Your Medical Notes- Dont It Bother You?

[messygirl]

Doesnt it worry you sometimes? Maybe Im too obsessed and worry too much bout what people think of me, but does it not ever get to you that youre not in control of what professionals write about you in their notes? Especially if youre bpd. I always feel that whatever they interpret will be written down as absolute fact when in reality its just their opinion or the way they see things, when I totally disagree.I read my notes from the last few years, and one shrink wrote: 'all she does is sleep all day til 5 or 6 in the evening and then starts drinking all night 1 to 2 hours after that'. That is completely untrue and very unfair, that is not the case at all. It hurt so much as I felt I was being criticised. I feel like my current shrink is ripping me to shreds too. Im not in denial, yes I have a drink problem and Ill openly admit it, but the way they word it is really hurtful and very wrong. Just like when I was sectioned, the staff lied and said they didnt find me unconscious when I was - to me theres a pretty big difference between being on death's door and just being found doing something light hearted. It really gets to me, I dont have an anger problem but some of these people really do rile me.

[roswell]

Doesnt it worry you sometimes?

I always feel that whatever they interpret will be written down as absolute fact when in reality its just their opinion or the way they see things, when I totally disagree.

Yes it does worry me what they write as it stays on the record and follows you round for the rest of your life.

You are correct in feeling what they write down is only an opinion and they record it as fact.

I had a nasty experience recently with a bitch of a shrink who recorded some stuff in my file which was in direct contradiction to the findings of two other shrinks.

In New Zealand if there is something on your record that you disagree with you are entitled to write a letter and have it included on the file.

Roswell

[Tammy]

I've been through this myself and it is very frustrating to say the least! I had one write down that a med was giving me nightmares, when in reality I had them all along before any meds were introduced so ur not alone!

[Moonshine]

yeh sounds scary....but to be honest i wouldn't take it to heart, most of these psych drs and drs in general actually are pretty damn egotistical....i bet they'd fit the diagnosis for narcissm! I think you should maybe think about requesting to see another psych dr if you are not happy with yours. I know that is pretty scary but trust is so important! I've experienced only 2 psych drs but my goodness they were total opposites of each other - one was a robot and the other actually seemed to care! i know shocker!

i honestly think in med school they spend so much time teaching them anatomy they forget that patients are not just a list of symptoms but actually real people!! I'm in health care, although not acute....we're not all like that, trust me, it matters what i write down on someones notes.

By the way, can't believe you managed to read their handwriting! I'm sure they just scribble and it is all meaningless!!!

take care messygirl

[tripper]

I've had this happen to me too. One shrink wrote in my file that I was depressed only as an attention seeking measure. What contradicts this is this guy then gave me ECT for depression as a last resort as meds obviously weren't working. This is the same shrink who also told me my hallucinations were nothing more than an attention seeking act. It took me a long time to admit to the voices and hallucinations because I believed they were really happening to me. When I finally admit it, I get an answer like that. I was lucky I was hospitalised at one stage and a nurse noticed... since I've been diagnosed with schizophrenia.

[arwentheelfqueen]

How do you get your medical records? I requested mine from a H but there were thousands of pages so I only ended up getting the initial interview and discharge records and test results. Do you all actually have thousands of pages of records in your possession? Don't you have to pay for the copies? I've never even bothered asking for my shrink's records, there would be too many. I'm really curious about this. Which records did you request?

As for the validity of the records, the doctors are just human too and make mistakes. They are working under pressure and have a lot of documentation to write. I wouldn't take it too seriously.

Messygirl, as an exercise, if you could write your medical records to describe your life, how would you describe it? If you were a doc, what would your impression be? For example, I have one ER record for an OD where they said I was attempting suicide. I specifically told them it wasn't a suicide attempt but just an act of self destruction and obsession. So if I were rewriting my records I would say something like that instead.

