[still_crazy]

I get mass emails from Quora. One of the questions today was "does psychiatry help the patients?" The 1 reply I saw was rambling, and it closed with something to the effect that the mental health "professionals" benefit from standard treatment, many (most?) people/patients do not.

So...I got to thinking...has psychiatry done much to help me? And...I don't know. I'm not trying to sound like a bitter ex-patient, its just...I honestly don't know. I think for a lot of us we either try to negotiate OK treatment on an outpatient basis, or we end up inpatient, with far less power to haggle.

so...for all of you out there...has psychiatry helped?

[wildflowerchild25]

Yes definitely. As long as I participate in treatment. I can actually live a life now whereas before I was a cyclone, tearing up everything in my path. I have no problem taking meds as long as I can maintain my sanity. And I have no problem paying a psychiatrist to help me, as long as they are actually interested in helping me.

[Nammu]

Yes most definitely. I suffered terribly with PTSD for years. It did take a long time and required a lot of action on my part but yes it helped. What slowed it down and took longer was the drug Pdocs gave me, took years for me to figure out that the benzos and antidepressants made everything much worse. Still have BP that ain't gonna go away and I do take a AP for that. The psychological helped with that to, I can monitor my symptoms and be proactive before they get out of hand

[Zigy]

Honestly I don't think it helped me much. I've been struggling for nearly 2 decades now. Originally Anxiety and Depression. Ups and downs. Ups were eventually contributed to hypomania when I was diagnosed last year with BP.

So I haven't felt close to "normal" for more than several months all this time. I must have tried close to 20 meds over that time.

I have been very depressed for 2 years now. After BP diagnosis I was witch from antidepressant to Lamictal. It does crap to my depression.

The only meds that brought me relief were benzos which just tells me that other meds were ineffective.

I'm tired, confused, lost, desperate. If it wasn't for my wife I would have had ended this years ago.

There have been so many times in recent years when I was on the road to full blown mania (or in it) or depression and a change my psychiatrist of 12 years made to my medications stopped the episodes in their tracks, and prevented what many people think are the inevitable swings to the opposite poles.

It's been a long road to figuring out what medication cocktail is best for me. The four years following my first hospitalization were extremely tough. I was hospitalized 10 times in that period and put on medication mixes that were just totally wrong for me. I was also in a state of trauma during that time, and for some years afterwards. Therapists weren't that effective, when effective therapy would have been very valuable, too. Actually, I think that I needed time to recover in many ways. It's hard to say how easy it would have been for me with even the best medication cocktail and therapy.

I'm still on disability, though the last few years have been notably better than the previous ones. I know enough about my situation, the deep down me, and my inner challenges to know just "snapping out of it" and being perfectly functional would have been sort of a miracle. But I am very close to making some good headway. I thank my 12 year psychiatrist and 4 year therapist for some of that, but the rest is me. I have to do it. They could never have gotten me to where I am now without my own efforts. There was no secret pill to cure me of the complex illness I suffered from.

I'm a little sad and nervous that at this time, when I'm starting on the path to getting off of disability, that my therapist of 4 years is suspending her practice. She knows me so well and I've felt very comfortable with her. I do dread starting with a new therapist again. It's not easy for me to get past the initial anxiety of opening up to a new person. I fear a new therapist will look at me and say "You're ready right now" when they know virtually nothing about me. I need baby steps and the right counseling along the way. I do NOT want to take too quick and big of a leap just to find myself falling down a hole.

[Unrigged64072835]

I struggled with depression for years until I was put on a mood stabilizer and started feeling better. I had a pdoc (and now a pnurse) who believed me, and believed in me.

However, I've also had an IP pdoc who was a real jerk, thinking I only had borderline and I just needed an AD and to put my big girl panties on. I don't go to that hospital anymore.

So I guess my answer would be it's more about the providers and what they provide. For now the answer is yes: I've been stable for a year and a half. It took some effort, failure, and frustration, though.

[still_crazy]

i dont know, honestly. when i was younger, my parents were more middle-middle class, and I think that was why the (private, for profit) hospitals and counselors didn't bother to help me very much. good insurance, not enough clout...I got messed over, big time.

now, I get disability, but my parents are higher status...not rich, not middle class. disability completely covers visits to the state funded clinic. i've been spared further hospitalizations, no forced treatment, and...

i get treated much, much better. maybe it isn't -just- social class, but...sometimes...i wonder...

[Pookyl]

Yes absolutely. I’d probably be either dead or brain damaged if not for my psychiatrist. Alternatively I might be in jail.
Unlike the USA, here your IP pdoc is the same as your outpatient pdoc. So there’s a continuity of care. It’s been a long 3 years but I’m now stable. (Who knows how long that will last but still..)

[hopeless2015]

Yes I think it's helped me. I have a new pdoc and med changes and am now doing better than I have in years.

[Teddy Bear]

Yes I can function on meds

[GoldenSnitch]

Psychiatry around here is a joke. I’ve seen a few different ones for a total of 10-20 minutes and they all have different opinions and I’m still without a proper diagnosis and treatment.

