Therapist Talking To Doctor!

[Deleted member 1860]

I'm pretty sure that therapists are bound by HIPAA laws.... If you didn't sign a form, then no communication should happen between medical professionals. I understand that your therapist was trying to help, but this was a major breach of trust.

 

[Justmehere]

Just tell him that you are grateful for he effort he made to call the doctor, but you want to talk about how the detailed information he shared impacted you. Therapists are used to clients expressing concerns all the time. This isn't about cutting him down but about how you two are going to move forward together without this happening and about you working through how it affected you. He would want to know if the way he went about something was hurtful to you - especially with this.

I'm so sorry Ambien backfired. It's not uncommon. Ambien didn't work for me at all either. It took me a few tries, and meeting with a good sleep medicine doctor, before I found the right sleep medication.

 

[BloomInWinter]

I asked for my therapists and my doctor to work together right from the beginning. My therapists don't share details of any of my traumas, just general comments about my overall functioning. When they talk, it's like a 1-2 minute phone call most of the time.

I can't imagine not having them communicate. Otherwise, they could waste my time and money working at cross-purposes. Working together, they were able to priorities my needs. Which, interestingly enough, was a very different list than what I *thought* my priorities would be. Thank goodness they knew what they were doing.

 

[desiderata310]

We talked briefly about the doctor thing today. I think he realized that he over stepped before I said anything. He said he was aware of my extreme anxiety of having to talk about it. He told me exactly what he said and it wasn't as much as I had originally thought. He was shocked to hear the questions that the doctor had asked. He apologized saying that his intention was to try and minimize my anxiety, not increase it.

We also talked about the question that the doctor had asked which demonstrated his lack of knowledge of the situation. At one point he said that IN ADDITION to the PTSD he felt that I had an anxiety disorder. Has dude ever read the symptoms of PTSD? My therapist and I had a good laugh at this. It was good to laugh again. He felt that perhaps he should offer a class on dealing with ptsd patients.

I was also still very anxious about the possibility of being commit involuntarily. We talked about the laws in my state and he reassured me that he would not have me placed in the hospital as it would be be very bad for my ability to trust him.
He's certainly right about that.

I did manage to get a bit of sleep last night. Quality over quantity. I got three solid hours. No dreams. No nightmares. Not a lot of sleep but I feel better today.

 

[Deleted member 28740]

Hi, I am new to seeking treatment for my PTSD, 6+ years of trying to do it on my own. I am learning so much on this site, each of our situations different, but the common threads of finding a good path to deal with what I can not do alone. Good to know how the confidentiality boundaries should work. My primary DR. prescribed a med last week that I had a very extreme reaction to. No call backs to my reporting of symptoms, hope soon to have a T or someone to help me navigate the med side. You have someone there at your back trying to get the best help for you. Hope I can find the same.

 

[desiderata310]

@Changeling I lucked out. Really.
He's worked really hard this year to gain my trust and help me navigate a lot of things that just felt insurmountable. The therapist I am actually seeing a LCSW who has training in and experience dealing with trauma. I had NO idea what I was looking for and picked him, literally at random from the list on a website, to send an email. It just turned out that we were a good fit. I think that having a LCSW has been better for me because he is familiar with and willing to help navigate (or in some cases, navigate for me, if I am overwhelmed) much of the paperwork and legal stuff.

In this case, I have to be honest with myself, I would not have made the appointment with the doctor at all. I would have sat on it and continued to just suffer. I didn't have the wherewithal to do it. At that point I was 48 hours with ZERO sleep. I was close to non functional.

That's not to say he does EVERYTHING for me but I think he's been pretty good about seeing when I am beyond overwhelmed and taking over at that point.

 

[Chava]

Sorry, sounds like you had to deal with a trauma-illiterate doctor. I need sleeping meds but I've told my doctor almost nothing of trauma stuff. But we have a sort of connection from seeing her regularly and she knows I'm just a mess of symptoms. But if you needed to see someone short notice, I could understand a little background from the therapist, but it shouldn't take much...and the doc should know better than to bring it all up or get into it. wth. Glad your therapist took some ownership for how messy and uncomfortable it was. Hope you can rest better.