Story Experience with Psychiatry

[Intheo]

I've had counseling for years but I have little experience with psychiatrists or doctors who can prescribe medication. In my desperation, I've been reaching out to almost any sort of help and started going to counseling again, but I also booked a meeting with a psychiatrist at a big hospital. I didn't know what to expect but I thought maybe it'd be a counseling session where he'd assess me and maybe prescribe me some meds. My experience was quite disappointing and unhelpful.

I guess I should've expected it from a big hospital but it was nowhere near as personal as a counseling session with my therapist. I was one person in a long line of people and I got sent to one of a doctors who was available. I go into the room and there's a med school student on her computer taking notes and both her and the doc are wearing lab coats behind a a long desk and computers. Okay, way less personal. The doc asks me a bunch of questions about my life and my history with depression, and it was difficult to talk openly and honestly due to the environment and his attitude. He then gave me an explanation of bipolar II disorder and said I have that, not depression. PhDs in psychology have said I have all the hallmarks of depressive mood disorder and nobody mentioned bipolar disorder until now, so that surprised me a bit. He made it seem like mental issues are like a simple math equation like, "just add xyz and you're fixed." He then referred me to another doctor in another area who can get me meds and said if I take some meds that balance out my brain chemistry for a couple months, I should be fixed. Is it that fucking simple?

He basically seemed like most doctors I've met. They act like everything has a simple fix which obviously isn't true otherwise nobody would have chronic health issues. I spent all that money to see this guy only to be referred to another doctor who's probably his med-school buddy so I can pay this other guy to give me meds. But maybe he is right and the answers I've been searching for my whole life is simple as taking meds for a couple months. But then I think about how my country ranks consistently among the highest suicide rates in the world and how wrong many doctors I've encountered have been about things. I'm a bit scared to get meds honestly.

Is your experience with psychiatry as disappointing as mine? Should I go see someone else?

 

[so tired or manic]

it's not a couple months, it's a lifetime. and your body gets used to them after a bit and you have to start over again until you find the next combination that works. and it's always a combination, not just one magic pill.

but they do make life more manageable and easier to go day to day

 

[Abgrundanziehung]

I'm sorry to hear that. I know exactly what you mean with how cold and impersonal it all is. I was just wondering how many people on here have actually had a reasonably positive overall experience with the mental health field. The main reason I continue with semi-regular psychiatrist and counselor appts has been to document my illnesses to get on disability. Psychotropic medications do very little for me since I live with serious chronic illness, pain and my mental health issues are mostly due to not being able to live a reasonably good life because of my physical limitations. Most of the meds I've tried make me worse and the only ones that have worked reasonably well are benzos and ambien. Ironically, my current psychiatrist doesn't want to prescribe them even though they helped me feel semi stable for the first time in 13 years. I find the whole thing ridiculous, honestly. I keep hoping the next med they try with me will help more than harm, but continue to be disappointed.

 

[Deleted member 1465]

I've had counseling for years but I have little experience with psychiatrists or doctors who can prescribe medication. In my desperation, I've been reaching out to almost any sort of help and started going to counseling again, but I also booked a meeting with a psychiatrist at a big hospital. I didn't know what to expect but I thought maybe it'd be a counseling session where he'd assess me and maybe prescribe me some meds. My experience was quite disappointing and unhelpful.

I guess I should've expected it from a big hospital but it was nowhere near as personal as a counseling session with my therapist. I was one person in a long line of people and I got sent to one of a doctors who was available. I go into the room and there's a med school student on her computer taking notes and both her and the doc are wearing lab coats behind a a long desk and computers. Okay, way less personal. The doc asks me a bunch of questions about my life and my history with depression, and it was difficult to talk openly and honestly due to the environment and his attitude. He then gave me an explanation of bipolar II disorder and said I have that, not depression. PhDs in psychology have said I have all the hallmarks of depressive mood disorder and nobody mentioned bipolar disorder until now, so that surprised me a bit. He made it seem like mental issues are like a simple math equation like, "just add xyz and you're fixed." He then referred me to another doctor in another area who can get me meds and said if I take some meds that balance out my brain chemistry for a couple months, I should be fixed. Is it that fucking simple?

He basically seemed like most doctors I've met. They act like everything has a simple fix which obviously isn't true otherwise nobody would have chronic health issues. I spent all that money to see this guy only to be referred to another doctor who's probably his med-school buddy so I can pay this other guy to give me meds. But maybe he is right and the answers I've been searching for my whole life is simple as taking meds for a couple months. But then I think about how my country ranks consistently among the highest suicide rates in the world and how wrong many doctors I've encountered have been about things. I'm a bit scared to get meds honestly.

Is your experience with psychiatry as disappointing as mine? Should I go see someone else?