[Tucson]

Yes and no. There were times where the medication worked for me. There were times when the meds were not working well for me and I needed med adjustments which took some time. Then there are the times that I had serious side effects and either stoped a med, or the pdoc would give me more meds to handle the side effects of the original med. This did not work really well for me. Sometimes I think the cure is worse than the MI.

[Guiness187055]

Yes I would probably be dead or homeless without it.

[AspiringAuthor]

Originally Posted by BirdDancer

I fear a new therapist will look at me and say "You're ready right now" when they know virtually nothing about me. I need baby steps and the right counseling along the way. I do NOT want to take too quick and big of a leap just to find myself falling down a hole.

BirdDancer - you probably are not thinking of that now because it is a very emotional and anxious time for you, but first off, please get a complete record from the current T before she shuts down. For the full 4 years. For yourself. Then you can give it to a new T, or you can ask her to send a copy to the new T, but make sure you retain a copy for yourself as proof of long-term ailment.

[annielovesbacon]

I tried for years and years to find meds that would help me feel better (while simultaneously in therapy, tackling it from both sides) and I was about to give up on psychiatry altogether. But I FINALLY found a med combo that works for me. It's been a real game changer. Of course I am not cured or happy all the time or anything, but it's way better than how I used to feel. And sometimes I start to take my meds for granted, but then I forget to take them one day and feel like hell. So I always try to remember how much they help me

[annielovesbacon]

I also want to add that it definitely depends on the pdoc. I believe in psychiatry as a practice. However my first pdoc did not listen to me, wouldn't let me take certain meds, prescribed me dangerous meds, wouldn't let me STOP taking certain meds, etc. My new pdoc actually listens to me (imagine that) and he's the one who's put me on the successful med combo.

[bizi]

For the past 15 years I have had the same pdoc. She has learned a lot about bipolar over the years. I think I was her first bipolar patient.
She respects me, I am a nurse and research things. I was the one to ask for the addition of zyprexa. I have my sanity back.
Maybe I am not an alcoholic????
bizi
so yes I am a firm believer in my pdoc and meds in general.
I would be dead right now....otherwise I truly believe this.

Originally Posted by AspiringAuthor

BirdDancer - you probably are not thinking of that now because it is a very emotional and anxious time for you, but first off, please get a complete record from the current T before she shuts down. For the full 4 years. For yourself. Then you can give it to a new T, or you can ask her to send a copy to the new T, but make sure you retain a copy for yourself as proof of long-term ailment.

Thanks for suggesting this, AspiringAuthor. I will, especially since my pdoc isn't that helped on talking to tdocs.

[pirilin]

On the fence.

Yeah, I'd say so.

I don't respond well to therapy on its own, as I've tried that before. I need psychiatry as part of my treatment plan.

Mostly, i had severe agitation before meds. That agitation was my biggest concern because I was a bully to everyone and I could hardly control my anger. Now I'm very cool, calm, and collected and haven't had an outburst since starting lamictal.

At least i know what it's like when I have therapy vs no therapy vs psychiatry, so I think I gave everything an honest shot.

[Gabyunbound]

Yes and no. I've moved around so have had different pdocs. The one I had in Boston was wonderful. He would spend a good half hour with me, listen very attentively, and noticed I was in episodes when I didn't. He also taught me a great deal about BP and that education helped me a lot.

Then in CA, I also got a great pdoc who specialized in BP. She also took a half hour with me. We did a questionnaire, I think used to compare how I was feeling month to month. She listened well, and was quick to tweak meds when needed.

Now, in DE, I have an NP who only spends 5 minutes with me. She's nice and jovial, and luckily I haven't really needed her because I've been stable. But I worry about being unstable. How can a 5-minute visit help when one is unstable? How could she have time to hear me out? To assess my mood? My episode? I worry...

I think so, yeah. I'm not too happy with psychiatry as a whole right now but if I did not get help I probably would not be here today.

[amicus_curiae]

Originally Posted by still_crazy

I get mass emails from Quora. One of the questions today was "does psychiatry help the patients?" The 1 reply I saw was rambling, and it closed with something to the effect that the mental health "professionals" benefit from standard treatment, many (most?) people/patients do not.

So...I got to thinking...has psychiatry done much to help me? And...I don't know. I'm not trying to sound like a bitter ex-patient, its just...I honestly don't know. I think for a lot of us we either try to negotiate OK treatment on an outpatient basis, or we end up inpatient, with far less power to haggle.

so...for all of you out there...has psychiatry helped?

Absolutely. I have been under one form or another of psychiatric care for - hunh - 30+ years? Yes. Back in the days when MD psychiatrists actually engaged in forms of 55-minute psychotherapy. In the present day it seems that the usual practice in the U.S. is visiting a PhD therapist at regular intervals and only visiting an MD psychiatrist every three months, for 15-minutes, to get scripts for meds.

