Professional relationships - Patient & Psychiatrist

[SophieBernstein]

I just was thinking about relationships betwen patient and professional and how hurtful can they be for people in recovery process overall in relational ptsd cases.

It may be seem as a little thing but it still hurting me and making me feel like if i where weak and not able to change because of my own weaknesses.

Once when I was talking with my old psychiatrist, I had the courage to tell her about one of my traumas about incest with an older brother and how he wanted to do it again while adults. Also about bullying and CoCSA once when I was 5. She told me i was exaggerating and that of course i had traumas but they still hurting me because i was weak claiming she had patiens with worse traumas than me and were better.

Now I'm a little scared of telling therapist about them because i feel I'm exaggeraring and they won't take it as a real thing. Moreover, one of my problems is I usually minimize my problems, traumas and things that hurth me onto the point I dissociate not knowing what happened or if things were real or just a dream.

I would like to know your opinions and experiences if you have. Thanks for reading :)

 

[Teasel]

I think your psychiatrist was wrong. If you want to tell your current therapist things, you could say you had this experience with psychiatrist and ask if your therapist would be like that? Before telling them anything - if that makes sense.

I think as with any instance if a power imbalance between people, sometimes it is a problem in any walk of life including therapists, vut maybe especially psychiatrists.

 

[arfie]

the professional detachment principles work two ways in my own therapy approach. i don't waste money on the search for sympathy. there are a great many places i can get sympathy for free. i don't need to pay for it. i hire professionals for names, information and theories i can work with. they are high dollar reference books which never leave the library. my goal is to get them back on the shelves as quickly as possible in pristine condition. strictly business, my august ma'am/sir. of course working with painful injuries is gonna be painful as surely as fecal matter will stink.

i look to my therapy peers for empathy and other strictly personals. the two wings of my therapy network balance one another beautifully.

but that is me and every recovery is unique.
steadying support while you find what works for you, sophie.

 

[No More]

In me experience, psychiatrists and therapists are quite different in how they approach things. Psychiatrists generally would be a lot more focused on the medical side and less empathic - purely from my experience.

I would encourage you to maybe take a step towards sharing with your therapist by maybe speaking to her about how you feel like in the past, you’ve opened up to someone and you weren’t validated, and your problems were minimised. See how she reacts and maybe if it’s positive, share a little more with her.

 

[SophieBernstein]

I'm agree with you because if i go there is to get my medicines and knowing what's happening with my mind but I don't know the point of a doctor telling her patient she is exaggerating. That's not helpful at all

I would encourage you to maybe take a step towards sharing with your therapist by maybe speaking to her about how you feel like in the past, you’ve opened up to someone and you weren’t validated, and your problems were minimised. See how she reacts and maybe if it’s positive, share a little more with her.

My therapist know about it but I mean, if the psychiatric were good enough, she would know that's not how traumas work. A person can be traumatized by little things just because in the moment he wasn't able to process the event.
It's not only a lack of empathy but a lack of professionalism.

 

[Freddyt]

Most people are confused about the role of Psychiatrists vs Psychologists. Psychiatrists diagnose. Their trauma skills for the most part are basic, if they exsist at all. Based on my experience they are clumsy to the point of insesitivity dealing with trauma patients. Mostly because they diagnose the conditions that go with trauma - but the trauma itself - generally they don't diagnose.

Psychologists who are properly trained to handle trauma diagnose trauma itself. Therapy they offer uncovers the specific trauma and treats it.

In my experience - the Psychiatrist I have seen counted on my Psychologist for specific information about my condition. All he really wanted to do was hand me medication and book another appointment......

 

[Sideways]

I’ve been treated by (easily) more than a dozen different psychiatrists over the years. Like all professionals, the range of specialisation and quality varies a lot.

On the one hand, I’ve seen psychiatrists who deliberately generalise. Like the ones working out of our public hospitals. This group need to be across all of the potential disorders that turn up. That’s their specialty - being able to identify anything that might turn up. Bedside manner varies greatly (they’re humans after all), but there’s a pretty good underlying skill at addressing the most common types of disorders that they’re presented with (which isn’t complex trauma). A lot of suburban practice pdocs fall into this ‘generalist’ category.

