When I had my first manic episode 10 years ago, I had for the first time ever been seeing a psychiatrist who put me on 60 mg of Celexa for chronic pain, which he said was 'somatoform disorder'. He knew my father is bipolar and when I started calling his office complaining of manic symptoms and unbearable anxiety, an inability to sleep, he didn't change my meds. Then I started having auditory hallucinations and called his office and he still didn't change my meds. I ended up calling the mobile unit team and they took me in to hospital. I passed out under the flourescent lights which triggered unbelievable facial pain, like trigeminal neuralgia.

I woke up behind locked doors and was labelled as a psychotic bipolar at that time. I was crying from incredible shooting pains across my face. I tried describing the pain but no one did anything for 4 or 5 days until a nurse said I was having symptoms of trigeminal neuralgia and got a doctor to prescribe me carbamazapine, which quelled the pain.

When i got out of the hospital I went to the dentist and she looked in and saw immediately I had a cracked too, which was what was triggering the pain. I ended up having it pulled as it was too far gone to fix.

Needless to say I never went back to that psychiatrist again. I wonder how many other patients he wrecked by his negligence or lack of knowledge, which ever it is.

I got on a waiting list for another one but it was 8 months from discharge to when I could see him. In the meantime I just had a gp to prescribe me meds.