First Psychiatry Appointment

[ILoveLife]

I don't think it's important the pdoc knows your entire trauma history like our Ts do, but it's important to understand that there is a big trauma history.

Like, the quality of care when the pdoc is informed about the basics of what happened is completely different than those who just prescribe. I avoid just prescribing pdocs like the plague.

For example, just prescribing docs gave me a shit-ton of benzos to deal with drug withdrawl instead of supplying the free therapy they had available, because they couldn't care less about my history.
So I kinda did addiction treatment backwards because of that.
There are more examples.
With trauma there's a baseline of anxiety we all share, sometimes to a disabling degree other times not so much, it's kinda the whole idea of the pdoc to know there's a trauma history, where the anniversaries are for example, so the pdoc knows when and how to medicate. My old pdoc didn't even believe I had trauma so he didn't medicate my anxiety, current pdoc is aware of my anxiety peaks and medicates accordingly. It's really a world of difference.

I do wholeheartedly agree on being informed on the basics of meds.

 

[Kubash16]

Thank you all!

I will do my research on the meds then to get more familiar.

So, I should be able to do just a rough outline of hey my childhood was shit, these are the basic facts of why and no details? I can do that.

 

[TTC18]

Or even - my childhood was awful, and here are my current symptoms I need help with.

 

[EveHarrington]

The doc May likely ask what your trauma is. I know that here the docs hand down a diagnosis so just saying you had a bad childhood may get you the wrong diagnosis.

 

[Kubash16]

So:

Hey, what’s up doc? (need a carrot for this part)

So I’m having some issues focusing at work, staying on task, I literally count down the minutes to next break/going home and end up making stupid/not paying enough attention mistakes. I can’t sleep for shit, either it’s nightmares, tossing and turning violently, or waking up several times. Apparently I have mood issues. I know I can go zero to 100 in half a second but I see the reasons/causes for it whereas other people say I’m doing it even when there isn’t a reason for it. I lose hours daydreaming, half the time I don’t even realize I’m daydreaming until I’m quite a ways in. Sometimes the daydreaming is relatively positive but there are a lot of times they go violent and sadistic. According to family I’ve made comments/had conversations that I literally don’t remember having. I am missing massive chunks of childhood/teen memory. I get panicky over tiny little things nearly every day to where breathing is a bitch.

All this because my family, to use a clinical term, is f*cked up (that’s @somerandomguy! I still love this). I don’t remember a peaceful time. My father had major medical issues starting when I was 4 and continuing on for the rest of his life. We never stayed in one place longer than like a year so I have a few itty bitty (ha massive understatement) attachment issues. I was molested/raped for many ongoing years starting when I was about 7 I think by main caretakers and some incest thrown in there for good measure. Then I had very in my face dealings with multiple dead bodies. Ya both main caretakers/parents as well. Can’t forget one of them. No support or help for the myriad of issues I developed from it.

Oh you want family/medical history too? We’ll see doc my medical history is pretty short. The only dealings I had with doctors as a kid is poison ivy once and then just booster shots for school. As an adult-avoid docs cause they are scary but had to cave when I had female issues and turns out I’ve got PCOS. Dad had heart issues and came from a family of serious violent alcoholics. Moms got plenty of alcoholics too, they just didn’t happen to be violent. Got some cancer and heart problems flowing on her side too. My dad’s grandpa was schizophrenic, my dad says my brother was diagnosed schiz as well, but bro says that it was in fact dad that was diagnosed. But really who the hell knows cause no one ever gets treated for anything.

Oh and I have constant headaches, nausea, and racing heart. I also sleep almost as soon as I get home from work cause doing anything around the house makes me feel overwhelmed and I just want to collapse and cry and feel sorry for myself. My mind races too to match my heart maybe but ya like 5,000 mph with 150 tabs open at any given moment. Have fun!

Lol I’ll be a bit more serious in reality, but maybe not. Sorry in a crappy mood and don’t really want to think about how f*cked up I am but to change it I have to confront it.

 

[somerandomguy]

You know, if you print out that last post, you could give it to your pdoc. It's got pretty much everything they would need to know about your history and what you'd like them to help you with.

 

[Kubash16]

You know, if you print out that last post, you could give it to your pdoc. It's got pretty much everything they would need to know about your history and what you'd like them to help you with.

I just might lol.

I should definitely tone down the language and crazy though lol.

 

[EveHarrington]

I’d do it in bullet form.

Put any diagnos first.

 

[TTC18]

I just might lol.

I should definitely tone down the language and crazy though lol.

Agree - it's very descriptive, and encapsulates the amount of trauma you've endured very concisely. :hug: