What's the first disorder you were diagnosed with?

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, quickly followed
by Generalized Anxiety Disorder. I was 14.

Aspergers when i was 13, OCD and clinical depression at 14.

First & only: Bipolar 1 disorder when I was 25. (I'm 27 now.)

The first was ADHD at age four.

Major depressive disorder. After a while I suspected I had Generalized Anxiety Disorder too. I asked the psychiatrist and he said no, probably just very mild anxiety. Although undiagnosed, I can be pretty sure I'm having GAD now.

Clinical depression. I think I was around 12 or 13 at the time, but I can't remember exactly.

At 15 - severe depressive disorder and OCD.

The social anxiety was the main point of what I described in the initial consult, and I actually got desperate emphasizing it, but she still wouldn't diagnose it. Both of those things diagnosed were completely marginal to me. I think that diagnosis completely missed the point, and I'm sure it was because the drug that made her the most money, and was the main point of most posters plastered across the walls of the damn clinic, wasn't indicated for social anxiety, or wasn't approved for my age.

Also, I'm pretty sure I had every reason to be depressed, so I'll pass on the depression diagnosis, thank you.

ADD when I was 5.

Wow - young age to be diagnosed with that (I think).

ADD in second grade.

Social anxiety at 14.

AS / HFA (the doctor thought of the two as the same thing, or too close to differentiate in my case). At age 4, or thereabouts.

Bipolar II (Rapid Cycling) when I was 19

It's insane that you were diagnosed at a time when ASDs weren't widely acknowledged.

Yes, it was 1983, and because my dad's a university professor, he knew how to find the best expert in the city where we lived at the time.

AS was not in the DSM in 1983. AS and the concept of a "higher functioning" version of autism were being discussed within the mental health professional community; clinical practitioners and researchers were aware of it. Because it was not in the DSM, and people outside the field were not aware of it, a doctor making a diagnosis for the purpose of communicating with school staff, for example, would have to choose between "Autism" (implying that the child does not talk; what we today think of as "LFA") or "Attention Deficit Disorder - Inattentive Type". The latter has more in common with AS / HFA in practice. Also, if a child sent into the school system with an ASD diagnosis in 1984, they would be automatically put into a special education program for children with "severe learning disabilities"; at least in that city, if a child's doctor told the school system that the kid was autistic, the school system would take it to mean that they were incapable of learning anything and effectively give up on them.

So the doctor gave me a diagnosis of ADD - Inattentive Type for school purposes, and was able to use that, combined with my standardized test scores, to get me into a program in which I received a high quality education from the start. But his notes say, "Specifically, this child fits a behavioral pattern that has been called Asperger's Syndrome, or a high functioning form of autism," and goes on to acknowledge that this would be my official diagnosis were AS officially recognized in the DSM.

Unfortunately, the school officials had never heard of AS, nor did they bother to look it up. Instead, there was a lot of ignorance-based suspicion and speculation directed at me and my parents. They would constantly say things like, "If your child really does have ADD, she should be on medication; otherwise she won't survive in the classroom environment," to which my parents would respond, "We have decided not to medicate her because there are no long-term studies on use of ADD drugs in children, and the studies that do exist raise concern that these drugs could negatively affect the cardiovascular system. Additionally, the doctor thinks her behavior is bears a stronger resemblance to something called Asperger's Syndrome than to ADD." And then the person from the school would say, "Oh, well, you said that Asperger's Syndrome is like autism. Autistic children are good at faking intelligence by doing well on tests, but in effect, they're mentally retarded. You should have her placed in a program for children with severe intellectual disabilities if you think she's autistic."

So you can see why, in communications with the school, they couldn't really say I had an ASD. But the doctor's actual opinion was that I had AS or HFA, not ADD. (I found out about a lot of this recently by talking to my dad since I've been living with him.)

It was a very conservative southern city in which a lot of people were not well-educated, and not interested in learning anything new (including people who worked at schools . . . ).

Long explanation, I know, but I wanted to tell the full story so that it would make sense.

*The part in bold is an actual statement made on multiple occasions by my elementary school principal. Just had to draw attention to it because it's so ridiculously ignorant. And this was supposed to be the best school in the city (the doctor got me a nice scholarship to go there).

Spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia congenita when I was 3.





...Nothing since, apart from me suspecting I had AS, ruling that out, then being prescribed 10mg citalopram a day for mild depression/anxiety @25. It has helped a lot.

Autism when I was two or three. But my parents didn't think I had it then.

Clinical depression. Had a really harsh wave of puberty.

Social Anxiety Disorder.

I've never been diagnosed with anything and don't really care to know what some doctor could say about me. I am me.

same here

I don't think I've ever been diagnosed before. I used to have screwed up thoughts in grade seven but the doctor labled it as depression and gave me some stupid pills to take away emotion.

I was recently diagnosed with depression, anxiety and social anxiety. I'm due to be on pills soon... not looking forward to it AT ALL.

I haven't been diagnosed with anything. My social anxiety is mild enough that I can usually get through it myself when the situations occur.
As for the future, who can tell? I really want to work through my problems myself, without resorting to drugs, as I dont trust what sort of side effects that might have.
I also dont want any sort of disorder on my medical record, and I know that if I am diagnosed with something ill get lazy and think its o.k. to be that way, when I really just want to be normal.
I also think my family might be disappointed and ashamed of me, so I don't want them to find out, even if it means they don't know how I really feel.