BAD experiences with psy.doc's? Anyone?

I changed my forum name once I found out that this forum is crawled. I was appalled that it is crawled. I wrote to the moderators with indignation and they cited the sign-up language that I missed (overlooked). Then I changed my forum name. But now I am fine - that is what anonymity is for. As for the record, my first psychiatrist, who missed the impending suicide attempt, primarily noted how I looked in his notes. The last record has exclamation marks after "extremely well dressed!!!" It would be a very compelling online account to juxtapose his shallow notes with the unraveling reality. And it would not expose me - he probably writes this way about other people. It is not completely out of place to note appearance (professional or neat vs disheveled and too hot for the season would be good examples) but to be so obsessed with it is abnormal. This is by the way the psychiatrist who went delusional when he learned about my suicide attempt. He called my then husband frantically and told him that I had run away from the hospital. I was comatose. So the psychiatrist was in serious need of mental help himself. I kick myself for sticking with him. He was fresh into private practice after being the head of a big psychiatry department at a clinical foundation; I thought that was a good recommendation.

Back to the records on how I looked - he would not give them to me, only to another p-doc. My neuropsychologist let me take a peek, this is how I know the content of his notes. So while I would not see a privacy peril in posting all those incessant notes about looks, I simply do not have the material.

You can access your own medical records at any time. No doctor can keep them from you. Just an FYI.

In the UK you can ask to see your records, but they can withhold them or parts of them if they think it will be detrimental to your health - sneaky as that could cover anything!!

1st Uni pdoc - He never listened to me and was very dismissive. Told me to go jogging instead of S/H. Wouldn't prescribe meds, and just couldn't see past the fact that I was a medical student. Kept talking about how amazing schizophrenia is - his pet research topic - presumably unless you happen to have schizophrenia! I left after my 4th appt which went round and round in circles.

2nd Uni pdoc - He is really good and I'm hoping to go back if I'm accepted onto my postgrad course. Unfortunately I don't live nearby so I have to stop seeing him when I'm at home. He is very knowledgeable and explains why he thinks/prescribes certain things and validates how I feel. His timekeeping is appalling but I'll forgive him almost anything by this point.

1st home pdoc - a junior doctor; quite inexperienced. Kept asking me about my sex life in front of my mother!

2nd home pdoc - He was the jr dr's consultant. Typical 40%er, by which I mean he had the emotional intelligence and communication skills of a cockroach and would never have made it in a more competitive branch of medicine.

3rd home pdoc - Her communication skills are a bit better but she prefers me to decide what treatments to start and what doses to take. Personally I would like her to be the doctor and use her expertise and experience, whilst taking my feelings/preferences into account.

Unfortunately 3rd home pdoc is the last pdoc in my area I can see, so I'm just biding my time til Sept now to be honest when hopefully I can go back to 2nd uni pdoc. There are good pdocs out there; it's just a shame they are so hard to find!

*Willow*

Thank you everyone for posting

So, I think you should give it a lot of thought before you put names on the internet. Looks like hamster-bamster's done it pretty good, but did you also write your own name on the pages? I mean, one could just write the name of the psychiatrist, I guess.

I don't feel ashamed about being bipolar, but I still wouldn't like everone to know the specific symptoms and such, that I've had.

Maybe not dumb, but rather reductionist in their approach towards patients. I apologize to those that may be potentially offended by this statement because they have good pdocs, teeheee!; but often this is too true.

Short assignment slots (and yes, even 45 minutes is kinda short when it comes to life). So one has to do their own research and listen to their own mind and body (and screw the whole "lack of insight" implication). They are doctors so they gonna be focused on the medical aspects of the problems... but our problems are much more complex.