You Are Not Your Diagnosis

An inspiring and empowering guide to changing your mindset, feeling better, and living a full life after receiving a troubling diagnosis. Discussing everything from diet and exercise to stress and emotion management, Live Your Life, Not Your Diagnosis provides tools readers can use immediately to help them feel better while living with a diagnosis. Written by a master certified mindset coach who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2000, readers won’t find negative, scary stories about how a diagnosis will hurt them. Instead, they will find stories of bravery, wellness, support, and detailed steps on how they too can live their life—not their diagnosis. Praise for Live Your Life, Not Your Diagnosis “Powerful and empowering. Hanson shares a fresh, brand new, systemic guide to reframing one’s perspective and living with a difficult diagnosis.” —Sandra Bond Chapman, PhD, Founder and Chief Director, Center for BrainHealth, distinguished University Professor, author of Make Your Brain Smarter “A spectacular book. . . . The lessons [Andrea] teaches and the exercises she provides will help anyone who is struggling with any type of medical diagnosis or challenge.” —Brooke Castillo, Master Certified Coach and Founder of The Life Coach School “A true guide on how to listen to our bodies, connect to them, nurture ourselves, and understand the power of our mindset. . . . A must-read for anyone diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Love it!” —Katherine Treadway, LCSW, MSCIR, CRND

Getting the right diagnosis is a key aspect of health care - it provides an explanation of a patient's health problem and informs subsequent health care decisions. The diagnostic process is a complex, collaborative activity that involves clinical reasoning and information gathering to determine a patient's health problem. According to Improving Diagnosis in Health Care, diagnostic errors-inaccurate or delayed diagnoses-persist throughout all settings of care and continue to harm an unacceptable number of patients. It is likely that most people will experience at least one diagnostic error in their lifetime, sometimes with devastating consequences. Diagnostic errors may cause harm to patients by preventing or delaying appropriate treatment, providing unnecessary or harmful treatment, or resulting in psychological or financial repercussions. The committee concluded that improving the diagnostic process is not only possible, but also represents a moral, professional, and public health imperative. Improving Diagnosis in Health Care, a continuation of the landmark Institute of Medicine reports To Err Is Human (2000) and Crossing the Quality Chasm (2001), finds that diagnosis-and, in particular, the occurrence of diagnostic errorsâ€"has been largely unappreciated in efforts to improve the quality and safety of health care. Without a dedicated focus on improving diagnosis, diagnostic errors will likely worsen as the delivery of health care and the diagnostic process continue to increase in complexity. Just as the diagnostic process is a collaborative activity, improving diagnosis will require collaboration and a widespread commitment to change among health care professionals, health care organizations, patients and their families, researchers, and policy makers. The recommendations of Improving Diagnosis in Health Care contribute to the growing momentum for change in this crucial area of health care quality and safety.

You Are Not Your Diagnosis is Delmastro-Thomson's inspiring and emotional story of being mis-diagnosed with leukemia at the age of 25. We meet the author at the time of her diagnosis, when she believed she was a healthy young woman scheduled to have elective surgery. Instead, she describes how she was dropped down the rabbit hole of the Western Medical system when pre-op bloodwork showed some very alarming abnormalities. Delmastro-Thomson paints a vivid picture of the diagnostic process, the emotional moment of her diagnosis, and the life-altering ripples that this moment created in her life. The second part of the book reflects on the key lessons the author learned during the six years following her initial diagnosis. Delmastro-Thomson offers readers insights into topics like how diagnosis can become one's identity and how to transform that pattern, how the words we use to talk about our health have power, and the power of our minds for either healing or staying where we are. The final section of the book offers the reader several simple practices to begin to incorporate the lessons offered by the book into their own lives.

'This book fills a tremendous void...' wrote E. Fuller Torrey, M.D., about the first edition of I AM NOT SICK, I Don't Need Help! Ten years later, it still does. Dr. Amador's research on poor insight was inspired by his attempts to help his brother Henry, who developed schizophrenia, accept treatment. Like tens of millions of others diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, Henry did not believe he was ill. In this latest edition, 6 new chapters have been added, new research on anosognosia (lack of insight) is presented and new advice, relying on lessons learned from thousands of LEAP seminar participants, is given to help readers quickly and effectively use Dr. Amador s method for helping someone accept treatment. I AM NOT SICK, I Don't Need Help! is not just a reference for mental health practitioners or law enforcement professionals. It is a must-read guide for family members whose loved ones are battling mental illness. Read and learn as have hundreds of thousands of others...to LEAP-Listen, Empathize, Agree, and Partner-and help your patients and loved ones accept the treatment they need.

