Behavioral Symptoms & Diagnoses

Elthea Jacobs received many diagnoses throughout her experiences with mental health professionals and counselors. She identified some that the professionals had not suggested that fit her symptoms better than those she was offered. Misdiagnosis is alarmingly common in psychiatric care and can lead to lengthy delays in appropriate treatment.

The Elthea Center prefers a focus on symptoms since diagnosis commonly is arrived upon after observing symptoms and pigeonholing the patient into categories the doctor is familiar with. This selection of diagnoses available to the doctor is, by necessity, limited. These diagnoses may be useful for compensation of care through the patient's insurance program, but can have misleading and counterproductive effects upon the patient's self-care, limiting their action to only those treatments and methods appropriate to the diagnosis and overlooking symptoms not a part of that diagnosis.

Focusing on symptoms not only creates a treatment program customized for the patient, but allows the patient to prioritize those symptoms of the greatest concern. Some symptoms of a diagnosis may not even apply or they may be of little concern to the patient. Prioritization may be a approach that more quickly leads to the patient's desired outcome (life satisfaction and socially adaptive behavior.)

NOTE: Most links lead to a definition page (NAMI, NIH, wikipedia, or other.) In time, each page should provide numerous resources for treatment suggestions and resources.

Emails requesting prioritization of specific pages may be taken into account. The research and anti-depressant index pages may provide some help until then.

Addiction (inability to stop something deemed harmful)

Agnosia (inability to recognize errant behavior in oneself)

Ahedonia (absence of pleasure)

Anorexia (unwillingness to eat marked by very low body weight)

Anxiety (see also) (a feeling something awful is about to happen)

Asociality (disinterest in, or inability to engage in socializing)

Avolition (inability to initiate activity, inertia)

Bulemia (voluntarily vomiting, usually to avoid weight gain)

Dissociation (feeling as though one is watching one’s life, rather than controlling it)

Emotional Dysregulation (high anxiety due to extremely intense emotions)

Executive Function Deficiency (inability to Plan, Organize, and Act)

Flattening (feeling numb)

Fog (a.k.a. brain fog - inability to concentrate)

Guilt (uncomfortable memories of past actions, sometimes with potential for rectification)

Hypocrisy (involuntary / unwitting contradiction of ideals and actions)

Identity Instability (malleable personality based on who someone is with)

Impulsivity (taking actions without thought about consequences)

Insomnia (Difficulty falling or staying asleep)

Lying (in excess to risk and reward ratios, uncommon frequency, or causing detrimental life outcomes)

Mania (extreme confidence/happiness, associated with high risk / addictive behavior)

Misophonia (extreme distress from especially irritating sound [esp. chewing noises

Negativity (Frequent, groundless pessimism)

Panic Attacks

Paranoia (strong, groundless suspicion that someone is thinking ill of you [with or without an intent to act on it])

PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder - jumpy, rage, flashbacks, and more)

Rage (anger that causes maladaptive behavior)

Ruminating (obsession with past events or actions)

Self-Harm (injuring oneself [e.g. cutting, burning one’s skin])

Self-Loathing (hating oneself for past actions taken, current status, or physical attributes)

Shame (uncomfortable memories of past actions or physical traits, often with no remedy)

Splitting (thinking of everything as good and bad with no in between and switching from one to the other)

Suicidal Ideation (thinking favorably about suicide, passively and actively)

Mental Diagnoses (Common Groupings of Comorbid Symptoms)

Asperger’s Syndrome (in females, sometimes misdiagnosed as ADHD)

Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (see also) (ADHD)

Autism (in females, sometimes misdiagnosed as ADHD)

Avoidant Personality Disorder (AvPD)

Bipolar I & II (See "Manic Depression" and "Double Depression", respectively, below)

Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD)

Body Dysmorphia

Conduct Disorder

Dissociation

Double Depression (Bipolar II)

Dysthmia

Major Depressive Disorder (MDD)

Manic Depression (Bipolar I)

Oppositional Defiance Disorder

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)

Substance Use Disorder (Addiction)

Treatment Resistant Depression

Treatment Refractory Depression