What's the point of psychiatry at this point for me?

Why do I see a psychiatrist (and therapist for that matter) when I could just go to a PCP who is equally as capable to send in prescriptions? It's not like it's hard fking science where you have to look at a bunch of lab values and images and specializing in that practice makes the difference between life and death.

My pdoc literally just writes scripts, orders labs (probably doesn't even look at them when they come back), and calls the police every now and then. A PCP can do the first two, and my neighbor can do the last one.

It's not like it takes a genius to figure out which meds to take anyways. Just so much patience that it's practically a flaw.

Yeah my pcp's have been VERY reluctant to write scrips for my psych meds. They want a letter from the pdoc. I think ONCE i lowered the dose on my prozac. And thats over prolly ten years now.

Stupid. Do they want an infectious disease specialist to ok an antibiotic too?

I know it seems pointless right now, but yes you do need the level of care you are getting. Though you probably don’t see it as care. Believe me in my darkness days( and nights) I pushed back against care because deep down I didn’t believe I was worth it or deserved to get better. I quit several times going cold turkey and having seizures from the cold turkey. All that did though was cause my stability to be postponed. It took until I was in my 40’s to start having a quality of life. Can’t say exactly what changed. Just one day the therapy I’d had started to make sense. Then it sort of all came together. My life didn’t fall apart until I was 29, so a good 15 years of homelessness and revolving hospital doors and that probably could have been shorter if I’d not given up so many times. It’s hard. Hang in there

No. I don't see it as care. How is "you had anemia before and you're tired now, so you might be anemic again," and "I don't know what to do for you, and you don't know what I can do for you, so I'm not going to do a nything," and "you tell me what meds will work," something you need to specialize in psych to be able to say?

I don't even call their emergency line anymore because although 1/30 times they help, the rest they either piss me off more, don't call back (probably most common), or make me go to the hospital. Me being in treatment is just for show. It's just a "hey, I'm doing this thing that's going to make me better," but for all I know that thing is why I feel so trapped and hopeless.

I literally do not even know what they are supposed to do or what I'm supposed to do with each of them. I mean, I sign ROIs for the hospital and local PD and "treatment plans" that just say "will take meds, abstain from substances, and use healthy coping strategies 2x a week" with my CM. Who knew playing a guitar on Tuesdays at 11am, going to the lake on Fridays at 5pm, and not slamming meth cures bipolar?

Therapy later, and I hate to be this pessimistic but if I think it's going to help and it doesn't I'm going to come home and seriously hurt myself. I've probably only been "doing okay" behavior wise the past few months because I don't do shyt in therapy or expect anything good from my team anymore and cancel half the appointments they don't.

edit: Ha!!!!! That was PERFECT timing. She just called and cancelled love ittttttt

I see my pdoc Dec. 4th and my T will be out for the next two weeks. If I need this "care," how do I make it "care"? Is there something I'm supposed to say beyond listing what's going right and wrong? Am I not being detailed enough? Do I have to explain that never being able to eat more than two small meals a day and sometimes not being able to eat one is an issue (because I cannot make the assumption that a psychiatrist knows this)? Do I have to point out "eh, you see that weight? That's a dozen pounds less than last appointment. That's probably an issue."? Because if I have to point out and explain obvious stuff like that, it's gonna be need to be like a four hour appointment. With no guarantee anything of use is going to come of it. And I'll need a ride home because I'm gonna be tired after that.

Sometimes taking a break from pdocs and all that is worthwhile. I did that for a few years and recently went back to therapy and it is much better. I don't see a pdoc since I refuse meds these days.

If you are losing so much weight so quickly, please see a real doctor about it.

I had a pdoc order thyroid tests because of some nasty side effects from Ziprasidone. It was a hoot. He kept writing the lab order wrong and after the third time I got poked my primary doc(in the VA system, she has access to what every other clinic is doing for me) took over and got it right the first time. She has no patience for pdocs but VA policy forbids her from prescribing most psych meds. She told me he kept ordering diagnostically invalid tests. It felt to me like this was something an intern would know.

Ordering tests like thyroid and other such things and brain scans to rule out physical problems should be something they do early with each new patient, but they don't.

If your primary doctor agrees to write your prescriptions, it might be the best thing for you. Any lab work will also not go to waste since he/she will be able to make sense of the results and provide any needed help.

In my experience, every pdoc has a list of pet meds that they work through until you hit on something with a good benefits/side-effects ratio. There is no science in it at all. It is like playing darts or whack-a-mole.