Hi all.
I'm from and currently living in Ireland and have been going to the Dr. since I was 15, mostly for not sleeping. The first time I went was when I was 15 it was for <mod edit - methods>. I was sent to a teenage psychiatrist for assessment. He didn't do much and during that time I started using pot and told the shrink about it and he asked how did it make me feel? I told him great. He didn't disapprove and there were no more appointments.
When I was 18 I took a few Prozac a friend was prescribed to try them out. I took a few cause they didn't seem to be working and the later that evening took a tab or LSD and certainly didn't take it since. I had a major panic attack and continued to have panic attacks for the following 2 - 3 years but never went to the Dr. about it even though I thought I was dying most of that time.
The next time I went to the Dr. for stress was when I was 22 cause I wasn't sleeping (self-medicating seemed to work) but this time I thought I'd try a Dr. I was hoping for something to keep me awake cause I was at college during the day and working evening shifts and saving to go to Australia. Of course, she wouldn't give me anything to keep me awake but she wrote me a letter saying I needed to take a few days off work because I had a viral infection (she was lying). She wanted me to rest for a few days and prescribed me Stilnocht but I just swapped them for hash and enjoyed the 2 days off.
Id been to the Dr, a few times after that mostly for getting certs for missing work or college. One time I was going through a bad bout of insomnia in college I went to the college Dr. and he told me to go for a walk as he had trouble sleeping when he was at college and it helped him. I was doing a lot of running and training a lot a kickboxing so I dont know how walking could improve on that. I just wanted the Drs not cause I missed a lab and the lecturer was a prick who wouldn't do it again unless u had a cert from a Dr.
A couple of years after that when I was 26 I saw a lady killed in a road accident. She was in a car wearing a seat belt, When I was 10 I was hit by a truck for transporting horses and made a full physical recovery within 10 days. I nearly, or probably did have a nervous breakdown then cause I got what is known as survivor guilt. I couldn't understand how I survived and she was killed. When I went to the Dr. he prescribed me D5's & Librium. I still couldn't sleep on them so again swapped them for hash. He also referred me to a psycho therapist which was nasty and I will never do again.
Then my trips to the Dr became more frequent and about a year after that my mother was diagnosed with lung cancer and I was caring for her. I became extremely impulsive and bipolar was suspected. I was constantly painting and writing. Doing several oil paintings a day, Even wrote an 80,000 words of a novel in 2 weeks at one point and that was only the outline of the story. I was seeing a psychiatrist then. At one point he wrote me a list of medications and told me to go home a look them up. Lithium was one and I forget the rest. I looked them up and didn't like the sound of any as they would kill my high level of motivation. Eventually, he was afraid I may have a full-blown manic episode so he put me on Olanzapine. I took one and was intending on waiting a couple of hours for it to kick in but barely after an hour I got up to go to the bathroom and my legs went to jelly and my heart seemed like it was speeding up then slowing down like a panic attack. I never took it again. When I told the other shrink I was seeing at the time he told me not to take it if I didn't like it.
I never really got the results of that examination at the shrinks. Was seeing 2 shrinks and a psychologist for about 4 or 5 months and never got a conclusion. I'm not depressed apparently and have never had a major depressive episode apparently.
Could go on here more about trips to the Dr. but all this time never been diagnosed with depression or PTSD.
Then I moved to the US. Hit about of Insomnia and went to kaiser Permanente about not sleeping. was given a 1-page questionnaire and filled it out. I was immediately diagnosed with major depression and was told to go to another room to be prescribed meds. WHAT? Im going to put on permanent meds just like that? No thanks. I just got a mmj card instead for insomnia. Which definitely helped.
Then I moved to a state where insomnia was not enough to get a card so I tried the PTSD angle instead as I've had a couple of major traumas and based in my medical record I got it no problem but at the time they were not dispensing it anywhere.
At one point I went to a physician looking for sleeping tablets and was told only a shrink could do that. This made me wonder is that why they're called a physician in the U.S. but General practitioners everywhere else?