I spent years (three) in a mental hospital, seeing MD/shrinks daily. More years spent (eight) on a psych wing in a nursing home, with no therapist/therapy save for a weekly 15-minute visit with an MD/shrink. I did no haggling during my first+ year in the mental hospital - I did not speak (adult selective mutism). Into my second year and with ongoing ECT sessions, dangerous combinations of drugs and a shrink who unraveled the mystery with one sentence, I began getting better. I learned to haggle - a survival technique - I learned to manipulate. I walked out (finally!) of the hospital a completely different person than had entered. That wasn’t a good thing. I had a need to regain the best parts, the good parts, of my personality.

I tried, and failed, to do so during the next two years. Settling into the psych wing, I just gave up. With no help from psychiatry, I had an unusual epiphany during my sixth year: I became an argumentative, manipulative arsehole (again?) instead of a whiny little beotch. Two years later, I wheeled out.

On my own, now, for six years, I’m in “the usual practice in the U.S.” My PhD/Psychology therapist goes out of his way to show his ignorance of psychopharmacology whilst my MD/shrink is terrific at ‘taking chances’ to prescribe unusual/excessive combinations of meds to rein in the more tragic symptoms. I think that she possesses a kind of ‘everyone deserves a few minutes of happiness and damn convention’ attitude.

But she insists that her patients seek immediate treatment for erections lasting more than four hours. ‘Four hours or more’ seems to be the gold standard for ED meds and psych meds. Go figure.

So, psychiatry - from talk-therapy to psychotropic medications - has been a part of my life for the majority of my life and even with some rocky patches, yes, it has helped me.

I’m not sure what is going on upstairs just now, not certain that I’m doing what I should be doing.

Possible trigger:

I had an intruder a couple of weeks ago and I now have some differing feelings about the episode. I’m not taking my meds as directed, opting for manic psychosis over sleepytime.

Unfortunate priapism in place of wasted time.

Time. I measure days in teapots. I measure time by how a body sways. I measure weeks by the touch that she taught, the touch that she gives.

Note: psychiatry has not cured me of my dreadful thoughts but I hurt fewer people, now, and with less severity than in the past. And I have some control over my delusions and mania which are surely good things? Psychiatry gave me the weapons, the WMD’s, to fight debilitating depression, too. Tools to claw my way out of the abyss.

How can mental health professionals benefit more than the patients that they treat? Monetarily? Psychologically? Quara is a rigged system. Whilst experts answer the best formulated generic questions, anyone is free to answer the most difficult. I doubt that the forums attract many people with ongoing mental disorders - no ‘expert’ psychotics, ya know?

Are you a bitter ex-patient? You’re posting in the bipolar forum so I’m guessing that you were diagnosed as bipolar in the first (me) or second (others) degree? Do you feel that psychiatry failed in treating your mental disorder?

[amicus_curiae]

Originally Posted by Gabyunbound

Yes and no. I've moved around so have had different pdocs. The one I had in Boston was wonderful. He would spend a good half hour with me, listen very attentively, and noticed I was in episodes when I didn't. He also taught me a great deal about BP and that education helped me a lot.

Then in CA, I also got a great pdoc who specialized in BP. She also took a half hour with me. We did a questionnaire, I think used to compare how I was feeling month to month. She listened well, and was quick to tweak meds when needed.

Now, in DE, I have an NP who only spends 5 minutes with me. She's nice and jovial, and luckily I haven't really needed her because I've been stable. But I worry about being unstable. How can a 5-minute visit help when one is unstable? How could she have time to hear me out? To assess my mood? My episode? I worry...

Hunh. I was in a situation - maybe 5 ½ years ago? - in which I was seeing a PhD therapist and an NP only - no pdoc involved. I wasn’t happy with the arrangement but this was a very large practice with a limited number of MD/shrinks, so...

I did not get on well with the NP during our first session. I thought here abrupt and rude with an assembly-line approach to writing scripts. I blew a gasket during our second meeting when she lied to me and I called her out - she told me that patients should not “get on the internet” to “find out” about prescribed medications. My findings were from the FDA monograph that approved a particular drug for use in psychiatric treatment. She began yelling while I remained cool and logical and a superior had to guide her out of her office.

I was teamed with a pdoc afterwards. Her specialty is geriatric psychiatry. That makes me feel old. “Elderly” doesn’t really soften the blow. I’m just hanging around until the inevitable dementia strikes.

Of course you’re going to receive the finest mental health care in California (um, okay, I’m prejudiced!). And Boston is well-known for superior mental health professionals (my hypergraphia shrink has a chair at Harvard and practices at MassGeneral - arguably the best hospital in the U.S.).

But Delaware? Delaware is known best as the ‘incorporation state.’ $250 and you can begin issuing your own stock!

My advice: move back to CA or MA!

[franz kafka]

I'm on the fence. Psych meds don't seem to work very well for me, except to control mania. I still get psychotic episodes despite taking APs. I've just had the most stable few weeks of my life and I'm taking less meds than prescribed, so what does that mean?