I moved to a different country, so my medical records didn't follow me. But I didn't start here with a clean slate either because I had to tell docs my history to get the appropriate treatment. Now I'm worried it will affect my status in this country, since I would like to become a permanent resident. I hope if I tell them I recovered from BPD they won't hold my past against me. Maybe by the time I apply for permanent residency status I will have recovered too.

[icu_baby]

yeh sounds scary....but to be honest i wouldn't take it to heart, most of these psych drs and drs in general actually are pretty damn egotistical....i bet they'd fit the diagnosis for narcissm! I think you should maybe think about requesting to see another psych dr if you are not happy with yours. I know that is pretty scary but trust is so important! I've experienced only 2 psych drs but my goodness they were total opposites of each other - one was a robot and the other actually seemed to care! i know shocker!

i honestly think in med school they spend so much time teaching them anatomy they forget that patients are not just a list of symptoms but actually real people!! I'm in health care, although not acute....we're not all like that, trust me, it matters what i write down on someones notes.

By the way, can't believe you managed to read their handwriting! I'm sure they just scribble and it is all meaningless!!!

take care messygirl

Moonshine are you sure it matters what they write down. I was told by two pdocs that they hardy ever read the other have written or if they do what matters is there own assessment.

I didn't believe this, I think they are sheep, if one doc has you down as narssistic or borderline, whatever you say is interpreted in that context and if you try and say the other docs assessment of you is inaccurate, you get accused of exhibiting borderline behaviour...you just can't win!

[icu_baby]

It worries me too. The good news is that the files are confidential. The bad news is that in the mental health world it will follow me.

Again I went to the doctor today, I have been crying for the last few days and feeling so down and asked for antidepressants but was denied it because I am not depressed I have a personality disorder. I did get some anti-depressants but I had to go to another GP.

The reason why it upsets us when we read things in our file is because we know most of the things in there are very inaccurate, completely false, half truths.

They are just a doctors musings and the more I think about it the more I wonder why we let such people have so much power over our feelings.

Just because you have a medical degree does not mean that you are a good therapist. As someone said before studying anatomy does not make you a good therapist. In fact after psychiatrists do there medical degree they learn the same thing as psychologists do....except most psychologists are not as narcissistic and pompous and up themselves as psychiatrists. I think that even counsellors who just have certificates can be much more wiser and compassionate then most shrinks. No wonder psychiatry suffers from low status and not being 'real medicine’ - how can it be real medicine when the dx is based on OPINION and not FACT like other real branches of medicine!

At least if you see a psychologist, they will teach you the art of living. They see the person as a person and psychiatrists just like to slap demeaning labels on you which make you feel worse.

Ok so you get I am not a big fan of psychiatrists.

Messygirl, It does suck that they denied the fact that you were not unconsious but to be quite blunt, they will always deny that they were negligent in their treatment to avoid a law suit.

This doesn't just happen in mental health - it happens in all aspects of hospital care. Today there are allegations that a women had a baby in a hospital toilet and no nurses were there to help her and of course the hospital has to come out in its defence and said yes there was nurses on hand. I am just happy though that they found you hun in the nick of time and you didn't suffer any psychical injury.

xxx icu_baby

[yorkiegal73]

I recently received my notes and wasn't as upset by them as I thought I was going to be. I think I was already resigned to the fact that they would label me as attention seeking. That term didn't actually show up but I am consistently assessed to be low risk of everything. No sign of mental illness etc. Yet all my earlier notes refer to my being severly depressed. It's obvious that as soon as the PD diagnosis was put on there, all my symptoms were seen as unimportant. One annoying bit is where the on call psychiatrist writes that he is unsure if i am actually convinced by my 'story' of hallucinations and voices. I was incredibly frightened when I told him about those and he didn't believe me. Also, during one therapy review it was suggested that i had misinterpreted what i saw when i witnessed my abuser with another child. They believed the abuser was probably comforting the child and i had got it wrong. I know what i bloody saw! I just wasn't able to give enough detail so they downplayed it.

