This month Guideposts magazine published my story about the morning I met Dr. Smith at the Johns Hopkins Mood Disorders Center. It read a little bit like a fairy tale … …
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Site last updated: 21 May 2013
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If my chance one is able to find that “good” psychiatrist, it will be due to what that psychiatrist naturally IS, not due to anything they have been taught. In other words, if you are lucky enough to find one that still care enough about people to take the time to find out what is going on in their lives. Most of them don’t however. It doesn’t pay.
In the 50 minutes they could spend listening to your worries, upsets, etc., they could see four or five patients for “medication management” and pocket considerably more money.
And about those drugs: Consult the Physician’s Desk Reference (the big book of prescription drugs) and you find that none of the manufacturers of antidepressants or antipsychotics even knows what the “therapeutic mechanism” is for any of the drugs–they don’t know how they “work.”
Couple this with the fact that the psychiatric profession has never identified the cause of a single, solitary mental disorder. In other words, if you have pneumonia, the doctor can show it to you with an x-ray. If you have cancer (God forbid), that can also be proven to you with test results.
Tell me: would you undertake chemotherapy if your oncologist told he thought your symptoms were due to cancer(merely his opinion)? Probably not but every day, people are accepting psychiatric diagnoses based solely on a psychiatrist’s opinion and then taking drugs prescribed to them–drugs whose operation in the body has not be ascertained.
Crazy world we live in. Psychiatry is a fraud.
I am totally disgusted with phys nd doctors. You have to see a paitent tht usually last 5 .min Worst yet you dont listen to the patient. I am sounding mad I am. Its been 15 years where stress effects my stomach. I have been tesed and have several stomach problem that stress makes worse. after many phsy visits hospital stays, groups and much more I take medicine and valium for the stress. Is it not common sense when the strees increases increase the stomach medicine. More important why does the pshync tlk to the stomach problem.
I been suffering with stomach pains for many years nd i cant find a doctor or pshyinc to work together.
last week you wrote a great artical how phyciology and psyschiarts should talk. The other problem most of you dont listen to the paitent rather than make a digonose and treatment after five minuets.
you might not like what i said I have heard these concerns from other paitents ,doctors, and medical articles like yours. mabey you folks work together people problems may get solved.
Ken cherosky
kennethcherosky@aol.com
602-938-5382
As with any profession, it is important to exercise your own personal discretion. If someone doesn’t work well for you, simply move on. But, be sure to be fair and give the person a few sessions before you move on, as things can seem wrong when in fact you later find out you were mistaken (unless there are obvious red flags initially). If the professional seems not to be working in your best interest, then by all means move on. Be sure to talk to friends or family who are open about seeking professional help about finding a useful professional.
I know…it is frustrating and diappointing, many times. I found a Psych. I really thought cared. AND…for the most part, they did. But, instead of focusing on the “issues” at hand, eventually they started discussing their favorite movies, and books, etc. It was like buying a $120.oo an hour friendship. I got disgusted, became disillusioned, couldn’t stand-up for myself, and eventually quit. I’ve never had another one since. To be quite honest, I know I need to talk to someone, because of issues I deal with on a daily basis, but now I am afraid that the same thing that happened with the last two, will just happen again. I hear you. It’s frustrating. :>(
For more than 30 years, my presenting symptoms of depression led, quite naturally, to treatment with antidepressants. When I failed to get well, I concluded that I must have Borderline Personality Disorder. When I confided my suspcions to my therapist, she seized upon this explanation of what must doubtless have been a difficult client.
In November 2009, no longer able to continue my graduate program and finding my workload impossible despite putting in 60 and 80 hour weeks, I asked my husband to find a psychiatrist who could (1) see me in evenings or on weekends and (2) start from scratch with a comprehensive diagnostic interview. He found one.
Surprise! I had Attention Deficit Disorder, never before apparent due to my ability to call cognitive skills into action where my attention lagged.
My psychiatrist treated me with a variety of ADD medications, eventually settling on one that worked well for me. At that point I rather suddenly became extraordinarily attentive to the petty meannesses, bullying, and worse that exist in most corporate environments. Surprise again! I had Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, its genesis a childhood where I witnessed and experienced abuse, partially masked for years by my ADD but now fullblown. My workplace failed to follow its own personnel rules for individuals in distress, instead disciplining me and ignoring my psychiatrist’s repeated requests for reasonable accommodation.
My psychiatrist and an expensive lawyer got me out of my workplace. I had worked there ten years, receiving kudos, awards, and nothing but fine-to-excellent performance reviews. I left with my benefits intact, including retirement at age 57 (which means now) and long-term disability. I’ve since been awarded SSDI on the first round, which I understand is unusual, although with my constellation of psychological and physical problems — I haven’t even mentioned those — I suppose it wasn’t hard to meet the standard for disability.
I frequently still want to die. Conflict sends me through the roof. I ate 50 diazepam after a fight with my husband the other night. With the “hollow leg” I developed during my years of alcohol abuse –it’s been almost 25 years since I stopped drinking, thank goodness, or I would surely be dead — I was merely unsteady on my feet. I refused to go to an emergency room; I’ve have quite enough emergency rooms for one year, and I can think of nothing less appealing than being locked up.
Long story short: Depression can be a symptom, not a diagnosis in itself. And watch out: you usually get what you pay for in mental health care.
How do you find a good psychiatist? Someone takes the risk to share, from experience either personally or from reliable information from another person who received care, about good, responsible, and ethical services from a psychiatrist. And good is subjective, isn’t it?
I would like to see a site like this ask providers how they recommend other colleagues to people they meet outside the office who are not patient referrals to said provider. That would be an interesting thread to read.
Assuming providers would be honest and direct for readers to benefit from the post. That would be beyond interesting; until proven otherwise, for me that would be incredulous from what I have witnessed these days! Sorry, better living through chemistry is what my profession has degraded to of late.
And, by the way, Carazy above is right on the mark: you usually get what you pay for in mental health care. Start with this question: at least here on the East Coast, why do private practice psychiatrists have a 2 to 3 month, or even longer, waiting list for new patients? Especially patients with insurance?
I truly hope a reader with copious experience could answer this question with reliability.
I found my current, and excellent, psychiatrist at the psych ward in town. The main clinic of psychiatrists took turns staffing the hospital and when I was there for the first time she was the doctor on duty. She was straight-forward, caring and yet pulled no punches. I immediately scheduled an intake appointment and have never been disappointed. Yes, she only sees me for 10 to 15 minutes on a normal appointment but when I have had severe problems she has spent as much time as I have needed with me. Her primary function is to work with my medications. She also wants me to have a therapist, which I also have. I lucked out with her too as I just randomly picked a therapist and got a good one. My psychiatrist always reads my therapist’s notes and references them if there is a problem. She also remembers personal information about me (that I volunteer at PCs4people, have two dogs…) and that always surprises me as I know she has a very large caseload. But she remembers me. She is a caring and knowledgeable psychiatrist.