Doctors rant

My family said I have memory issues so I asked my psychiatrist about it. He sent me to a neurologist who said my memory loss is probably from long-term psychiatric medication use ( don't freak out if you're young, it has been 25 years of mix and match with all types of meds) or stress...no signs of Alzheimer's or dementia.

Then he schedules me for an MRI, EEG and a neuropsychologist. Besides the frightening hospital crap, the psych eval is 4 hours!!!

I think all this is a waste of money. How can psych drugs not affect my memory? Or stress?

How can I possibly process info when stress levels are the highest they've been in 20 years? It was so bad that I had to put my safety plan in place.

I feel like a guinea pig.

Four hours with a psychologist might be a good thing though. Maybe I'll be honest for a change instead of ********ting my way through the sessions.

Wing, sorry you are so stressed by all of this. Have you asked yourself the question: do I feel memory issues are keeping me from living my life fully?

Do you feel like your family is pressuring you into the tests because apparently your family has concerns. Maybe they have fears they have of what could happen if these issues interfere with your life.

Psychological or memory issues are some of the hardest to detect. These tests can feel intrusive and make one feel like everyone is doing something to the body or the mind. It is not like surgery where you find something that shouldn't be there and take it out. It is difficult to see the brain and its functioning. It takes a lot of testing to determine if the memory issues are part of aging or some physical changes in the brain.

This seems to be an issue that is a big trigger for you when someone points it out or aggressively insists on testing. Have you talked with your t or pdoc to see what they think about these memory issues and the reaction to the testing?

All memory issues are not the same. Some people cannot remember visual images and others words. Would knowing what else besides medication is causing memory issues take some of the uncertainty out of the unknown situation you are faced with?

It's your choice to continue on with all these other tests and 4 hour appointments... If the Doctor ruled out Alz and Dementia .. Whats the goal in taking more and more testing? Does your Doctor(s) feel that they can find a problem that is treatable?

I think its your decision if you want to do more testing. Being so stressed certainly isn't healthy for you.