Psychiatry from the patient POV

There are two kinds of psychiatrists in the world... The Bad & Ugly and The Good

Unfortunately, my husband got the one we are likely the most familiar with...

The Bad & Ugly
First, my husband suffers from chronic pain. Not a little pain, but a lot of pain. And it's been going on for years. Like 30 years.

For 12 years it was misdiagnosed as treatment resistant, type 2, bipolar disorder and he had a quack for a psychiatrist. Here is just a taste...

"Doc, I'm in pain," said my husband.

"You're bipolar. It's only depression," said the doc. "I know what will help. MORE SEROQUEL!" 

"But, Doc, I can't function on that stuff. Can't we find something else?"

"If you are not treatment compliant, I will have to have you committed," scolded the doctor.

"Oh. Don't do that! I will take your medicine. But how can I stay awake to do stuff?" 

 "That's easy," said the doc. "I'll prescribe you amphetta. Just take that every morning. You'll be wide awake then!"

****** Two days later

"Doctor Quack? Hi, this is Mama Mayhem, I'm Husband Mayhem's wife. He took that amphetta stuff you prescribed and just spent three hours IMing me at work talking about how I am cheating on him, hate him and how he is going to get even with me. I called a friend to pick up the kids from school because he is scaring me so bad. What is that stuff? What can we do?"

"Well, Mrs. Mayhem, I don't know why Husband decided to take that amphetta stuff. Obviously he did not make a good decision there. Tell him to stop taking it. That should calm things down. Oh and just to make sure he is OK, I will prescribe him MORE SEROQUEL!"

So, um, yah. That pretty much sums up that situation.

I was fortunate enough to get the higher caliber kind of psychiatrist...

The Good
I was diagnosed in 2006 as having type II bipolar disorder. Once I was stabilized on my meds, I needed one tiny little tweak.

"Doctor, I need to go off the Seroquel. You see, last night, my eight year old daughter had an asthma flare. When she came into my room to get me, I told her to go downstairs and start her nebulizer treatment then I went back to sleep! Now, I DID finally drag myself into "MOM" mode but this just can't happen again. It is not safe for my kids!"

"You are absolutely right, Mama," said the doctor. "I am going to find you a slot on today's schedule so that we can figure something else out."

So, kids, if your psychiatrist does not seem to listen to you, FIND ONE WHO WILL!

I wish we had seen how bad off my husband was with his first psychiatrist. He was still labeled as bipolar II with the second one but when Mr. Mayhem complained about the side effects, doc II listened and worked with him. It made a huge difference to my husband.