[FeelingOpaque]

I have just started to go into the intake process of getting a therapist. They diagnosed me with Mood and Personality Disorder, nothing specific yet. The hospital did a psycjiatric exam and then sent me to LCSW who simply scheduled an appointment with my team. I told her that i did not want to take medications, her reponse gave me the odea that she didnt care for deciscion. Regardless she said that i would see a therapist every two weeks, who is an LCSW, and a Psychiatrist every three months.

When i asked her what the plan was - i.e. they have diagnosed me with a Mood and Personality Disorder, so what is the effective treatment, what kind of therapy does the social worker do - and she said that she doesnt know and that she told me the first time we met to bring any questions i had to the psychiatrist - why didnt i ask him this. I told her its because i just learned about all this 5 minutes ago when SHE told me. Then she dismissed me and said i dony know, talk to the social worker and that was the end of the conversation.

I am seeking advice on the right questions to ask - what are the best methods to treat mood and personality disorders?

Also - when people say that treatment works, what does that mean? What is a successful treatment, what is the life of someone like when they get treatment? How do you just get over personality and mood disorders? Isnt there a chemical component to these disorders?

I have a lot of questions and worries, any help would be appreciated.

[Victoria'smom]

The mood disorder generally is treated with medication. personality disorders are usually treated with therapy. I wouldn't be able to get far in therapy if I wasn't on an anti psychotic. The therapist would be dealing with one crisis after another instead of teaching me skills to deal with everyday life. The ideal would be seeing a therapist once a week and a psychiatrist once a month that they share notes.

Since this is your first time in the mental health system I would say give meds a chance for at least a year. Treatment success is reducing symptoms to function as close to "normal" as you can.

You don't "get over" it but there's treating it. I'm not sure it's a chemical balance but the meds do help.

[Molinit]

Mood disorders generally respond to medication, and personality disorders rarely respond to therapy in the long term. Your personality disorder will always be something you will have to compensate for. Some personality disorders are worse than others.

I don't know why you won't take medication, but because you have made that statement at the outset, don't look for anyone to take you seriously about wanting to change things in your life.

In reading some other posts of yours I see you have been diagnosed with BPD. That is one of the most resistant to any therapy I know of, so you will have to work very hard to compensate.

[FeelingOpaque]

The reason for not taking medication is that the long term effects are unknown and i would like to live my life not hooked on drugs that change the chemical patterns of my brain in ways unknown to modern science - they know the effects of the drugs, but do not know ecxactly how the mechanism of action works or how the systems of your brain respond to this change in chemistry.

If the goal of medication is to numb you out for long enough to learn coping skills, is there reason why i cant learn these skills as im living my normal day to day life instead of applying these skills in a constant state of intoxication?

It seems counter productive to me of we are talking about changing behavior in day to day living to be high- i.e being regulated by external chemocals to survive - all the time. How is that any differemt from being an alcoholic getting over PTSD or being a depreesed and taking heroin to numb the pain.

It is not lack of wanting to get better. Its a lack of wanting tonbecome dependent on fairly expensive drugs- if i want drugs to solve my problems i can get my hamds on far more fun ones.

[Molinit]

If you aren't open to all the treatments offered, the people treating you aren't going to think you're serious. Your BPD will probably prove troublesome in the long run anyway, and nothing's going to cure that.

[FeelingOpaque]

With all due disrespect intended, if my 'doctor' believes the first option to treatment must be mind altering sunstances that have unkown.long term effects - he is an idiot and not.interested in helping me, I need coping skills, not drugs.

Why is this concept so difficult? Have we as a community not seen the disastorous effects of the over prescribing of these drugs?

[Molinit]

All I'm saying is keep that info in mind. You can refuse any medication offered, but that will also signal to the people attempting to treat you that you are not willing to avail yourself of all the options.

So to me, it seems a waste of time to see the psychiatrist, who will only prescribe medication, and the only "therapy" you'll be offered for BPD is DBT, which is just another way for you to try to compensate for the BPD.

[reb569]

When it comes right down to it, treatment is very individualized, so I can understand the hesitation to give a lot of information during the intake process. There are a lot of variables to look at and the first meetings with your therapist and psychiatrist will determine what they recommend in relation to therapy and meds.

I understand your hesitation to take meds. I've managed to stay med free myself so far but I often wonder if I would be further along in my recovery if I considered it.

Best of luck to you.

Originally Posted by FeelingOpaque

With all due disrespect intended, if my 'doctor' believes the first option to treatment must be mind altering sunstances that have unkown.long term effects - he is an idiot and not.interested in helping me, I need coping skills, not drugs.

Why is this concept so difficult? Have we as a community not seen the disastorous effects of the over prescribing of these drugs?

I couldn't agree more.

To me, in most instances, taking medication for mental health is like giving somebody with a brain tumor an aspirin and expecting it to "fix" them.

Even if one does have a mood disorder such as bipolar, that doesn't always mean that one needs medication to treat it. If anything, there have been plenty of instances of people with bipolar treating it via other means such as healthy diet and exercise, meditation, and other holistic means that are too extensive for be to get into on this post (Google is your friend here!). Yes, it is harder to treat your mood disorder this way but I would argue that it is more effective than taking medication and thus, becoming dependent on a mental health system that cares more about money than one's health.

Now no way am I saying that one should forego taking medication if they actually need it to function at all but I firmly believe that medication should be used as a last resort when all other options have been proven ineffective.

[FeelingOpaque]

Do you guys have any suggestions on what is the best path of treatment or at least questions I should ask therapist and your experience dealing with these disorders if you have them?

[Molinit]

I just feel like you're wasting your time even seeing the psychiatrist because all they'll offer is medication, which you don't want.

You can try the DBT and if it works for you, great. I've known a couple of people with BPD and neither of them did DBT, both were very chaotic people with lots of drama. I found it really draining and the friendships kind of died a natural death as time went on.

[Open Eyes]

Individuals who struggle with BPD often grew up in atmospheres where they were neglected and abandoned or even abused. Most of their behaviors that can be unhealthy are due to how they tend to feel a great fear of abandonment and rejection so many of their tactics are ways they learned where they gained some sense of control as control often brings a sense of safety, yet that control for them will "still" be threatened so they tend to suffer from fear of when they may lose control which turns into how they experience challenges with a mood disorder where their emotions get away from them.

One of the theories for treatment is to give them a medication that deals with controlling the mood swings in hopes that getting that under control can be the first step towards gaining on mood control, then the therapy is meant to work on the issues/challenges an individual struggles with so they can slowly learn for themselves what they are and then work on ways to manage themselves better so they gain on feeling better about themselves and learn how to function better.