A weird feeling today. I came out of meeting with my Psych Team. Met with the Consultant. I was quite worried about this meeting but ultimately it was fine.
I found that after the meeting on the way home, I was reflecting Did I say too much or not enough? What is the actual prognosis in all this? Come back in 4 months and we’ll see if your still mad? Whats the point in what we’re doing?
Dont get me wrong, the Consultant was lovely… but what are we doing with me? Ask lots of questions about my delusions and hallucinations, then send me on my way?
I dont even know what I want or expect. Weird feeling! Anyone else?
I feel like the community support team does more harm than good. it was them that sort of created all the negativity in my mind about mental health, before I ever saw nurses and social workers I had no sense of stigma (or little) of mental health diagnosis and prognosis.
Same here, literally, the same. I felt like the were stopping me from pursuing university then I felt like they were interfering and all sorts more. It’s been a mostly negative experience
A good psychiatrist gets to know you. I don’t pay for my visits but they are 15 minutes tops every 6 weeks or so. In crisis that time don’t change but even doing it once a week it’s the same thing…..
Here’s the key. Get a good one. Now I’m stable we talk about things. He quickly determines whether I’m making sense and changes topics so we usually talk about the cricket. We sort out meds. We talk of other things. It’s not perfect but you need to be proactive anyways with mental health because it’s a dumb system under stress…..
If I need changes I go in aggressively but we sort it out. I listen to my shrink and he listens to me and we’ve changed things I’ve asked for over the 30 years I’ve seen him and I’ve listened to his advice too……
In that time he gave me the script to champix that got me off cigarettes and he got me onto the keto which totally changed my life for the better.
If you’ve a good shrink it makes a world of difference and it matters but you’ve got to be proactive still. Go in with an agenda……here;s where I need help. Here’s what I expect etc!
Thats exactly what Im saying. If my wife had come with, she would of relayed what was important and could of better answered the questions. Im really struggling to interp the outcome, truth be told.
In theory I agree, totally. But the lived reality here in the UK, particularly in this “sardine can” London, is not the same. The team Im under is for the chronics who Early Intervention couldn’t help. There is a head consultant with 3 junior doctors, and they manage a schedule of several hundreds of patients. Essentially, it’s 15-30mins once every 4 months. It feels like abandonment in many ways “Ah well. You’re fcuked. We cant help. Lets just monitor you”… like, how long is that going to continue for? I just feel I don’t grasp what we’re doing, ultimately.
Sometimes my wife comes with me, aslong as she is not tooo busy at work - yesterday she had too much on and couldn’t be there with me. But her being there is normally a big help for me.