Then there’s the ones that specialise in specific types of disorders. Mood disorders, or trauma disorders, or eating disorders, etc. my experience of this group has been pretty outstanding.

Not universally - there were some real dicks (which I’ve cussed a fair bit about in my own trauma diary over the years!). But very definitely, my own Top 5 Most Competent Trauma Ts list? 4 of them are psychiatrists that I’ve worked with.

They each had different treatment approaches, and only one of them really got actively involved in using medication as a serious adjunct and tinkered with my meds routinely. But they were all trauma specialists, and all used some form of psychotherapy as their primary treatment modality.

All of those 4 specialists were psychiatrists that I was referred to by another psychiatrist. And that’s probably the rub of it. I wouldn’t have found any of these guys if I’d been trying to find a specialist myself. Which means being open to your T saying to you the dreaded “I think maybe you should see someone else”. Getting dumped by your T can be pretty traumatic, and it can be difficult to hear that, and not just run for the hills! But amazingly helpful.

JME.

 

[SophieBernstein]

She asked me about traumas for making sure i was well diagnosed. She didn't even need to say anythimg about them.

Most people are confused about the role of Psychiatrists vs Psychologists. Psychiatrists diagnose. Their trauma skills for the most part are basic, if they exsist at all. Based on my experience they are clumsy to the point of insesitivity dealing with trauma patients. Mostly because they diagnose the conditions that go with trauma - but the trauma itself - generally they don't diagnose.

Psychologists who are properly trained to handle trauma diagnose trauma itself. Therapy they offer uncovers the specific trauma and treats it.

In my experience - the Psychiatrist I have seen counted on my Psychologist for specific information about my condition. All he really wanted to do was hand me medication and book another appointment......

 

[OliveJewel]

I don't know the point of a doctor telling her patient she is exaggerating. That's not helpful at all

I agree completely! Sounds like incompetence but I have no experience with psychiatrists. I did have two therapists dismiss and discount my abuse but also I wasn’t able to explain it very well because I didn’t understand it very well. The worst was when they discounted it by comparing my experiences with other patients. Or judged it, and like you said it came across as something wrong with me for even bringing it up. My heart goes out to you for that.

A couple questions though. You said your therapist does believe you, just not your psychiatrist, right? Can you talk to your therapist about your psychiatrist and tell your therapist how uncomfortable the psychiatrist makes you feel? Maybe your T can support you switching psychiatrists?

Also, since you only need your psychiatrist for your meds but your therapist is helping you with the grief work, can you avoid talking about anything in depth with your psychiatrist and just say something like, “my work with my T is going well,” and write the psychiatrist off as untherapeutic but necessary for the meds?

 

[SophieBernstein]

I agree completely! Sounds like incompetence but I have no experience with psychiatrists. I did have two therapists dismiss and discount my abuse but also I wasn’t able to explain it very well because I didn’t understand it very well. The worst was when they discounted it by comparing my experiences with other patients. Or judged it, and like you said it came across as something wrong with me for even bringing it up. My heart goes out to you for that.

A couple questions though. You said your therapist does believe you, just not your psychiatrist, right? Can you talk to your therapist about your psychiatrist and tell your therapist how uncomfortable the psychiatrist makes you feel? Maybe your T can support you switching psychiatrists?

Also, since you only need your psychiatrist for your meds but your therapist is helping you with the grief work, can you avoid talking about anything in depth with your psychiatrist and just say something like, “my work with my T is going well,” and write the psychiatrist off as untherapeutic but necessary for the meds?

Thanks you a lot! I feel a lot of relief listening to your story, I'm not the only one and It also helps me in recognize my traumas are real. :).
I have already change my psychiatrist but still makimg me unconfortable talk about it to my T because i feel i will be dismissed and also I don't like to talk about them in a deeper way but you gave me the courage to do it. Thanks you a lot, really. I would hug you!!

 

[OliveJewel]

Thanks you a lot, really. I would hug you!!

Thanks for the hug! Good luck!