I was just curious what do u see a actual psychiatrist or a psych nurse?

The only times I've seen an actual psychiatrist was when I've been in the hospital. The one I had was really good. He didn't treat me like I was stupid and really took time explaining things. I was in a really bad psychosis and I'm happy I had him. I don't remember much at the beginning, but when I came out of it he had me take a whole bunch of tests and explained a lot of what they meant. That was the beginning of me accepting that I had bp.

The other time I was in the hospital it was a different facility and the psychiatrist there just wanted to throw meds at me and didn't give me much time. She was very overwhelmed.

On the other hand the psych nurses I've had have been ok. I had one that got busted for a whole bunch of stuff. I don't wanna get into all of it bc it gets me upset. Then I had one that just wanted to throw meds at me without listening to me. She was like I'm not putting u on a AD even when I was seriously depressed. Then I felt just numb on the seroquel and gained a lot of weight. The one I have now is decent, but overwhelmed.

Just curious if there is a significant difference between psychiatrists and psych nurses.

[Sometimes psychotic]

I have always had a psychiatrist....you must be seeing a psych nurse practionioner because normally they can't prescribe meds and they only exist in some states...the idea is that they save money. The only time I ran into psych nurses was at the hospital...they only spoke to yell or ask you to take meds so in my opinion they are jerks...

I see both.

I have a Pdoc who I see every 2 months and my psych nurse visits me at home sometimes weekly or fortnightly.

[newtus]

i used to see a psychiatrist and psych nurse. the psych nurse would give me injections and ask about my psychosis and see me every 3 weeks. the psychiatrist would see me every 3 months. the psych nurse was a jerk to me too.

[Erti]

I use to see a Pdoc and Psych Nurse once a month to get free medication. Now that I'm on medicaid I don't have to see the Psych Nurse so often. The Psych Nurses I've been with have been really nice to me and easier to talk to than my Pdoc.

I can talk to my nurse more than I can with my Pdoc.
My nurse is lovely.

[Rzay4]

I have a regular pdoc and my in counter with psych nurses was always in the hospital. They all were very sweet and funny.

Man I wish I could see an actual psychiatrist. The psych nurses just seem so overwhelmed where I'm at.

[Yoda]

My son saw a nurse practitioner for a bit but her master's degree was in diabetes, not psych. She didn't seem to have a good grasp of psych meds and didn't do very good assessments either.

[Sometimes psychotic]

Originally Posted by sunshine1995

Man I wish I could see an actual psychiatrist. The psych nurses just seem so overwhelmed where I'm at.

I got 30 minutes every 3 months....some people only get 15 minutes so the pdocs are overwhelmed as well.

[Happy Camper]

I have a nurse practitioner. He functions exactly as a psychiatrist, so I just call him my pdoc on here. He's actually much better than most of the psychiatrists I've seen.

Sometimes- you seem really knowledgeable about all this stuff. I was curious, I feel like some of my intelligence has gone since I had my first psychosis 3 yrs ago. For instance I used to read like 4 books at a time and now it's hard for me to focus on one. Is that the meds or the psychosis? Also I used to have to listen to music every day, it was like my therapy. Now I'm not really interested in music much. I asked the psych nurse and she said the intelligence thing is bc of the psychosis. Also since the psychosis I deal with paranoia way more than I did before. She said its bc it's easier for my mind to slip. So will it always be this way?

The psych nurse said that I'm schizoaffective bc of the psychosis, but when I was hospitalized they did a whole bunch of test on me and diagnosed me with bp I.

Just curious what u think.

[Sometimes psychotic]

Originally Posted by sunshine1995

Sometimes- you seem really knowledgeable about all this stuff. I was curious, I feel like some of my intelligence has gone since I had my first psychosis 3 yrs ago. For instance I used to read like 4 books at a time and now it's hard for me to focus on one. Is that the meds or the psychosis? Also I used to have to listen to music every day, it was like my therapy. Now I'm not really interested in music much. I asked the psych nurse and she said the intelligence thing is bc of the psychosis. Also since the psychosis I deal with paranoia way more than I did before. She said its bc it's easier for my mind to slip. So will it always be this way?

The psych nurse said that I'm schizoaffective bc of the psychosis, but when I was hospitalized they did a whole bunch of test on me and diagnosed me with bp I.

Just curious what u think.

So for me the psychosis knocked off like 40 IQ points so it was a major hit..I regained 30 of that over 2 years on the meds but got the other 10 back after getting off the meds. The meds really interfered with my reading ability but only for things that were complex like stories with lots of characters usually fiction while I could read high level science and biographies with no problem because they were only one subject. It really helps to do brain games and puzzles and stuff because it's like you have to retrain your brain like when you were in school.

Music...on meds I became a ravenous consumer of music...it is never off and is mostly dance/pop where before off meds I liked alternative and world and only had it on occasionally. Honestly the meds changed my personality to some extent. Have you tried other genres than your usual? There is so much streaming radio now it's easy to find something new...I use I heart radio.

I should say I'm recovered and off the meds for 4 months now so that's the only way I can tell what was meds and what was psychosis. My psychosis was about 2.5 years ago. It absolutely can get better but it's part of an active recovery process you have to actually work to make yourself better by exploring the world and yourself, trying to figure out what may have made you sick in the first place...often there are stressors and the way we deal with them might not be the best way...therapy can help you come up with a better approach to stressful situations.