I read your account knowing what the punchline would be. Medications. Then you are fixed. That, unfortunately, is bollocks. If that's their attitude then they are fools. That's what most psychs do. Medication and tell you what you should be thinking and feeling. It's deeply impersonal and dismissive. They slot you into a category and follow a pharmaceutical care pathway.

https://sanctioned-suicide.net/thre...psycho-active-prescription-medications.40224/

As to the alternative? Well, I think we are still all working on that. I'm trying to improve my diet, get exercise, take supplements, do the gardening and listen to my body and my surroundings. But it's slow, hard work and doesn't fix everything.

 

[GoodPersonEffed]

I would research the diagnosis and if the descriptions don't fit your experience, then don't accept it. Then you can decide if you want to see someone else, but I personally wouldn't return to him or go to his buddy, even if I did lose money in the process. What's important is that you made an investment in yourself, not the jerk doctor.

 

[BitterlyAlive]

My experiences have been horribly impersonal and frustrating. I do want to say, if the psychiatrist is correct about the bipolar diagnosis, what he said about being on meds for a "couple of months" is crap. Bipolar disorder is legitimately a brain chemistry issue and medications are needed to manage it; it's also a lifetime issue.

Unfortunately, since psychiatrists tend to simply prescribe medications now, I would expect experiences like this. Maybe I'm just being cynical though.

How do you feel about the meeting with the psychiatrist? If it feels "off" to you, maybe get a second opinion. I guess I want to add one more thing: from what I understand, bipolar II tends to be diagnosed as unipolar depression at first because the depressive episodes are more frequent and obvious than hypomania.

 

[Deleted member 17949]

I had a small amount of counselling through college when I was 17. It did not work well for me at all. There just wasn't any change.

 

[Intheo]

My experiences have been horribly impersonal and frustrating. I do want to say, if the psychiatrist is correct about the bipolar diagnosis, what he said about being on meds for a "couple of months" is crap. Bipolar disorder is legitimately a brain chemistry issue and medications are needed to manage it; it's also a lifetime issue.

Unfortunately, since psychiatrists tend to simply prescribe medications now, I would expect experiences like this. Maybe I'm just being cynical though.

How do you feel about the meeting with the psychiatrist? If it feels "off" to you, maybe get a second opinion. I guess I want to add one more thing: from what I understand, bipolar II tends to be diagnosed as unipolar depression at first because the depressive episodes are more frequent and obvious than hypomania.

I feel like I just wasted time and money going to a doctor who didn't help me at all. I'm apprehensive about going to another doctor who may just be the same.
I will talk to my therapist about this. I mentioned this to another person I know who is a licensed therapist and he said he thinks the doctor already made up his mind about what to diagnosis me with.

After reading some of the reponses, I will probably never go to a psychiatrist again unless they make psychedelic treatment legal. I'm thoroughly disappointed that I am dealing with not just the one doctor's bias, but the bias of an entire field on top of the general cultural bias of where I live.

 

[esse_est_percipi]

The problem is that psychiatrists, and a lot of doctors, just don't really care about the people who see them, because they don't actually see them as real people. Psychiatrists see their patients as a set of mental and behavioural symptoms and pathologies which can be classified according to specialized psychiatric knowledge. This dehumanizes the patient, as they are no longer seen as a fully-fledged person on equal terms with the psychiatrist. Foucault labelled this the 'medical gaze', although he was talking about doctors in general, who only see their patients as a body with isolated symptoms and not as people on equal terms with the doctor. This can only create anxiety, alienation and a feeling of being dehumanized.

They get paid a lot of money to categorize and prescribe drugs to people, that's it. Do you really think they'll shed a tear for a patient they saw the other week who ctb'd? I doubt it. A lot of psychiatrists probably hugely enjoy the power and status their job brings them. They are probably not losing sleep at night thinking about some of the difficult lives their patients have, and how they could help them without immediately prescribing the latest combination of psychotroptic pills with a little bit of 'talking therapy' thrown in.
The institution of psychiatry is about knowledge, control and power. The knowledge that the psychiatrists supposedly have after years of medical school and which their patients don't have, the control they exert over their patients via classification systems and technical jargon, and the power relations that flow from all that, heavily in favour of the psychiatrists. And helping big pharma to make a tidy profit, too.

 

[everydayiloveyou]

Doesnt most of the research on SSRIs and stuff show that theyre usually no better than a placebo? I've never been under the influence of anything in my life, so I feel like I cant fathom how meds change you. Are you aware that you're acting different? Can you control yourself? I have a weird fear that I'll go on meds one day and feel nothing but the random side effects. But i definitely want to try them out someday and see if it'll relieve my anxiety a bit.

I think psych is like any medical field. Shitty doctors give shitty care. you need to find someone good. They definitely exist, the issue is just whether you can access and afford them. I had a great therapist once, and I think my time with her was not wasted. But I also had a bad therapist, and that was definitely a waste of money and time.

