Psychobiology, Let's play doctor

Let's play doctor

Author	Message
Derrick Chapm #1 / 2	Let's play doctor It's been my experience that unless you arrive at the doctor's office with a self-diagnosis, you're likely to walk away only with appointments for tests and "let's see what this does" medications. Back in the early 1980's I started having on-again, off-again visual problems, numbness in my extremities, terrible headaches, and overpowering spacey mental states, pupil pinpointing and dialation, sensitivity to noise, light, and movement. Doctors couldn't/wouldn't tell me squat. Finally a friend diagnosed me as having migraines. I had no personal or family familiarity with migraines, but sure enough, that's what I had. And continue to have. But I suspect there's something else going on: forever, I have had right/left discrimination difficulties, poor awareness of my body position and movement, "forgetting" which way "b" and "d" go when I write them (although I can read them just fine), inability to follow involved conversations, inability to process numbers (like telephone numbers, zip codes, etc.) if they are spoken too quickly, general shyness, nervousness in new social situations, inability to learn much of anything that I don't teach myself, inability to "make" myself do anything I don't want to do, inability to read without "speaking" the text in my head (I'm told that most people who read quickly don't say the words mentally), general frustration, anxiety, and depression with all of the above. I wake up every morning with a good amount of willpower to get to work right away (a morning person), but by the afternoon, I'm functionally useless at work unable to do much productive stuff. I also wake up every morning and continue for a good part of the day with music playing in my head, often songs that i have definitely not been exposed to in my waking state in perhaps years. Pardoxically, I'm a good speller (everything is a sight word since phonics and breaking words up into syllables never worked for me). I'm happily married, have a darling daughter and a decent job with a $50k income (programming). I like meditating, but have a strong dislike for anti-rational, unscientific, and nonsensical things like herbalism, religion, and pseudoscience. Caffeine, ritalin, and antihistamines make me uncomfortably more nervous. And although both caffeine and ritalin help me focus on work, it's an artificially energized sort of focus that I don't enjoy. I've looked at ADD, dyslexia, OCD, panic disorder, depression, anxiety, existential angst, allergies, EMF radiation exposure, and everything else that is diagnosable out there as an underlying cause, something I can get a hold of and hopefully cure. Aside from my migraines--or maybe in adjunct to them--what does all this sound like to you guys? Am I just a typical 20th century man? Does this sound familiar to any of you (or all of you)? Diagnose me please!
Sun, 01 Apr 2001 03:00:00 GMT

ManicPha #2 / 2	Let's play doctor You probably don't have a unitary diagnosis. I'd start with a neurologist and get neuropsychological testing and brain imaging studies. Songs in your head is considered an OCD symptom, and OCD is a neuropsychiatric disorder. I saw an old OCD scale that included unwanted or intrusive songs. The psychologist called it non-visual obsessional imagery. A genetic linkage exists among many of these problems, too. Quote: >Subject: Let's play doctor >Date: 10/14/98 4:23 PM Eastern Daylight Time >It's been my experience that unless you arrive at the doctor's office >with a self-diagnosis, you're likely to walk away only with >appointments for tests and "let's see what this does" medications. >Back in the early 1980's I started having on-again, off-again visual >problems, numbness in my extremities, terrible headaches, and >overpowering spacey mental states, pupil pinpointing and dialation, >sensitivity to noise, light, and movement. >Doctors couldn't/wouldn't tell me squat. Finally a friend diagnosed >me as having migraines. I had no personal or family familiarity with >migraines, but sure enough, that's what I had. And continue to have. >But I suspect there's something else going on: forever, I have had >right/left discrimination difficulties, poor awareness of my body >position and movement, "forgetting" which way "b" and "d" go when I >write them (although I can read them just fine), inability to follow >involved conversations, inability to process numbers (like telephone >numbers, zip codes, etc.) if they are spoken too quickly, general >shyness, nervousness in new social situations, inability to learn much >of anything that I don't teach myself, inability to "make" myself do >anything I don't want to do, inability to read without "speaking" the >text in my head (I'm told that most people who read quickly don't say >the words mentally), general frustration, anxiety, and depression with >all of the above. I wake up every morning with a good amount of >willpower to get to work right away (a morning person), but by the >afternoon, I'm functionally useless at work unable to do much >productive stuff. I also wake up every morning and continue for a >good part of the day with music playing in my head, often songs that i >have definitely not been exposed to in my waking state in perhaps >years. >Pardoxically, I'm a good speller (everything is a sight word since >phonics and breaking words up into syllables never worked for me). >I'm happily married, have a darling daughter and a decent job with a >$50k income (programming). I like meditating, but have a strong >dislike for anti-rational, unscientific, and nonsensical things like >herbalism, religion, and pseudoscience. >Caffeine, ritalin, and antihistamines make me uncomfortably more >nervous. And although both caffeine and ritalin help me focus on >work, it's an artificially energized sort of focus that I don't enjoy. >I've looked at ADD, dyslexia, OCD, panic disorder, depression, >anxiety, existential angst, allergies, EMF radiation exposure, and >everything else that is diagnosable out there as an underlying cause, >something I can get a hold of and hopefully cure. >Aside from my migraines--or maybe in adjunct to them--what does all >this sound like to you guys? Am I just a typical 20th century man? >Does this sound familiar to any of you (or all of you)? >Diagnose me please!
Mon, 02 Apr 2001 03:00:00 GMT

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