Psychiatrist/psychotherapist/psychologist what is best?

[Anonymous]

My family doctor sent me to CAMH for an assessment. I was told I had ADD inattentive type. They recommended I take Concerta. I asked if there is anything else I can do and they said no because they felt I have done a good job controlling it. They sent me back to my family doctor who is at his wit’s end with me. He has tried getting me into to a psychiatrist but no luck yet with even an acknowledgment after 5 months.

Are psychotherapists any help?

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[Anonymous]

Psychologists are doctors that help people work out some emotional and

logical problems and develop more and better ways to do that. They are

like managers and advisers.

Psychiatrists are highly trained experts in the medical side of the field who

went years further in medical training and are authorized to use drugs and

other medical procedures to help people with complex neurological problems

that psychologists and their staff cannot handle. They are the top of the field

and if they interact with psychologists at all it’s mostly to employ them as

researchers and managers of support staff.

Psychotherapists are either of those two or are the people who work under

their supervision. It’s a generic term that covers everybody in the field.

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[ADDcoachCandace]

Hi Echo,

First off, congratulations on a definitive diagnosis! That is a huge piece to the puzzle of trying to craft the kind of life you want for yourself.

When you asked CAMH if there was anything else you could do – what was it they thought you were already doing a good job of “controlling”? Do you agree with them?

What is your family doctor at his wit’s end with about you? Do you share his frustration?

Finally, what would you just love to change about your life?

The answers to these questions should ad up to the job description of the professional who is the best match for you at this point in your life. It may or may not be any of the above. There is a lot of wonderful support out there. Good Luck,

Smiles,

Candace Taylor

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[Anonymous]

I have a might bit of a catch on this end to find any of these professionals in my area that specialize or are even fully informed about ADHD. There was a telephone coaching session through the IWK which we benefitted from however that was more to dealth with my “difficult child”. Am I just prolonging our pain by insisting that we seek out help for our ADHD first and then the rest will fall in place? I’m so tired of going to perople for help and finding out they don’t know much more (often less) than I do….I feel like I am talking to the plumber about my electrical problems…sure he can suggest…maybe he even knows a little about wiring but should I really hire my plumber to re-wire my house?

How do help us?

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[Patte Rosebank]

So much of that “rest” that may fall into place, is the result of struggling to function with ADHD. People with ADHD frequently have depression, anxiety, bipolar, etc. This is called “comorbidity”. So, yes, dealing with the ADHD probably will help with most of the “rest”. But in the meantime, you can, and should, take steps to deal with that “rest” now.

As for finding a psychiatrist who specializes in ADHD, your best bet would be to contact your provincial or state College of Physicians and Surgeons (the regulator which licenses doctors). They have listings of doctors and their specialties, and you can do a search for a doctor in your area. You may need to phone the doctors and ask specifically if they specialize in ADHD. Or you could contact your local mental health authority and ask for a list of ADHD specialists.

Do all this before you go to your doctor for a referral. Otherwise, your doctor will probably just refer you to any psychiatrist, and you may very well get one who not only doesn’t specialize in ADHD, but is openly hostile to the notion that it exists at all.

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[Anonymous]

As it stands now there are none in this area specifically for ADHD, not for 400 miles

I’m doing ok, I’ve accepted it and I’m working with it instead of against it and seeing small successes that are huge in reality with all three of us since The main reason I feel the need for the specialist is for my son. The lack of actual understanding of this is unbelievable especially in the school system….daily I’m left shaking my head thinking….”why didn’t you count to ten….????” when I’m called for 3rd time that week to my son’s school. They don’t believe me or something….it’s a small place…I’m an unemployed single mom with two children and I think I going to sit here explaining to them….”well educated individuals” how to deal with the situation(s) more effectively???? Hold up they say. As under the other post “just stop it”….that’s where their heads are while they are thinking up all the reasons in the world why he just does this or somehow this is a direct reflection of my parenting……???

