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I have a last appointment with my psychiatrist after requesting a new one -cringe-

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Ohmbitious

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So this is probably weird and bear with me this will likely ramble a bit. My prescribing psychiatrist told me he thought I had cptsd 18 months ago after about 9 months of seeing him. It surprised me but I knew I was broken and I’m very much looking for information to help make sense of it all. The more I read about it the more it feels like those elusive puzzle pieces that never made sense falling into place. The manic roller coaster of breakthroughs followed by crushing realizations was/is really intense. Anyway, everything feels like I’m making progress until I try to get some financial support because I was coasting on my savings. I’m confronted with the question why my psychiatrist and therapist have different diagnosis. This is where is gets sketchy… so I ask my Dr the same question to which he replied that since he is the prescribing psychiatrist what mattered to him were my meds. They matched both cptsd and anxiety/depression he had from early on as my diagnosis. Basically it didn’t matter as long as his prescriptions were right. Navigating social services with lies from your Dr is extremely frustrating. It’s not like I’m wealthy and can tread financial waters like this forever. I’m pretty amazed I’ve gotten 2.5 years into it on my own, but now I’ve been in pretty extreme survival mode for awhile. The last session I told him I thought I was dissociating and knew I was missing taking my meds sometimes half the time. A new social worker I’m working with told me he recorded it as I told him I was “doing very well” on my meds. So on her recommendation I requested a new psychiatrist to try this one more time. Dr calls me wakes me up and talks me into coming in for a face to face to discuss it. He’s not big on face to face sessions. I’m taking this to mean I need to expect more manipulating and gaslighting but maybe if I confront the cptsd diagnosis and he seems sincere I should give him another last chance? It’s my therapist that I became close with, I don’t think I’ve really trusted my Dr since I found out he never changed my diagnosis so should that be my answer? That’s how I’m still leaning, trust is hard enough for me without my psychiatrist bullshitting me. Oh and I’ve had 2 issues of prescriptions not being recorded. It took 3 weeks and an email from my therapist requesting the already agreed upon prescription change to get trazadone the first time. Anyway, any advice is appreciated, I’m too close to it with a lot of stress and frustration wrapped up with it.
 
Just so I'm clear, he told you you have cptsd, but on paperwork it says something else?
I don't know where in the world you are but my understanding is that cptsd is not recognised as a diagnosis, so maybe that could be a reason to ask?

What do you want from this face to face session?
Do you want to go?
If you do, make a list of questions?
Why do you think it will be a session for him to manipulate you?
Maybe it can be a session to ask questions and understand what went wrong in this relationship and whether you want to continue seeing him or start with someone else?
 
Just so I'm clear, he told you you have cptsd, but on paperwork it says something else?

Yes, we talked a lot about ptsd but apparently it was never written down anywhere. I think I will try to prepare some questions but if I don’t trust him now I don’t think anything he can say will change that. Thanks for the advice.
 
PTSD or cptsd? Because of that diagnostic difference.
Losing trust is hard, but sometimes that can be built back?
But,if you can chose to have another psychiatrist and that works for you then thatt great.
 
So on her recommendation I requested a new psychiatrist to try this one more time. Dr calls me wakes me up and talks me into coming in for a face to face to discuss it.
This actually makes sense to me, and not in a bad way.

If you can, consider the situation from the professional's perspective, who's job it is to provide you with mental health care treatment: they give you some big news (diagnosis discussions unravel a lot of people). The next thing they know, their patient is looking to see someone else.

From their perspective? "Shit, what have I done? Are they okay?" So, they do the professionally responsible thing to do when there's reason to think you're not okay (with the situation, with them, or just in general) - they offer a bit more support. For them? Offering you an appointment to talk through what's going is the most commonsense thing to do when they have reason to be concerned about you and whether you're okay.

I'd take this as an opportunity to be completely upfront about your concerns. I've sought second opinions and switched psychiatrists a number of times. You're the patient, it's your dime and your future. If you think someone else would be a better fit? It's totally okay. And having an up front conversation with them about this gets to the heart of the issue so that you can make an informed decision. Their ego? Doesn't need to come into it - it's simply a case of "which professional is best equipped to treat my issue"?
 
Just so I'm clear, he told you you have cptsd, but on paperwork it says something else?
I don't know where in the world you are but my understanding is that cptsd is not recognised as a diagnosis, so maybe that could be a reason to ask?

What do you want from this face to face session?
Do you want to go?
If you do, make a list of questions?
Why do you think it will be a session for him to manipulate you?
Maybe it can be a session to ask questions and understand what went wrong in this relationship and whether you want to continue seeing him or start with someone else?
Stick with your list. Get information about EMDR which is a tremendously helpful for CPTSD.
 
I need to have a Dr and therapist that will work with me together.
I was very into my various health providers working as a team originally.

That went seriously arse up.

These days, I know what service is that I want each of them to provide. And I require them to stay in their respective lanes. For me, that's working out a shiteload better!
 
I also read that cptsd doesn’t have a “code” in the medical insurance world, meaning it’s not covered by insurances. So it is sometimes coded as just PTSD. So lots of doctors avoid using that as the diagnosis because they won’t get paid by the insurance company and its not officially covered/recognized. I do know the feeling about finding a new doctor., it’s scary and really hard these days.
 
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