Hi All,

About 15 years ago I was diagnosed with GAD. Recently I've been feeling more depressed, which led me to contact Kaiser, where I have health insurance. They gave me a short-term CBT therapist, and I think through her she suggested I see a psychiatrist since no one has been monitoring me for the SSRIs I am on for years. I take 150mg of sertraline (Zoloft) and have been for a couple of years with no one checking in about it.

So, a couple of days ago I meet the psychiatrist online for the first time. He is not a good listener- I tell him my cat recently passed away and about times when I was in college and then later in the conversation he asks if I have any pets and if I went to college- and he suggests a gamut of drugs, including buspar or the like and also an antipsychotic (ablify) to work in adjunct with the SSRI, which he suggests I take at a higher dose. He tells me he will give me a therapist when I express my frustration with the Kaiser system. And, he tells me to forgo caffeine completely after I tell him how much coffee I drink (a lot).

It's been a couple of days and I am realizing now that I didn't want a long-term therapist- I have an issue I want to go over with a therapist and have an appointment with one outside of Kaiser at it stands. And I think a better starting point would be for me to cut down with caffeine, which is what I'm doing, and now I'm only drinking caffeinated tea (day 2). I don't know if I trust this psychiatrist and I also don't know if I have the option of seeing someone else or if I even really want to. I have been feeling sad but I don't want such aggressive treatment.