[emory_]

I've been with my current pdoc for a little over 2 years now and I really do like her. She is kind and thoughtful, and most importantly (to me), considers what I have to say about every treatment and medication and acknowledges that my opinion on my treatments is important. If I'm not comfortable taking a medication, she won't ask me to take it. If I think something might work at a higher dose, she will allow me to (carefully of course) increase until we know. There is one thing that is bugging the hell out of me though- she has never been in contact with my therapists about my mental illnesses. I only get to see my pdoc for 15 minutes a month. I know that my visits with her *aren't* my therapy, but I feel like I need a lot more than 15 minutes to accurately tell her how I'm feeling and what's going on with my health. The part that bugs me so much is that the therapists I've had are literally in the same office as her. They are all in the same hallway! They see each other multiple times throughout the day, yet don't communicate about me in order to actually figure out what's going on. There is literally no way that I can speak to my pdoc for 15 minutes and accurately tell her the clinical symptoms I'm having. That isn't how mental health works. So I was really hoping that when I started seeing this therapist a few months ago, my doctor would really start understanding what was going on because I figured they would be talking about it.

But nope. I don't know if that is standard for psychiatric practitioners, but if it is, I think it's pretty messed up.

Anyone else had experiences they want to share?

[Soupe du jour]

My pdoc is great. He knows me very well. I've been going to him for about 10 years now. His med checks are 20 mins long and I do manage to give him a pretty good idea about what is going on. He insists that I have a therapist, so I do. I also like my therapist, but they have never spoken. He never spoke with any of my past therapists. Even my current therapist (a psychologist) hasn't asked to speak to him and I've seen her for 2 years. Sometimes I tell pdoc what she's said. I guess I'm the connection between the 2.

Once I really wanted my pdoc to talk to an epileptologist I went to. He was reluctant, but I sort of begged him to. So he did. I thought pdoc really needed to know the status of whether or not I had seizures, since he prescribed my seizure meds. Also, the epileptologist wanted to get some more psych info about me.

[kindachaotic]

Maybe it's a hippa/privacy thing.
My therapist & family doc are in same bldg.
I signed a release for them to speak to each other about me.
Don't know if this helped.
Hope you can get things changed.