i have spent the last 2yrs at home being sick and the doctors say i have a or some autoimmune diseases but they cannot determine which one.
i lost all my hair, cannot stop sleeping, have major muscle and joint pain, nausea, bowel upsets, chronic urinary tract infections, a burning rash that flares up around my right eye every few weeks or so, headaches, sore throats, stinging sensations in my legs, a funny lightheaded feeling in my head that comes and goes and vasculitis. tests have shown that my immune system is attacking itself but my ana was borderline and now shows normal. my immunologist did have me seeing a psychiatrist because being sick for so long was getting me down but to my suprise the psychiatrist sat there and told me that my whole illness was in my head which i found quite offensive because i have physical symptoms and i know when i am not feeling right. i think that because doctors have not been able to diagnose my illness they are trying to convince me that its all in my head! i am so angry and i find this very unfair after all i have been through and still suffering with no answers! can anyone give me advise on where to go from here?

Psychiatrists love to tell you it's all in your head...it's their bread and butter. http://www.healthboards.com/ubb/rolleyes.gif
But anybody can tell that you have something physically wrong. I assume you've had exhaustive tests, that don't show much. Sometimes a Doctor of alternative medicine is a good bet. Mine is an M.D. as well, but was able to help in some unusual ways, that traditional doctors would just laugh at. They are bigger on nutrition, which is sadly missing from the standard MD repetoire. Get rid of things like soda and nutrasweet. A friend of mine had aches and pains, especially in the feet and legs, and had a 6 pack of coke a day habit. She gave it up cold turkey. The legs and feet cleared up, and so did the other muscle aches. Simple, but true.

thanks for your reply, i must admit that the doctors did have me starting to think that it was all in my head but when i really thought about it, there is way too many physical symptoms as well as abnormal test results and i just know in myself that there is something majorly wrong. i have just recently had some new tests done that show i am lacking 12 major amino acids in my body which can cause leaky gut syndrome as well as rheumatoid arthritis and ammonia toxicity and i need to take amino acid supplements as well as vitamin b supplements which can help.
i think you are completely right suggesting natural products as i have lived on antibiotics and these have become toxic in my body. i am only now looking very closely at my diet which i feel i will benefit alot.
thankyou so much for your advise!

Ok. Call me a b****, but I'd send some copies of my test results to that psychiatrist with a little note, saying "It appears your whole profession is in your head. If you wish hard enough, maybe the Blue Fairy can turn you into a real doctor".


Grrrrrr.

[This message has been edited by Megherc (edited 07-23-2002).]

your right! i dont know how these people can call themselves professionals!!!!!!! i am having a hard enough time trying to cope with this unknown illness without a shrink trying to convince me that its all in my head! what gets me, is how can someone talk to you for a couple of hours and then make there own diagnosis when they dont know you from a bar of soap.
thanks for your reply! i appreciate it.

You mention amino acids. I've posted elsewhere, but amino acids have made a huge difference in my life, and of that of my daughter. I fight obesity and depression, she fights ADD and had a bout of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. 5-HTP is an especially wonderful thing to take. Plus I take a full range of aminos and can trully say they are miraculous. Our neurotransmitters get deranged from faulty eating, environmental pollutants, and a host of 21st century problems. We all really need to pay attention to ourselves and our surroundings. I would investigate fish oils too. My daughter is also suffering from an auto-immune disorder, without a name yet, sees the rheumatologist Aug. 5. I told her to stop the Diet Coke STAT, and she already feels better. And as an aside to psychiatrists. I'm a health care professional, and I don't put much stock in them. Like you said, they don't know you. I went to one for a few months in '89 , and felt embarrassed and ridiculous, because he just flopped around, asking inane questions, giving out pills seemingly at random, that gave me side effects and no improvement.(I AM NOT saying they aren't beneficial for some, I am saying I had nutritional problems that he didn't know how to addess, and was grasping for a psychological explanation where there was none). It took me awhile, but with my own study I found my own cure, and have my daughter on the road to health too. I applaud you for knowing you aren't in need of a psychiatrist, and taking charge of your health.

You are welcome. I also like allthings post about how we eat. It does seem we comsume more laboratory type foods these days, and perhaps that isn't so good. We need to get back to basics. When I give in to a goodie(why live if you can't once in awhile), I usually go for the most natural, I mean, nutrisweet is created in a lab but sugar grows from mother earth, so I go for sugar....yes, not good to do, but I try not to overdo it and work it off in the gym.

5htp is a good thing, but again, I like to go natural, eating alot of chicken and turkey. Here is a snip from an article I read on the benefits of tryptophan as a prozac substituite. It mentions some foods rich in typtophan; also how carbs are important to create serotonin....


"Serotonin is sometimes called our ‘satisfaction’ brain chemical because, in addition to giving us a sense of well-being, if levels are normal then we don’t feel the need to overeat sugary and refined carbohydrate foods which give us a short term serotonin boost, at the expense of a sharp drop-off soon after. We make serotonin from an amino acid (protein building block) called tryptophan. By eating tryptophan rich foods we can naturally boost levels of serotonin. Tryptophan is not as widely distributed in our foods as other amino acids, and it is found mainly in: turkey, chicken, fish, pheasant, partridge, cottage cheese, bananas, eggs, nuts, wheat germ, avocados, milk, cheese and the legumes (beans, peas, pulses, soya), and there are also smaller amounts in breads, cereals, potatoes and rice. Because tryptophan is such a large molecule, other more easily absorbed amino acids actively compete with it. In order to divert them, and encourage the uptake of tryptophan it is helpful moderately raise insulin levels by eating starchy foods, such as brown rice, wholemeal bread, porridge oats and jacket potatoes, alongside the protein foods."


Also, I found a tryptophan food list on the net:


Dairy products: cottage cheese, cheese, milk
Soy products: soy milk, tofu, soybean nuts
Seafood
Meats
Poultry
Whole grains
Beans
Rice
Hummus
Lentils
Hazelnuts, Peanuts
Eggs
Sesame seeds, sunflower seeds

I imagine if you take poor diet + artificial chemicals + some drugs + alcohol= this is the usual habit these days, it is no wonder the brain and body is giving us such troubles!

Have you tried a Hematologist? I've got a number of autoimmune diseases but docs haven't been able to explain my ever-increasing fatigue. Was referred to a WONDERFUL hematologist last week - spent 3 hours discussing my history, reviewing past blood work - he even brought in 3 associates because I had such an "interesting" history and thought they might be able to bounce some things off each other. Ended up getting 24 vials of blood taken!!! They said that I would hear back from them in a week - and they would be able to at least, rule some things out, at best, figure out what's wrong. Their approach was so different than the other doctors I've seen - asked so many questions that I've never been asked or thought of before...

Maybe a hematologist could offer some light?