Then me and my ex went to marriage counseling. The counselor had the DSM iv on her desk and I was thinking why the f*** does a marriage counselor have that on her table? This doesn't look good. Then she lectured me on how I can get arrested for possession of marijuana despite it being decriminalized in that state many years before and they were just starting to dispense on the mmj, Even though it wasn't being dispensed I could still carry it legally. The marriage told me it was not legal and there is no mmj program then my ex interrupted yes he does have a mmj, the counselor shut up. We had our session then she told me at the end she told me I could no longer attend as I have PTSD and I need to go to the psychiatrist's office to get prescribed meds and I would be better and could attend her sessions.
Came back to Ireland a few years back before lockdown. November 2020 started having prolonged intense episodes of deja vu which was lasting for up to an hour. googled it and temporal lobe epilepsy came up. Have been attending a neurologist which is taking forever partially because of lockdown and mostly because there's a shortage of neurologists in the country and my symptoms only indicate partial lobe epilepsy. The neurologist asked me was I in threapy? And I told him no, he shook his head "I'm referring you to a therapist", Which would you prefer? A psychiatrist or psychologist and I said the psychologist. After about a month I followed up and found out there was a very long waiting list for who he referred me so I contacted my GP and he couldn't get me a psychologist any quicker so he referred me to a psychiatrist as I was going through a patch of not sleeping and concerned if I'm having partial seizures and not sleeping I'll probably have a full tonic-clonic.
The shrink reckons I don't have depression, PTSD, or phobias and wanted me to go-to stress management which sounded pretty much like the psychotherapy I was at before so I turned it down. Then she said she wouldn't prescribe any meds just yet because she would need to find out what meds I might be on for epilepsy which left me confused? If I have no mental illness then why does she want to put me on meds.
After the time when I first scratched my wrists when I was 15 (i didn't know at the time that wasn't enough) I've never mentioned the s word.
Nut I wonder? Who is right? The quick med prescribers in the states? Or the reluctant med prescribers here?
I'm from and currently living in Ireland and have been going to the Dr. since I was 15, mostly for not sleeping. The first time I went was when I was 15 it was for <mod edit - methods>. I was sent to a teenage psychiatrist for assessment. He didn't do much and during that time I started using pot and told the shrink about it and he asked how did it make me feel? I told him great. He didn't disapprove and there were no more appointments.
When I was 18 I took a few Prozac a friend was prescribed to try them out. I took a few cause they didn't seem to be working and the later that evening took a tab or LSD and certainly didn't take it since. I had a major panic attack and continued to have panic attacks for the following 2 - 3 years but never went to the Dr. about it even though I thought I was dying most of that time.
The next time I went to the Dr. for stress was when I was 22 cause I wasn't sleeping (self-medicating seemed to work) but this time I thought I'd try a Dr. I was hoping for something to keep me awake cause I was at college during the day and working evening shifts and saving to go to Australia. Of course, she wouldn't give me anything to keep me awake but she wrote me a letter saying I needed to take a few days off work because I had a viral infection (she was lying). She wanted me to rest for a few days and prescribed me Stilnocht but I just swapped them for hash and enjoyed the 2 days off.
Id been to the Dr, a few times after that mostly for getting certs for missing work or college. One time I was going through a bad bout of insomnia in college I went to the college Dr. and he told me to go for a walk as he had trouble sleeping when he was at college and it helped him. I was doing a lot of running and training a lot a kickboxing so I dont know how walking could improve on that. I just wanted the Drs not cause I missed a lab and the lecturer was a prick who wouldn't do it again unless u had a cert from a Dr.
A couple of years after that when I was 26 I saw a lady killed in a road accident. She was in a car wearing a seat belt, When I was 10 I was hit by a truck for transporting horses and made a full physical recovery within 10 days. I nearly, or probably did have a nervous breakdown then cause I got what is known as survivor guilt. I couldn't understand how I survived and she was killed. When I went to the Dr. he prescribed me D5's & Librium. I still couldn't sleep on them so again swapped them for hash. He also referred me to a psycho therapist which was nasty and I will never do again.