I'm not too concerned by the many mistakes in my records because I doubt most of them will be read in such depth my anyone other than myself. Why would a psychiatrist refer to a past evaluation when he can make up a nice new one of his own. :)

[Suicidal Smily]

My medical notes don't bother me because I know what my therapist thinks of me otherwise she wouldn't be seeing me twice a week and suggested that I see her that often so we could work on the root of my problem. I have the right to look at my file and have a few times though they also keep thier notes on a computer program so that my psychatrist can access my case notes. I have never seen anything that I don't agree with and if I did I would get an answer from whoever wrote the notes.

[icu_baby]

I recently received my notes and wasn't as upset by them as I thought I was going to be. I think I was already resigned to the fact that they would label me as attention seeking. That term didn't actually show up but I am consistently assessed to be low risk of everything. No sign of mental illness etc. Yet all my earlier notes refer to my being severly depressed. It's obvious that as soon as the PD diagnosis was put on there, all my symptoms were seen as unimportant. One annoying bit is where the on call psychiatrist writes that he is unsure if i am actually convinced by my 'story' of hallucinations and voices. I was incredibly frightened when I told him about those and he didn't believe me. Also, during one therapy review it was suggested that i had misinterpreted what i saw when i witnessed my abuser with another child. They believed the abuser was probably comforting the child and i had got it wrong. I know what i bloody saw! I just wasn't able to give enough detail so they downplayed it.

I'm not too concerned by the many mistakes in my records because I doubt most of them will be read in such depth my anyone other than myself. Why would a psychiatrist refer to a past evaluation when he can make up a nice new one of his own.

Wow, what you said is so very true and the fact that not only you, Yorkie but everyone here has had the same or similar experience shows just how misunderstood BPD is. I have only really had contact with mental health 6 months ago and its true as soon as you get labelled BPD and your family tells a doctor that you are manipulative you see no sign of major depression written everywhere. This is despite the fact that BPD and depression are comorbid - ie you are more likely to have depression. This does irritate me so much. They forget the rate of suicide among people with BPD.

Like you I have many mistakes in my record. You are right though, in reality no one does read it in great detail and it just sits on a shelf gathering dust until you have a crisis before something more demeaning and inaccurate is added. You can't win with what is written in your record. The frustration comes from wanting to say to the person "no this is simply not true" and of course you can't unless you submit a written note correcting what is in your file.

[icu_baby]

My medical notes don't bother me because I know what my therapist thinks of me otherwise she wouldn't be seeing me twice a week and suggested that I see her that often so we could work on the root of my problem. I have the right to look at my file and have a few times though they also keep thier notes on a computer program so that my psychatrist can access my case notes. I have never seen anything that I don't agree with and if I did I would get an answer from whoever wrote the notes.

You have an excellent psychiatrist.

Like lawyers the quality of service does vary. Your psychiatrist is exceptional.

[sundries]

I htink you should all write formal complaints about your medical records. this is a national issue. Im taking complaint about medical records to the healthcare commission. it all has to be loggged and they look at national trends. If we all complained it might really get something done about it.

Also, you medical records really do matter

1) they are referred to for 'the facts' if you ever make a complaint. They will be used if you are ever invovled in a serious crime (god forbid). They can be looked at to assess access to children and stuff.

2) Its not just them being wrong that matters - its also the fact they arent right! they ARE there for a reason, which is to gt you the best medical care and while no notes may be better than poor notes, ideally there ought to be good notes.

Whatever they say about hte records olny being doctors opinions - those opinions are taken as fact!

[InterruptedHappiness]

I dont know if anyone else feels this way but i've thought about my medical notes and decided I dont want to see them its bad enough what I think my therapists say about me without the facts and I could do without the extra stress of reading them and disagreeing about something

[drew]

it worries me i guess not just for myself but others that once u have bpd on your file that people think oh they will survive

[icu_baby]

it worries me i guess not just for myself but others that once u have bpd on your file that people think oh they will survive

Do you mean if someone is suicidal they would not be taken seriously because it is written that they have BPD?