Unfortunately in psych, it's hard to tell if a doc really sucks right away. It's not like with optometry or dentistry where a shitty doctor always produces shitty results. People rarely leave reviews too. Someone who is mentally ill enough to seek professional help probably already has "bad results" so no one notices or cares when we come out of the psych office doing worse. Because it's not as simple as just looking at us, and a bad psych usually has more long-term effects than short-term ones.

 

[Intheo]

Doesnt most of the research on SSRIs and stuff show that theyre usually no better than a placebo? I've never been under the influence of anything in my life, so I feel like I cant fathom how meds change you. Are you aware that you're acting different? Can you control yourself? I have a weird fear that I'll go on meds one day and feel nothing but the random side effects. But i definitely want to try them out someday and see if it'll relieve my anxiety a bit.

I think psych is like any medical field. Shitty doctors give shitty care. you need to find someone good. They definitely exist, the issue is just whether you can access and afford them. I had a great therapist once, and I think my time with her was not wasted. But I also had a bad therapist, and that was definitely a waste of money and time.

Unfortunately in psych, it's hard to tell if a doc really sucks right away. It's not like with optometry or dentistry where a shitty doctor always produces shitty results. People rarely leave reviews too. Someone who is mentally ill enough to seek professional help probably already has "bad results" so no one notices or cares when we come out of the psych office doing worse. Because it's not as simple as just looking at us, and a bad psych usually has more long-term effects than short-term ones.

I've been on a few different meds and I can say it's definitely not a placebo. They generally made me actually feel worse so I didn't seek them out.

Psychiatry and psychology are two different fields. Psychiatrists are not therapists. Psychiatrists are lab coat wearing MDs who, like most doctors act like they know everything because they went to med school. They just want to prescribe you drugs so they can say they fixed you. The field of psychiatry has pretty much been at a standstill since they outlawed psychedelic research back in the 60s.

I have a separate therapist who has been good so far. Unlike the doctor, she stresses that meds can't fix you and have to be used in conjunction with other avenues of treatment if you used at all.

 

[Nymph]

I've had counseling for years but I have little experience with psychiatrists or doctors who can prescribe medication. In my desperation, I've been reaching out to almost any sort of help and started going to counseling again, but I also booked a meeting with a psychiatrist at a big hospital. I didn't know what to expect but I thought maybe it'd be a counseling session where he'd assess me and maybe prescribe me some meds. My experience was quite disappointing and unhelpful.

I guess I should've expected it from a big hospital but it was nowhere near as personal as a counseling session with my therapist. I was one person in a long line of people and I got sent to one of a doctors who was available. I go into the room and there's a med school student on her computer taking notes and both her and the doc are wearing lab coats behind a a long desk and computers. Okay, way less personal. The doc asks me a bunch of questions about my life and my history with depression, and it was difficult to talk openly and honestly due to the environment and his attitude. He then gave me an explanation of bipolar II disorder and said I have that, not depression. PhDs in psychology have said I have all the hallmarks of depressive mood disorder and nobody mentioned bipolar disorder until now, so that surprised me a bit. He made it seem like mental issues are like a simple math equation like, "just add xyz and you're fixed." He then referred me to another doctor in another area who can get me meds and said if I take some meds that balance out my brain chemistry for a couple months, I should be fixed. Is it that fucking simple?

He basically seemed like most doctors I've met. They act like everything has a simple fix which obviously isn't true otherwise nobody would have chronic health issues. I spent all that money to see this guy only to be referred to another doctor who's probably his med-school buddy so I can pay this other guy to give me meds. But maybe he is right and the answers I've been searching for my whole life is simple as taking meds for a couple months. But then I think about how my country ranks consistently among the highest suicide rates in the world and how wrong many doctors I've encountered have been about things. I'm a bit scared to get meds honestly.

Is your experience with psychiatry as disappointing as mine? Should I go see someone else?

My experience wasn't disappointing but I also only go to 1 psychiatrist. What's been disappointing is that depression and anxiety can't ever be fully cured. You just have to test medications and see what works better. I've tested so many, it takes a very long time. I mean you get 1 medication and you need to test it for at least a month or more. Once I got an absolutely terrible medication and I felt nauseous all the time and it ended with me not being able to attend school for a week. I already started the meds so I couldn't end it abruptly cause that would make me feel even worse. I called a center for help and I even considered going to a mental hospital because the meds made me feel crazy. And the meds stayed in my body for a week +. Then I eventually changed it and it's been fine. But the meds I have rn still don't make me feel 'happy' I don't feel like going on for too long
My experience with a therapist has been pretty bad because she only told me stuff I already knew or was talk before by my own mom. I told her I'm depressed always anxious and feel like dying and she told me to go outside more. I mean bitch what the fuck is going outside gonna fix. And they all think that going out makes everyone feel better but they don't understand that everyone has different needs. I'm super anti social and like to stay indoors and just be in my flat unless I'm going to school or whatever. It's what makes me feel good. I don't want to spend my free time forcing myself outside.