BAD experiences with psy.doc's? Anyone?

Ok, so here goes:

It's beginning to feel like spring and for the last 3 springs, I've had major depression, sometimes with slightly psyhotic elements (just feeling like things aren't real all the time). I get hypomanic in each autumn, it's very cyclical for me.

I'm now starting to hate again my former psychiatrist, who put me on both Venlafaxine and Mirtazapine (SNRI) - he never saw my bipolar disorder, so he mis-medicated me. I guess that is a normal story for many of us?

BUT then he was really mean afterwards, like after 2 years of consulting him A LOT, I tell him someone else diagnosed me as bipolar (I don't know why he didn't see my hypomania, or thought it was weird I was always depressed in spring). NOW HE HAS NOT EVEN APOLOGIZED AND HE ACTS LIKE HE DIAGNOSED ME AS BIPOLAR.

He won't apologize and just told me to: "come by his office if I needed help again"). (Ew, no thanks - the Mirtazapine and Venlafaxine put me in a mixed state etc.). He's so arrogant and won't come of his high horse, I want to complain about it to the medical system. But then, I heard that it might end up with them telling him: "It's okay to make a mistake" - doctors have the right to do that.

What do you do with your anger towards bad practitioners? I could also write about it on the internet and tag his name a lot..

I AM SOOOO ANGRY, he could have killed me 3 times with his treatment and when I was first psychotically depressed he didn't give me medication.

Please, everyone. share your story.

Unfortunately, most of my pdocs - well, actually, all of them - have been pretty lousy.

The one that made me really mad took a long blog post to work out: http://disorderlychickadee.wordpress...-psychiatrist/

I just left my most recent pdoc without a replacement lined up. They yanked a very helpful med and started me on something else that was less than useless; the side effects became intolerable, and when I called for help, there was no reply. I don't need to put up with being treated that way.

My old pdoc never diagnosed bipolar and I think the Effexor is what switched me into mania. The pdoc at the hospital here is useless and was all for sending me to a homeless shelter after I'd been put on seroquel (a truly horrid concoction and then od'd). I wish I'd never even gone to a doctor. I am more depressed now than ever. Another time a GP put me on two meds, one of them Halcyon and it nearly killed me and made me psychotic. I was hauled off by the police!!!
So far I think meds have done more harm than good and I resent it!

Good luck to you.

I am to the point I am done with pdocs and medication. I have had 4 different ones and none of them can get my medication right so Im done trying. I have had no peace of mind, no easy feeling, no comfort in years since before I ever started medication. Yes I did go through my cycles but I atleast felt something other than the sadness and pain depression brings. I am trying to wean myself off my medications now and am considering not even going to my appointment Monday with the pdoc. He doesnt listen to me, he doesnt realize how much the side effects bother me. He doesnt care, so why should I even go. I am just so upset. Right now Im sitting here having brain shocks from reducing my zoloft. I just realized I havent been happy in so long and I have been teetering with thoughts of suicide daily for the past couple of months. When this doesnt bother a pdoc nothing will. He just puts me on more heavy *** drugs and sends my back to my couch. Im completely off the seroquel and am working on going off the zoloft next will be tegretol and geodon. I just cant get right on meds.
Is this normal for pdocs? Maybe hes just giving up on me who knows. He does know when I say I want to die, I mean business. He is the doctor who saw me in the psych ward the last time I attempted it after the hospital released me to them.
Im just done...

Yeah, I've had my share of crappy pdocs, too. One was arrogant he didn't listen to me at all,and actually yelled at me that I always wanted things my way, etc, etc, etc. (I had simply asked him if he had a calendar handy, as I could not remember the date I had been released from the hospital.) He gave me exactly 21 days in the hosp, then discharged me, ready or not. When I had a gall bladder attack and subsequent removal, my swings went wild. I asked him to see me. His office said that he couldn't without a referral, so I got a referral, then he told me to make an appt when I got out. I dumped him then and there. (This is the same guy who did an unnecessary breast exam during my intake physical, and refused me sleeping pills during my whole hospitalization.) Called my T and got a new guy, who was moderately better, but ended up moving across country without warning me.

So, yup, I've had my share of crappy docs, too, and I commiserate with you.