Then my trips to the Dr became more frequent and about a year after that my mother was diagnosed with lung cancer and I was caring for her. I became extremely impulsive and bipolar was suspected. I was constantly painting and writing. Doing several oil paintings a day, Even wrote an 80,000 words of a novel in 2 weeks at one point and that was only the outline of the story. I was seeing a psychiatrist then. At one point he wrote me a list of medications and told me to go home a look them up. Lithium was one and I forget the rest. I looked them up and didn't like the sound of any as they would kill my high level of motivation. Eventually, he was afraid I may have a full-blown manic episode so he put me on Olanzapine. I took one and was intending on waiting a couple of hours for it to kick in but barely after an hour I got up to go to the bathroom and my legs went to jelly and my heart seemed like it was speeding up then slowing down like a panic attack. I never took it again. When I told the other shrink I was seeing at the time he told me not to take it if I didn't like it.
I never really got the results of that examination at the shrinks. Was seeing 2 shrinks and a psychologist for about 4 or 5 months and never got a conclusion. I'm not depressed apparently and have never had a major depressive episode apparently.
Could go on here more about trips to the Dr. but all this time never been diagnosed with depression or PTSD.
Then I moved to the US. Hit about of Insomnia and went to kaiser Permanente about not sleeping. was given a 1-page questionnaire and filled it out. I was immediately diagnosed with major depression and was told to go to another room to be prescribed meds. WHAT? Im going to put on permanent meds just like that? No thanks. I just got a mmj card instead for insomnia. Which definitely helped.
Then I moved to a state where insomnia was not enough to get a card so I tried the PTSD angle instead as I've had a couple of major traumas and based in my medical record I got it no problem but at the time they were not dispensing it anywhere.
At one point I went to a physician looking for sleeping tablets and was told only a shrink could do that. This made me wonder is that why they're called a physician in the U.S. but General practitioners everywhere else?
Then me and my ex went to marriage counseling. The counselor had the DSM iv on her desk and I was thinking why the f*** does a marriage counselor have that on her table? This doesn't look good. Then she lectured me on how I can get arrested for possession of marijuana despite it being decriminalized in that state many years before and they were just starting to dispense on the mmj, Even though it wasn't being dispensed I could still carry it legally. The marriage told me it was not legal and there is no mmj program then my ex interrupted yes he does have a mmj, the counselor shut up. We had our session then she told me at the end she told me I could no longer attend as I have PTSD and I need to go to the psychiatrist's office to get prescribed meds and I would be better and could attend her sessions.
Came back to Ireland a few years back before lockdown. November 2020 started having prolonged intense episodes of deja vu which was lasting for up to an hour. googled it and temporal lobe epilepsy came up. Have been attending a neurologist which is taking forever partially because of lockdown and mostly because there's a shortage of neurologists in the country and my symptoms only indicate partial lobe epilepsy. The neurologist asked me was I in threapy? And I told him no, he shook his head "I'm referring you to a therapist", Which would you prefer? A psychiatrist or psychologist and I said the psychologist. After about a month I followed up and found out there was a very long waiting list for who he referred me so I contacted my GP and he couldn't get me a psychologist any quicker so he referred me to a psychiatrist as I was going through a patch of not sleeping and concerned if I'm having partial seizures and not sleeping I'll probably have a full tonic-clonic.
The shrink reckons I don't have depression, PTSD, or phobias and wanted me to go-to stress management which sounded pretty much like the psychotherapy I was at before so I turned it down. Then she said she wouldn't prescribe any meds just yet because she would need to find out what meds I might be on for epilepsy which left me confused? If I have no mental illness then why does she want to put me on meds.
After the time when I first scratched my wrists when I was 15 (i didn't know at the time that wasn't enough) I've never mentioned the s word.
Nut I wonder? Who is right? The quick med prescribers in the states? Or the reluctant med prescribers here?
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