An eminent child psychiatrist provides an insider's, whistle-blowing perspective on the promotion of a diagnostic entity that does not exist. Your Child Does Not Have Bipolar Disorder: How Bad Science and Good Public Relations Created the Diagnosis examines this diagnostic fad through a variety of lenses. Author Stuart L. Kaplan, MD, draws heavily on his forty years of experience as a clinician, researcher, and professor of child psychiatry to make the argument that bipolar disorder in children and adolescents is incorrectly diagnosed and incorrectly treated. As Dr. Kaplan explains, the dramatic rise in this particular diagnosis is not based on scientific evidence, nor does it reflect any new discovery or insight about the etiology or treatment of the disorder. In fact, the opposite is the case: the scientific evidence against the existence of child bipolar disorder is so strong that it is difficult to imagine how it has gained the endorsement of anyone in the scientific community. Your Child Does Not Have Bipolar Disorder: How Bad Science and Good Public Relations Created the Diagnosis explains to parents and professionals the faulty reasoning and bad science behind the misdiagnosis of childhood bipolar disorder. Dr. Kaplan critiques the National Institute of Mental Health, academic child psychiatry, the pharmaceutical industry, and the media for their respective roles in advocating this diagnosis. He describes very clearly what the children and adolescents actually do have, explains how it should be treated, and provides real-life clinical scenarios and approaches to treatment that work.

A riveting exploration of the most difficult and important part of what doctors do, by Yale School of Medicine physician Dr. Lisa Sanders, author of the monthly New York Times Magazine column "Diagnosis," the inspiration for the hit Fox TV series House, M.D. "The experience of being ill can be like waking up in a foreign country. Life, as you formerly knew it, is on hold while you travel through this other world as unknown as it is unexpected. When I see patients in the hospital or in my office who are suddenly, surprisingly ill, what they really want to know is, ‘What is wrong with me?’ They want a road map that will help them manage their new surroundings. The ability to give this unnerving and unfamiliar place a name, to know it—on some level—restores a measure of control, independent of whether or not that diagnosis comes attached to a cure. Because, even today, a diagnosis is frequently all a good doctor has to offer." A healthy young man suddenly loses his memory—making him unable to remember the events of each passing hour. Two patients diagnosed with Lyme disease improve after antibiotic treatment—only to have their symptoms mysteriously return. A young woman lies dying in the ICU—bleeding, jaundiced, incoherent—and none of her doctors know what is killing her. In Every Patient Tells a Story, Dr. Lisa Sanders takes us bedside to witness the process of solving these and other diagnostic dilemmas, providing a firsthand account of the expertise and intuition that lead a doctor to make the right diagnosis. Never in human history have doctors had the knowledge, the tools, and the skills that they have today to diagnose illness and disease. And yet mistakes are made, diagnoses missed, symptoms or tests misunderstood. In this high-tech world of modern medicine, Sanders shows us that knowledge, while essential, is not sufficient to unravel the complexities of illness. She presents an unflinching look inside the detective story that marks nearly every illness—the diagnosis—revealing the combination of uncertainty and intrigue that doctors face when confronting patients who are sick or dying. Through dramatic stories of patients with baffling symptoms, Sanders portrays the absolute necessity and surprising difficulties of getting the patient’s story, the challenges of the physical exam, the pitfalls of doctor-to-doctor communication, the vagaries of tests, and the near calamity of diagnostic errors. In Every Patient Tells a Story, Dr. Sanders chronicles the real-life drama of doctors solving these difficult medical mysteries that not only illustrate the art and science of diagnosis, but often save the patients’ lives.

Understanding Mental Disorders: Your Guide to DSM-5® is a consumer guide for anyone who has been touched by mental illness. Most of us know someone who suffers from a mental illness. This book helps those who may be struggling with mental health problems, as well as those who want to help others achieve mental health and well-being. Based on the latest, fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders -- known as DSM-5® -- Understanding Mental Disorders provides valuable insight on what to expect from an illness and its treatment -- and will help readers recognize symptoms, know when to seek help, and get the right care. Featured disorders include depression, schizophrenia, ADHD, autism spectrum disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, and bipolar disorder, among others. The common language for diagnosing mental illness used in DSM-5® for mental health professionals has been adapted into clear, concise descriptions of disorders for nonexperts. In addition to specific symptoms for each disorder, readers will find: Risk factors and warning signs Related disorders Ways to cope Tips to promote mental health Personal stories Key points about the disorders and treatment options A special chapter dedicated to treatment essentials and ways to get help Helpful resources that include a glossary, list of medications and support groups

Using real life case studies of people experiencing mental illness, this book identifies how bodily presentation of patients may reflect certain aspects of their ‘lived experience’. With reference to a range of theoretical perspectives including philosophy, psychoanalysis, feminism and sociology, Mental Illness and the Body explores the ways in which understanding ‘lived experience’ may usefully be applied to mental health practice. Key features include: an overview of the history of British psychiatry including treatments an analysis of feminism and the way its insights have been applied to understanding women's mental health and illness in-depth interviews with four patients diagnosed with mental illness an outline of Freudian and post-Freudian perspectives on the body and their relevance to current mental health practice. Mental Illness and the Body is essential reading for mental health practitioners, allied professionals and anyone with an interest in the body and mental illness.

"This book, now revised in a section edition, examines the problem of over-diagnosis in psychiatry, focusing on problems with current diagnostic systems. It will show that diagnosis is not always a good guide to treatment selection, and that diagnoses have bee expanded in scope to justify currently popular methods of pharmacotherapy or psychotherapy. The most important categories that are over-diagnosed are bipolar disorders, major depression, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder. The boundary of pathology and normality remains unclear. This edition will also discuss dimensional systems that are transdiagnostic, and show how over-diagnosis is linked to the practice of aggressive psychopharmacology"--