Schizoaffective vs bipolar..this is my understanding....the only difference is whether you can have psychosis in the absence of mood symptoms either depression or mania....if you have psychosis without also being either manic or depressed then it's sza but if you have psychosis only with mood symptoms full mania(not hypo)or full depression then it's bipolar. My experience is to take any two psych professionals and you will get two different diagnoses. They are really just guidelines for treatment do you need an antipsychotic or a mood stabilizer or both? So take it with a grain of salt is my advice on that one...

Originally Posted by Sometimes psychotic

So for me the psychosis knocked off like 40 IQ points so it was a major hit..I regained 30 of that over 2 years on the meds but got the other 10 back after getting off the meds. The meds really interfered with my reading ability but only for things that were complex like stories with lots of characters usually fiction while I could read high level science and biographies with no problem because they were only one subject. It really helps to do brain games and puzzles and stuff because it's like you have to retrain your brain like when you were in school.

Music...on meds I became a ravenous consumer of music...it is never off and is mostly dance/pop where before off meds I liked alternative and world and only had it on occasionally. Honestly the meds changed my personality to some extent. Have you tried other genres than your usual? There is so much streaming radio now it's easy to find something new...I use I heart radio.

I should say I'm recovered and off the meds for 4 months now so that's the only way I can tell what was meds and what was psychosis. My psychosis was about 2.5 years ago. It absolutely can get better but it's part of an active recovery process you have to actually work to make yourself better by exploring the world and yourself, trying to figure out what may have made you sick in the first place...often there are stressors and the way we deal with them might not be the best way...therapy can help you come up with a better approach to stressful situations.

Schizoaffective vs bipolar..this is my understanding....the only difference is whether you can have psychosis in the absence of mood symptoms either depression or mania....if you have psychosis without also being either manic or depressed then it's sza but if you have psychosis only with mood symptoms full mania(not hypo)or full depression then it's bipolar. My experience is to take any two psych professionals and you will get two different diagnoses. They are really just guidelines for treatment do you need an antipsychotic or a mood stabilizer or both? So take it with a grain of salt is my advice on that one...

Thank you. Yeah I can't read fiction at all anymore. I can focus on true crime and such to a point, but I get bored easily.

I wrote out a long post about what happened, but deleted it. I don't feel comfortable posting it right now. I will say that what made me really sick is some abuse I went through and hadn't dealt with. Things got really complicated and I ended up losing touch with reality.

I've done really intense therapy on it, but need to get my skill sheets out more and practice them. But I think unfortunately I will need meds for life. If I try not taking them I get really paranoid.

So did u just have one episode of psychosis took meds for awhile then we're able to get off them? What is ur official diagnosis, sorry for being so nosy, lol.

[Sometimes psychotic]

Originally Posted by sunshine1995

Thank you. Yeah I can't read fiction at all anymore. I can focus on true crime and such to a point, but I get bored easily.

I wrote out a long post about what happened, but deleted it. I don't feel comfortable posting it right now. I will say that what made me really sick is some abuse I went through and hadn't dealt with. Things got really complicated and I ended up losing touch with reality.

I've done really intense therapy on it, but need to get my skill sheets out more and practice them. But I think unfortunately I will need meds for life. If I try not taking them I get really paranoid.

So did u just have one episode of psychosis took meds for awhile then we're able to get off them? What is ur official diagnosis, sorry for being so nosy, lol.

Yeah a lot of people do need meds for life so I'm sorry if you are one of them. I had 1.5 months of psychosis. My first pdoc told me only that I had psychosis he told my parents it was schizophrenia-like but we aren't calling it that yet so I waited 6 months and asked if I had schizophrenia he said he didn't know that he would have to take me off the meds to determine that(since meds were blocking 100% of symptoms) but that would be unethical so basically I would never know what I had. My psychologist said schizophreniform. My current pdoc who never saw me psychotic downgraded me to brief psychotic disorder despite the fact that dsm says 1 month or less of psychosis. There seems to be this sense that if you got better it couldn't have been schizophrenia or anything in that class but my grandma could hear voices too and my genetics have several indications of schizophrenia. Currently both pdocs say it will never happen again although I still have rare hallucinations usually at night. So in short my official diagnosis is a spectrum depending on who you ask but one if the more short term forms. But yeah I was on meds and tried to get off at a year could not due to anger and anxiety to the extreme then with much trepidation tried a slower taper at 2 years for like 5 months or so just got off in November I think...it will be three years total since the start in the beginning of May. First pdoc helped me and in fact pressured me to get off the meds so after the first trial it wasn't exactly my idea. I guess I had several good prognostic indicators and I had a very rapid recovery once I got the meds so they thought I really had a chance...fingers crossed the first year off you still have a pretty good chance of relapse so wish me luck!

[Secretum]

I feel like I've lost some IQ points too, since my illness got severe. I had a professor who stressed that lasting cognitive impairment happens in Sz and SzA but not in bipolar. I think she meant that if you have bp, you may be impaired during mania or depression, but not when you're euthymic. Someone with Sz or SzA will experience cognitive difficulties all the time.