I want to scream ……Let me say I live around some doozies …kids raising themselves…..and their children are doing great no calls…..these parents never make a craft or play a game or read to their kids…yet no calls?

It’s very frustrating for me as a parent with zero community support and it would have to be 2x as frustrating for the children Because they wish more than anything else they could just be like………(insert random name here).

…..apologies for the rant but having a moment and grrrr……glad I could say it here and didn’t keep thinking on it building and building until it came out at 100kmph when dropping him at school tomorrow

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[Patte Rosebank]

@Squirrel, the problem isn’t with your child; it’s with the structure and chronic under-funding of the school system. Not to be confrontational with your child’s teachers, but that’s the root of the problem.

The trouble with school systems in the “civilized world” is that they’re institutions, run on an institutional model, to teach children as cheaply and efficiently as possible. It’s an assembly line, using identical methods to install identical parts to create identical finished products. The assembly-line system is highly efficient and economical for making cars or refrigerators, or other lifeless things.

However, human beings are not identical. While many people may be similar, there are also many who are very different. Their brains function differently from the majority. They feel things differently than the majority does. The assembly-line system is completely unsuitable for them. But since it costs a lot more in terms of time, money, and resources to teach those “few” who can’t function in the regular system, and the regular system is so lacking in time, money, and resources that it can’t even successfully handle the kids in the majority—then those running the system will do their utmost to try to change the minority to fit into the assembly line, because that’s all they can do. The teachers are stretched to the limit, just trying to teach the standard curriculum to all the kids in their class. They have no time to devote to the kids who can’t pick it up as quickly as the rest of the class. So all they can do is keep trying to mold all the kids to fit the system.

This is like trying to hammer a square peg into a round hole. It doesn’t work. And it invariably leads to crushed thumbs and frustration for the person wielding the hammer, and crushed edges and pain on the poor square peg as someone keeps trying to force it into a place it simply wasn’t designed to go.

But the assembly-line model is successful enough at molding people to fit into the soulless, cookie-cutter world of cubicles and offices, where everyone wears a suit in muted tones, and keeps churning out paperwork (or, the soulless, cookie-cutter world of factories, where everyone wears a uniform and keeps making identical copies of identical things) all day long. Just as it was when it was first invented, in the Industrial Revolution. Before then, education was limited to those who could afford to pay for it—so it was one-on-one (or one-on-one family), and was tailored to the needs of the individuals. When universal education was invented, it had to be cheap and mass-produced, just like everything that was being made in the factories, so that the working classes could afford it.

But, as we’ve seen with Wal-mart and dollar stores, mass-produced & cheap is not the best way to go. Least of all, in terms of quality and safety.

The education system is an institution, complete with bells to tell everyone to move on to the next class, and forced uniformity. Sounds a lot like a prison, doesn’t it? And for those of us who are different, that’s exactly what it is. And as long as it continues to be so under-funded, it will continue in this archaic model.

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[Anonymous]

Psychiatrists- medically trained, free in Canada, hard to access, utilize categorical definitions (i.e. they like little boxes and labels), can prescribe meds but do not do psychometric testing

Psychologists- graduate studies training, typically require third party funding or fees, easier to access, utilize broader definitions of pathology including dimensional systems, are able to make an ADHD diagnosis but are constrained by the fact that they can’t rule out medical causality, do not prescribe meds but can do psychometric testing.

Both are good. They often, and should often, work together.

Any psychologist who has a Masters level or higher is usually qualified. Any physician who has an MD is qualified though a lot depends on further training and experience.

There are bad physicians and bad psychologists. They are typically few, luckily, and they often carry reputations ahead of time that you can find easily by asking people. The problem with being good is that a patient may have restricted access as they will be filled up and not seeing new patients.

Not surprising, some doctors have gone to creating “fees” which are basically a way of capitalizing on their virtual monopoly. There is nothing they provide that makes their assessment better. This applies to physicians and psychologists.

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