I actually have been clinically diagnosed with OCD. Like the for real one and I find it funny when people who are just really really neat say they have OCD or are OCD. I'm really really messy and I really have been diagnosed with OCD. It's not very bad anymore and I don't take meds for it, rarely even talk about it actually... but I have learned clever ways of opening doors to avoid having my hands make contact with doorknobs. Just saying. The other day my co-worker was carrying two cups of soup and we were walking super slowly and I had to keep opening doors for her (I had one free hand and one cup of soup). So I grabbed one of her cups of soup and opened up the door for her using my elbows and a knee just to speed things up. I guess mental problems make you a bit of a super hero. No wonder people want to be nuts.
My least favorite stupid syndrome tv commercial is the one for Restless Leg Syndrome.
I hear it really is a troublesome thing, but I can't help thinking that its a rather stupid label for something that probably has some other root cause. A syndrome is a symptom OF something else, isn't it?
If I fidget when I'm stuck at a desk all day, does that mean I have Restless Everything Syndrome?
RLS is actually a "real thing." It refers to people who get acute pain in their legs, especially at night when laying down. Moving the legs causes temporary relief, then it comes back and you need to move them again: thus the "Restless" part.
Quinine was a standard and effective treatment for RLS, but the FDA pulled it, angering many RLS sufferers because now they have to buy more expensive drugs for it.
Huh. Good to know. You learn something new every day!
I was just thinking there must be something causing RLS, part of some other root issue, perhaps a vitamin deficiency. And so the commercials seemed to me like treating a symptom instead of curing a cause.
I blame the tone of the commercial for giving me this flippant and rather false impression. There's so many of those "Do you suffer from X?? Then you may have Y, so you'll need to take our drugs! (Side affects may cause blahblah a dozen other problems blahblahblah...)" commercials out there.
I went to a GI doctor this year, after many years of tummy issues, and one of the things he tried to give me was an anti-depressant.
I left and got myself a new GI doctor.
One of the other annoyances of this whole physical inquiry has been that everyone & their great aunt has suggested various diagnosis's to me, "Oh! You might have Celiac Disease! etc, etc" Thanks but, I'll wait for the test results, and oh yeah -- talk to a formally trained and not-insensitive doctor.
Noooo...it's totally different than a fidget-y feeling. My mom and I both have it, and it's the most annoying feeling in the world coarsing down your legs. I can't even describe it to you. My mom was twitching violently in her sleep from it.
Fascinating. I've had charlie horses wake me up in the middle of the night, and pain sometimes for no reason in my legs, or I've had my legs "fall asleep" and get tingly requiring me to walk around and "wake them up", but nothing so prevalent that it required diagnosis and treatment.
That's awful though that you & your mom have to deal with that. :/
My roommate in college had RLS, amplified from her OCD medication. So while she no longer felt to need to stay in our room all day making sure all our books were arranged according to the Dewey Decimal system, her legs shook all night. This was great on a rickety connected loft 7 feet in the air.
nowadays people think they have everything. sucky things occuring from this: people who are like omg i think i have this! and you have to explain no you're not dying and you don't have this disease; anti-biotics no longer working because they're over perscribed (gotta treat the malady du jour!); doctors misdiagnosing because of patients imagined symptoms or the newest study that says...
as someone who has spent most of her life sick, i hate seeing commericals about my disease cuz honestly its not exactly something i want to hear or talk about aside from my doctor. just today a coworker told me she thought she had colitis and had been self-diagnosing on WedMD...
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2007-11-09 05:29 pm (UTC)I actually have been clinically diagnosed with OCD. Like the for real one and I find it funny when people who are just really really neat say they have OCD or are OCD. I'm really really messy and I really have been diagnosed with OCD. It's not very bad anymore and I don't take meds for it, rarely even talk about it actually... but I have learned clever ways of opening doors to avoid having my hands make contact with doorknobs. Just saying. The other day my co-worker was carrying two cups of soup and we were walking super slowly and I had to keep opening doors for her (I had one free hand and one cup of soup). So I grabbed one of her cups of soup and opened up the door for her using my elbows and a knee just to speed things up. I guess mental problems make you a bit of a super hero. No wonder people want to be nuts.
no subject
Date: 2007-11-09 05:39 pm (UTC)I hear it really is a troublesome thing, but I can't help thinking that its a rather stupid label for something that probably has some other root cause. A syndrome is a symptom OF something else, isn't it?
If I fidget when I'm stuck at a desk all day, does that mean I have Restless Everything Syndrome?
no subject
Date: 2007-11-09 05:56 pm (UTC)Quinine was a standard and effective treatment for RLS, but the FDA pulled it, angering many RLS sufferers because now they have to buy more expensive drugs for it.
no subject
Date: 2007-11-09 05:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-09 06:34 pm (UTC)I was just thinking there must be something causing RLS, part of some other root issue, perhaps a vitamin deficiency. And so the commercials seemed to me like treating a symptom instead of curing a cause.
I blame the tone of the commercial for giving me this flippant and rather false impression. There's so many of those "Do you suffer from X?? Then you may have Y, so you'll need to take our drugs! (Side affects may cause blahblah a dozen other problems blahblahblah...)" commercials out there.
no subject
Date: 2007-11-09 06:36 pm (UTC)I love the pharmaceutical industry.
no subject
Date: 2007-11-09 06:43 pm (UTC)I left and got myself a new GI doctor.
One of the other annoyances of this whole physical inquiry has been that everyone & their great aunt has suggested various diagnosis's to me, "Oh! You might have Celiac Disease! etc, etc" Thanks but, I'll wait for the test results, and oh yeah -- talk to a formally trained and not-insensitive doctor.
no subject
Date: 2007-11-10 12:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-10 12:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-09 05:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-09 06:27 pm (UTC)That's awful though that you & your mom have to deal with that. :/
no subject
Date: 2007-11-09 11:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-09 06:05 pm (UTC)as someone who has spent most of her life sick, i hate seeing commericals about my disease cuz honestly its not exactly something i want to hear or talk about aside from my doctor. just today a coworker told me she thought she had colitis and had been self-diagnosing on WedMD...
no subject
Date: 2007-11-09 06:49 pm (UTC)And diagnosed but untreated ADD...according to my doctor treating the depression is more important.
I suppose it is.