felt totally comfortable as female but its not to the extent that I want to be physically male...but I do dress more male than female because I feel it better expresses me and have had people make comments about it...I tend to be one of those people who holds everything in so I rarely actually had obvious mental breakdowns....but I am sure that in itself only contributed further to my feelings of isolation and just general misey. I never really even thought much about it though but there was always the discomfort when people tried to catagorize me as female.

But yeah that sort of thing could contribute to those issues, so it seems odd of them to have ignored it...and now that you feel more comfortable you're feeling a bit better over-all that makes sense and I can see why you would not want to trust them...They probably aren't all like that though...I myself do not trust them very much either most of the time, sometimes more because I feel even if they had the best of intentions they would not be able to do much. I have other issues to so its hard for me to figure out just what exactly would make me feel better.

If you had gender dysphoria and have now transitioned, then it makes sense that you are feeling better now. It probably also helps your meds to work better because you probably feel like you are in the correct body.

I don't quite understand what your psychiatrist was "wrong" about, though? If the meds you have been taking for a while are working, then they probably got something right about your treatment.

I can't answer any of your questions, but I wanted to say that it's awesome that you're feeling better, especially about your identity. Perhaps because of your gender, you were going through an identity crisis.

"I was diagnosed as bipolar, psychotic, emotionally unstable, and schizo-affective"

You do have a passive/active disturbance of "affect" so you may not interpret the emotions of your listener well , if present at all - on the other hand , were you spoken to with emotion? ; even the slightest? - maybe that could be why you are annoyed , negative or possibly aggressive ( no offence - but that's personal experience with Psychiatrists ).
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"I took medication, but I still had a mental breakdown and emotional disturbances anyhow".
"I have been saying "I was male" during my breakdowns and they didn't connect the pieces".

I understand the mental breakdown part , are they trying to be nice to you? - In Hans Asperger's original study where he made observations but are known more to forsenic psychiatry where the less popular , negative features that are missing from Asperger Syndromes current image includes ( in relevance ) insensitivity to another's feelings , destructivity , aggression , endlessly bottled-up anger , violent outbursts , and grim sadism.
This could be because of the lack of information you have given them and several years of bullying which is typical in ASD, but since you are suffering from your transition. Being verbal , where you have to discuss how you feel without objective is difficult - since your diagnostic labels have a heavy impact on the areas in your brain.
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"I am still taking the same medication as always at the same amount. But I notice I am a lot happier and emotionally stable these past two years than I have my entire life. It is like the difference between night and day".

I would strongly recommend to stay on the medications , even when you are feeling happier thats a good sign of depression wearing off , or you could risk mistakenly ending up in the intensive care unit for 1 week or more.

I still don't know if you are seeing a Psychologist? or at least a Social Worker? - they'll help to put you on the right mediciation by trying to figure out how you see the world from a professional , non-biased standpoint. Since you are psychotic this is strongly recommended , and I personally am scared out of my mind when I visually hallucinate , causing panic attacks - making me even more delusional , repeating the cycle as time goes by.
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"I am starting to think psychiatrists and doctors are idiots."

Well they aren't idiots , I know how you feel about a diagnostic label that doesn't really seem to reflect how complex your situation is , making you feel as you said "betrayed and angry".

In Asperger Syndrome / ASD - persons are usually (if not conscienciously trained to realize they are) idiosyncratic and pursuant in impulses without regard for what is and what is not allowed - speaking with self-obvious certainty of being right. They don't have a sense of personal space as they are lacking in understanding of stratification such as class , rank , seniority or courtesy. And are greatly annoyed when one disturbs them.
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"I am having a hard time trusting them now..."

If you are having a hard time trusting them , you could be turning Psychotic again , mention this as soon as possible to your doctor since you are planning on withdrawing from treatment because of trust issues.
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Hope that helped , just hang on there.

The psychiatrist(s) were wrong about me having a psychotic disorder. The psychologist's were right by saying I had anxiety, autism, and depression. And the psychiatrists followed the psychologist's recommendation and gave me medicine.

I was on medication and I still am for these non-psychotic reasons. Wellbutrin for depression/anxiety and Risperdal for autism/anxiety. They helped me a lot, and they still do to do this day. Yet, because the gender dysphoria was not addressed I still had a mental breakdown.

It was then I was diagnosed with schizo-affective disorder along with bipolar disorder, and they put me on anti-psychotics to treat both. And I just got worse. Why? Because I don't have bipolar nor schizo-affective disorder! I was having a physical and emotional problem with my mind/body. I didn't have a chemical imbalance or disconnection to reality. They seemingly experimented with every single psychotic drug known to medicine. It was to the point that I couldn't even function. My behavior became increasingly erratic and they used that to reaffirm their diagnosis. Even though their anti-psychotics were the cause.

Family members took me out when they saw I wasn't getting better. I was put off the psychotropics and just continued to take Wellbutrin and Risperdal like always. I eventually came out of it on my own less than a week later. I went to college two weeks later without incident.

Yet, even though their treatment for my diagnosis obviously didn't work, they still insist I have bipolar and schizo-affective disorder. Even though the evidence is overwhelming that it is not the case. It's been three years, and I have been doing excellent just taking Wellbutrin/Risperdal and transitioning to male. No problems. No breaks with reality. Nada.

That's why I don't trust psychiatrists anymore. I only go to one to up my dosage in times of stress and get my prescription.

I used to get frustrated because they were supposed to be the knowledgeable doctors. They have far more misses than hits. So when they told me something about myself I knew wasn't true, I got ticked off. I asked myself why am I paying for someone to guess what's wrong with me? They have as much accuracy as a witch-doctor in Africa.

I learned not to express this frustration and calmly tell them that I don't feel that way.



Don't worry I definitely am staying on my current medication. I am well aware it is the medicine and treatment for gender dysphoria that is helping me. Sorry if I made it seem that I didn't trust my current treatment recommended by a past psychologist long ago.

I think psychiatrists are idiots because, even though my current treatment is working very well, they keep insisting something is wrong with me, and I need to take another medication. That's what frustrates me.



Not psychotic. That diagnosis and failed treatment for that diagnosis is the whole reason I distrust psychiatrists. I haven't hallucinated more than thinking there was a monster hiding under my bed as a kid. The other was a psychosis caused by gender dysphoria.



I stopped trusting them years ago, and I still do. I haven't been psychotic since I stopped trusting them. I continue the treatment for non-psychotic symptoms.



Thank you for your concern, but I am fine. I mainly made this topic because I was sitting in my psychiatrist's office perfectly content with life. Then she said that I look depressed, and I need to take another mood stabilizer. It calmly denied it, because I didn't need it. This happened in the past and nothing bad happened. Sometimes, only you know how you truly feel.

I think, with my ASD, I don't express happiness as much even though I am happy inside. It complicates things.

This makes me angry just reading this.
So you had gender identity issues which definitely caused depression and anxiety and somehow this was confused with psychosis!
I am glad you are doing better after your transition.

I don't have gender dsyphoria, but my first 10 years or so after my initial hospitalization i was misdiagnosed twice with schitzophrenia. I have NEVER had a pyschosis ever. I am okay now but I don't forgive my earlier doctors. They SHOULD have known better.

Your doctors also SHOULD HAVE known better!

Way too understated! The damn doctors were incompetent. There is no excuse to confuse gender dysphoria with psychosis. How much needless hardship should patients put up with?! (Rhetorical Question) Anyway this topic is triggering me and angering me so I think I will leave it at that.
I am glad the OP is doing ok.