Animaniac:
Thought a lot of us had stories like that. Maybe it's a good idea to blog about it, I was appalled to read that the psychiatrist would say bipolar is overdiagnosed (WHAT`??). When in fact, most of us have not been diagnosed yet, and there will always be a certain amount of the population with bipolar. But you didn't mention her name in the article? Frankly, I'm so frustrated I'm thinking about doing that.
My psychiatrist did the same thing with asking me the same things over and over - he spelled my name wronly and did not even remember where I lived after 2 years of counseling.
Yours - like mine - sounded like she didn't take your illness seriously at all. Mine thought it came from the milieu - my parents - and made the relationship with them tough for a while. It had nothing to do with them - they were so supportive and of course it's genetic.

Thank you for posting.

Stryder:

Wow, thats awful. Effexor made me in a mixed state, I was delusional too and almost killed myself. You obviously did NOT get the right, stabilizing medications like Lithium, Valproate or Lamictal - I'm sure that will work. The Effexor works against your illness!

Moremi: I know they can suck, but I really rely on medication - it's the one of the best things, I think. I would be so nervous to go off it. Are you sure, there's no stabilizers, that you can tolerate? I mean, I don't dare go off meds now, everytime I know I will swing right back into the arms of depression or mania.

BuggsBunny: he sounds so manipulating! Mine also did not even consider giving me sleeping pills when I actually only slept 3-4 hours for to whole months! I was so psychotic.

SO TO ALL: I'm new here, that you for replying and "sharing the misery". I guess we really need better psy.docs out there. Mine even refused to take responsibility for his actions - it's one thing to make a mistake, I think, another one to deny you did. He also tried to overdose me with VEnlafaxine, wanted me to go from 75 mg. to ****ing 225 in like, 5 days. That's supposed to be carefully done withing 1,5 month!!

I'm sorry you all have had such a struggle to get the help that you need. Please keep looking for new pdocs, if you find a good one it helps so much. There are stacks of drugs out there, so keep on looking for the right combo... Good luck and

The thing with the medications are that I am always very very low or high and low within hours. I have no middle ground and with all the side effects to boot, I just cant handle it anymore. If I do start going manic I have some pills to take to bring myself down. Seroquel is good for that, I just cant stay on it long term. I actually miss my highs so badly. I will get them for an hour and then get mixed states for a couple days then back to depression. Its awful. Hope you are feeling better today. I just saw you are from Australia, what a beautiful place. I hope to visit there one day.

BlackPup: you're right, I did find both a great psychologist and psychiatrist and so I'm very happy about that! Thank you.

moremi: that sounds like mixed state, all of it - both the depression, mixed state and mania you describe. Have you got a mood stabilizer, that works? Or does your dosis need to be upped? Hugs and thank you.

I had an awesome pdoc first time around. My new pdoc leaves a lot to be desired. I do have a lot of skills and tools to deal with bipolar and I am pretty active in my treatment. Pdocs will either appreciate that or not like it. I research every med myself before I take it and if I am not ok with taking it for reasonable reasons I will voice that to my pdoc and we can look for a better alternative. There are some really good pdocs and some really bad ones. You have to be your own advocate when it comes to your health, same with physical health. You know your body and mind better than anyone else. I think it's pretty sad that a lot of pdocs do not treat patients as if they have a clue.

If my pdocs had it their way I would be sedated all the time in a zombie like way full if antipsychotics that they tell me I need for life, that isn't acceptable to me. I am a single mom and I need to be coherent. I do fine without antipsychotics 24/7 so what is their reasoning?

Thats is what I want to know. I do not need them. Why do they insist I take them all the time. Its the antipsychotics that make me feel so lousy.

Haha ugh I don't know. Brainwashing.... If patient looks like this... Then this is standard treatment, forget what you heard about patients being individuals. Or big pharma incentives maybe. Really I'm not sure, I only take antipsychotics when I am very manic or mixed and when I have psychosis, when I am better I go off them. I think their theory is stay on them and then you won't get manic or psychosis, this hadn't held true for me in the past tho. My idea is give me tools, skills and equip me with more knowledge and treat my whole being. That's where I have had the best outcome.

I think she was trying to be responsibly cautious with diagnosis, and I respect that. It just wasn't getting me anywhere fast.

I've since dropped my second psych in a year. They were giving me no respect and treating me pretty badly. So now I'm looking again!

