He had his second appointment yesterday. He asked me to come into the meeting.

I really, really like this doctor. He's working on the meds, but he's not all about the meds. For example, when my son started talking about this gf who hurt him so much and said that he thought of her as his wife and now she's his ex-wife, the doc didn't say, "Oh, you're delusional, you need more meds, let's up the dose." He just talked to my son about how painful it is when a relationship ends and how it's better to face the pain and work through it than to make up a fantasy. (I've noticed my son's tendency to do this. When someone does something hurtful to him, he doesn't think, "Wow! That hurts!" Instead he tries to think of a less-hurtful reason that the person did that. The longer he thinks about it and speculates about it, the further he drifts from what really happened. Finally he's created an entire fantasy that is only tangentially related to reality. Then he believes that version of reality and acts like it's real. Then when he talks about it with other people - saying things like he has a wife, of example - people act like he's crazy. But he's just fallen into a mental trap while trying to keep himself safe from pain.)

He's all about getting my son busy - with a job or school - so he doesn't spend so much time alone with his thoughts. He talked about the days when people were sent to the state hospital and lived there for years. So many never got out. But they noticed a few people were getting better and getting out. So they looked at those patients to see what they were doing differently. Turns out they were staying up and helping the janitorial staff. This gave them social contact with tolerant and accepting people and work to do that they could feel good about and take pride in.

He said my son really needs to get out and socialize. He said he knows sometimes it's painful, especially when he acts odd sometimes and people aren't accepting of odd behavior, but he needs to push past that reluctance and get out there and hang out with people.

He also needs people to call when he finds himself ruminating. The doc says he should have a list of people who he can call and chat with when he starts getting lost in his thoughts. When he calls the people, he should not talk about the ruminations but about something else.

I'm just very happy with this doctor. He really has a balanced view of meds. He doesn't demonize them, but he considers them one tool amongst many.