Any tips on finding a Doctor to prescribe meds?

[Ivriniel]

After my diagnosis, the Psychologist suggested that I might want to try medication to see if helped. She sent me to my family Doctor.

My family Doctor didn’t feel comfortable prescribing anything to me, and sent me to a Psychiatrist. It was a horrible experience. Before I saw anyone, I was given a whole whack of checklists to fill out. From what I gathered he gave these to all his patients, regardless of what they were there for. Checklists with such subtle titles as “Mania checklist”. (Who does that if they want to get an honest response?)

Well, I made the mistake of clicking “sometimes” in response to the phrase “I am so irritable that I shout at people.” (Later when recounting this story to a friend, she explained to me the distinction between losing it because you are irritable, and losing it because

you are frustrated. I’m not an irritable person, but I have been known to lose it when I get frustrated. But then who doesn’t? )

When I got into to see the Psychiatrist, Dr. Checklist immediately seized on the irritable thing. Then he read me more checklists, and when he didn’t like my answers would just keep repeating them. He asked me three times if anyone in my family had Then he asked why I was there. When I mentioned that I had been to a Psychologist and been diagnosed with an LD and ADHD, you’d have thought from his facial expression that I had just presented him with the contents of a dirty diaper. I gave him my report to read, and he started disputing the diagnosis before he had finished the first page!

The rest of the appointment turned into him conceding that I might have a learning disability, but not ADHD. He kept talking about my “other problem” and gave me this big speech about how next time I had to fill in his checklists honestly. I told him I did, and he kept harping on the fact that I had checked that sometimes box, as proof that I wasn’t being honest. Um, hello? If I wasn’t being honest, would I have checked that? On a checklist titled “Mania checklist” no less? Of course when I attempted to argue with him, this was taken as further evidence of my “other problem” as well as my “irritability”.

Anyways, by the end of the appointment, I was sitting there, shell-shocked. He told me to make another appointment with his secretary for a followup. I went and stood by her desk, feeling like I didn’t really want to see this guy again, when I overheard him telling her the list of checklists he wanted me to fill in the next time I came in. When I heard “Personality Disorder” checklist and “Bipolar Disorder” checklist, I just turned on my heel and walked out. I wasn’t going to waste my time with some guy who had decided that I was mentally ill on the basis of some checklists I filled out in his waiting room, completely disregarding the work done by my Psychologist who had actually you know, taken the time to speak to me and run some actual tests before drawing any conclusions.

So anyways, anyone know of a good Psychiatrist in the GTA to ask for a referral to? I’m a bit scared to go back to my family Doctor for another blind referral after that mess.

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[Patte Rosebank]

This is where you need to advocate for yourself. Doctors are not gods, and they’re never always right. They’re your partners in health care, and you should work with them. Don’t be afraid to tell your doctor that the referral didn’t work out, and you need a new one.

You need to explain to your doctor that the psychiatrist was completely inappropriate for you, and the reasons for this. Any mental health professional who takes such a confrontational position, and tries to manipulate your answers to fit his own foregone conclusion, is woefully behind the times. And, unfortunately, there are a lot of doctors out there who are the same way. As one specialist says in “ADD and Loving It”, “The way I was taught to treat ADHD when I was in medical school would today be considered malpractice.”

Then you need to ask for a referral to a psychiatrist who specializes in ADD/ADHD. You might also want to repeat this post in the “Ask an Expert” part of the forum, and ask Dr. J. for a list of such specialists, so your doctor will know exactly which one(s) to refer you to.

ADD/ADHD is a real disorder. It has real symptoms, which, unfortunately, can be mistaken for depression and/or bipolar. Sometimes, the frustration of trying to function with ADD/ADHD brings on depression, anxiety, and/or bipolar symptoms. In this case, you aren’t the one who has a problem with all that; the inappropriate psychiatrist you were referred to is the one with the problem. You’re not helpless in this. You have all the support and resources on this site, to help you get the help you need.

Good luck!

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[Ivriniel]

Thanks for your reply.

“This is where you need to advocate for yourself. Doctors are not gods, and they’re never always right. They’re your partners in health care, and you should work with them. Don’t be afraid to tell your doctor that the referral didn’t work out, and you need a new one.”

It’s not that I’m afraid to tell my GP it didn’t work out, I just don’t want to be on a merry-go-round of referrals. I’d rather go in and say “I’d like a referral to this Doctor please” rather than run the risk I’ll get another dud.

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[Patte Rosebank]

Absolutely!

And your doctor will probably appreciate your having done the work of finding the right specialist, so he doesn’t have to.

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[Anonymous]

An educated consumer is a healthy consumer. Doctors don’t have the answers and most of the time, we might delude ourselves that we actually know what we are doing. A strong therapeutic alliance between doctor and patient acting as partners is today’s model of effective treatment delivery.

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