The hunt for a new psychiatrist

[Elizabethn]

Well that was dumb. I decided to look him up on Vitals and Healthgrades. The reviews are about equally divided between "*ssh*l*" and "brilliant." The complaints are all about feeling like it's a pill mill and that he has his very limited number of preferred drugs, gee all from one company, blah blah blah..... HOWEVER, I get the impression from the repetitiveness and writing style that it's a single person making multiple reviews and comments. Or so I tell myself. The "brilliant" comments are also repetitive sounding and rather "generic," which leads me to suspect that somebody is trying to manage his online reputation.

I can't find any curriculum vitae. What, the man has never written a paper or given a presentation or served on a committee??????

*figuratively tearing my hair*

I managed to make two other appointments with people who don't make me feel ANY better, actually worse if anything because they are people in big "program" type practices that offer a smorgasbord of services, but whose websites put a LOT of emphasis on the "special" interventions they do, like transcranial magnetic stimulation "in place of ECT" for depression and some kind of oh-so-miraculous cure for panic. The people on the phone wanted wayyyy too much information about what was bothering me IMNSHO, especially the magnet people regarding the nature and treatment history of my depression.

One appointment is a week after the first guy and the other one is the second week of January. If one doesn't work, I can try another one. SHUDDER.

I've had exactly ONE genuinely respectful psychiatrist in the 20 years I've been doing this. He was military and is now long gone from here, of course.

Second one was a first class *ssh*l* who INSISTED that THE treatment for DID was antipsychotics. Tried two, they fouled me up for months. I had long since noticed that he had whatever standard-of-care publication of the day on his bookshelf, which I KNEW included DID treatment recommendations, since I had read it, and that it said that in the absence of comorbid psychotic disorder, antipsychotics were contraindicated. I pointed at that book and DEMANDED that he take it down and READ IT. He didn't like that, of course. He was NOT getting me at ALL. Finally resorted to a lengthy diatribe of a letter he could read at his leisure. That helped some; at least he agreed to not insist on any more damned antipsychotics. He left due to a bad car accident and injuries and I was glad to be rid of him.

Saw a couple more in one time consultations and said NO WAY. Eventually landed with the most recent one via recommendation from my T. He at least communicated with my T and never ever tried to shove antipsychotics down my throat, even though he made clear that he thought I was psychotic because he "never saw any evidence" of dissociation. Well no sh*t buddy, you think I'm going to just flip a switch and parade everybody out front for your gratification? I've never been that way even in my worst times.

Anyhow, because T thought well of him and because he was creative with meds, I put up with his quirks and foibles. Then he didn't get paid fast enough to suit him during one of our many financial crises and turned *ssh*l*. I didn't leave him for that reason; it just got impossible to get clear across freaking New Jersey to see him on his limited schedule once I started school. I think he was glad for the chance to discharge me.

I went to the student mental health agency and got several names of shrinks over a year ago. The counselors there, with all of whom I'm fairly well acquainted just through encounters on campus, think the world of the guy who sees students on campus. So I called him. Nope, can't see him on campus (covered by insurance) unless I'm in therapy in the counseling center. His practice is cash only and the prices are just about the highest I encountered in my research. Yippee skippy. And so it went with the other people suggested from there. Must be nice to be effing rich.

Does anybody have any GOOD shrink stories to share? Give me something positive to think about, please?..........