Just an FYI, tegretol is also an anti-seizure med, and can cause actual seizures if you try to go off cold turkey. I don't know if that is only for epileptics, or the med in general, but I thought I'd warn you.

I have had my share of awful p-docs and the first one let a suicide attempt (nearly lethal) happen. I am still in the midst of posting about it, but I can tell you my plan:

- a Yelp review - done
- reviews on Vitals.com and similar sites - work-in-progress
- a site (I do not blog - if you do blog, do both a site and a blog post)

The point is to make your content appear to people's searches for his name, as a public service.

Medical Board would not be moved by your account - it is too mild for them. Put your energy into web content creation. Be specific - list facts - what he put you on and when, what he dx'd you with and what your symptoms in reality were. BEFORE you start posting, request your medical record from him. He is not obligated to produce it for you (unlike non-p docs who have to), but he might. You can de-confidentialize (and abridge, if necessary) your record and post it on your site or attach it to your blog.

After all of that is done, you can send him a message with the links and a comment that you hope that your feedback will prove useful for his future patients. At least it will annoy him. There is a shortage of p-docs in this country, so most of them have full practices no matter how crappy they are, and I do not expect yours to be scared, but he will be annoyed. Unfortunately, that is the most you can get. No, I am wrong - I sometimes get messages from Yelp from other patients who quit his practice or from those who decided not to enter it based on my review. So that is a little gratifying.

I've only had bad experiences with psychologists and social workers, especially the ones at my school health centre. Never had a bad experience with a psychiatrist.

The psychologist at school health centre told me I should drop out of university to deal with all my issues. Haha, no thanks! One of the social workers there accused me of being racist because I didn't want to see her any more.

I've never had a bad experience, I've only had awkwardness with my therapists, but then I switched therapists...

If you go off any anti-seizure medicine without tapering you can have a seizure. It doesn't matter if you are epileptic or not. Don't just drop this med. Work with your pdoc to go off it.

I would NEVER post my medical records online even if I removed personal information. It will stay personal in that you don't want to disclose your mental illness to the world and I think you would regret it. Once something goes on the web it never disappears!

I have had several bad pdocs. The main complaint I have is that they don't listen! They have a regiment of drugs they are determined to try on you no matter what you say. The one I have now is just okay, she does hear what I say, but she still has a protocol she is going to follow no matter what.

My son had a pdoc that was so determined to only hear what he thought my son should say that I used to create sitcoms around his manner and responses. He was from another country, which made for a comical accent.
For example:
My son-"I stay awake all night."
pdoc-"You have headache?"
My son-"I can't go to sleep."
pdoc-"Do you feel like you will commit s***de?"

These conversations went on and on. My son had already been diagnosed as bipolar, but this particular pdoc was determined that he only was slightly depressed, and was determined not to give him a mood stabilizer.

We now have a new pdoc and correct meds.

Bluemountains

I hate my Pdoc. He is from another countryy and I can barely understand him! He doesn't listen to me and one day when I wanted him to change my meds and he said we'll see how u get on till our next appointment (4 months away) I said that I might be dead by then and he said that's a risk we'll have to take!! I was so enraged that I walked out! I couldn't believe what he'd said! I really dislike him and I feel so uncomfortable around him I just don't see the benifit of our appointments!

This is oh too true! Try Googling your name, or better yet, your forum name, and see what comes up. I once googled my forum name and up came everything I had posted for months back. And it wasn't even this forum, it was a casual game forum. So putting your mental illness online isn't something you want floating out in cyber space the rest of your life. Unless you're into getting your name changed...

In general doctors, especially psychiatrists are not that bright so, it is best to do your own research, listen to your body, and use them as prescription signers, test orderers and consultants.

Are you serious? There are bad doctors out there, just as there are people who suck at every job in the world. But to say that doctors in general are dumb is so silly. After all, they go through at least 8 years of school and 5 years of training after school to become a specialist. That's a LOT of training!

My own psychiatrist is extremely well-informed. I research stuff and come to him with detailed questions, and he always answers them and cites the studies where he gets his info. I absolutely trust him. Yesterday my pdoc found at my ferritin (iron) is low, and that's the cause of my restless legs syndrome, and he prescribed me iron supplements. Such a simple thing, and I never would have known without him!