Sad to say, this hasn't been my experience. The first few psychiatrists I went to -- due to a severe bout of anxiety/depression I'd been going through (I hadn't eaten in a week, or slept in days -- not unusual, but I'd hit my breaking point) -- kept brushing me off entirely.

Growing up, if I made the mistake of failing to hide whatever difficult life circumstance I was going through, I'd be singled out like prey (the older I get, the more mystified I am by the adults -- the teachers, especially -- and the sadistic pleasure they seemed to take in yelling at me for being 'lazy' and 'worthless' and whatever else made me an abomination. Strange -- as an adult, I don't look at little kids and think "jeez, you know what would be awesome? Treating a 7 year old worse than a prisoner at Abu Grhaib!").. So, to survive the psychological warfare, I had to feign normalcy/mediocrity with vigilance, *especially* during hard times. Because of this, to this day, the worse I feel, the more pleasant and personable I am to strangers - it's automatic; like a switch that goes on and off. Or on and fades..

So, I guess it comes down to this with the psychiatrists: I was too 'personable' to have any problems; I had to be the 'standard of health,' regardless of everything I described that went against that. And though I have become quite good at laying out the facts, my delivery wasn't adequately fitting their stereotyped image; 'TV Movie of the Week" cliche, to be accepted.. as if this is a carbon copy/cookie cutter world...... Ironic, as this has to make them easy prey for any manipulative sociopath walking through their door (who plans to, and succeeds in walking out with a diagnosis of anything but sociopathy).

Fortunately, I finally found a psychiatrist capable of thinking outside the confines of a teeny tiny, itsy bitsy little box.. but it took a lot of wasted dr visits to get there. So yeah, I advise going Doctor hunting til you find someone who actually cares about their patients, and about practicing medicine--well!