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At one point or another I can guess a lot of people in this guild have had to deal trying to convince a family member, friend, or medical professional that they have something (whatever disorder, syndrom, etc) they have is interferring with their life. So when that has happened to you what obstucles have you had to pass? Such as with school, work, family, social life, or when you are alone with yourself? I can think of two basic scenarios people have to deal with, I'll start there:

I don't think official documention of any (for the sake of simplicity) illness is a complete answer to convincing and prooving to people that there is an illness you are dealing with. For some social institutions like schools or work that documenation has a better chance of being recognized and followed, but that wont gurantee your friends or family.

The reverse is true, if your friends and family support you fully with your claimed illness there is not a guranteed change any school or work place will accept the claim or your illness, dispite any symptons you can try and proove with.

And I'm sure many more cercumstances are possible, I just tried to give some prompts for discussion. Because honestly whether you do or do not have official documentation can make a large impact in how people view you and your illness.



Personally I was diagnosed with ADHD at the age of 7, but meeting and working with other people who had ADD or ADHD I thought there was something wrong with me because I was way more stressed out and preoccupied with everything I did. When I was 15 I was also diagnosed with GAD (general anxiety disorder), along with OCD, Panic Attacks, Mild Depression. I had been feeling different for many years but my family thought I was only exaggerating my ADHD for attention.

So I had to deal with my family not beleiving me, therefore it was many many years before I even went for further pofessional help. Even now my family still has doubts for all my "illnesses". And even now I think I have Tourettes (it even runs in my family) but I dont have the proper access to professional care and my family does not support another claim of illness.

Thankfully I feel that my friends have been consistantly supportive, and in turn I supported them when they needed me.

I personally wouldn't care if my family and friends didn't believe me. There's no benefit I would gain from them believing or not believing me. I'd rather my employers didn't find out at all. I did have to prove my disability with paperwork when applying for disabled student services at my school. They just need the forms, and they'll provide you with any service they have. As for proving to medical professionals, I've never had such an occasion to do so. One shouldn't be trying to convince a doctor that they have a specific diagnosis. They need only convince the doctor that they have a problem. If the doctor doesn't believe they have a problem, the patient should then fire the doctor and hire one that is more sensitive to their needs.

Well here's your chance! What did you mean? I'm curious!

There's a history of depression in my family. My uncle doesn't believe that I have ADD though. I had a hard time convincing my mother to have me checked for depression, only because she wanted me to turn out different than the rest of the family. She didn't want me to go through the same thing she went through, so she decided to ignore it an pretend that I was alright. She did the same to herself and was unchecked for a long time.

My grandmother is bipolar.
My two great-uncles are bipolar.
My aunt is bipolar.
My uncle is chronic depressive.
My cousins are chronic depressive.
My mom is chronic depressive.
I'm chronic depressive (maybe bipolar?...)

So the rest of the family went after her, and then she had me checked. Sure enough, I was chronic depressive too. Our family was one of 100 families in the US that were used as an expermient on depression and it's genetic heredity.

But a lot of people don't believe me. They say that depression is just a state of mind and not a chemical imbalance. They say that I'm a normal person but I'm sad sometimes, and so is everyone else. They'll say that doctors don't know what they're talking about. I can't even explain how much this makes me mad. They've never gone through what most of us has gone through, so they have absolutely no right to say that we're just making it up. And what ever made them professionals? I guess it's just hard to understand unless you've been though it.