Disgust with psychiatrists- would rather be treated by a veternarian or self-treat- any suggestions?

[tiredxillenial]

The tile of this post is an utterly true statement.

Virtually every psychiatrist I have interacted with has been neglectful and awful. Calling to get an intake with no response- happens more often than not. Psychiatrist not showing up for appointments- check. Saying you're decompensentating rapidly and need more intense treatment and your psychiatrist just not responding- yep. Doing an intake and the psychiatrist not being available for a follow up and not even giving you a perscription when you have expressed severe suicidality-- has happened three times within the last few months. Saying you're severly suicidal and have a gun and begging for more intensive treatment-- they send you on your un-merry way with no perscription and say to follow up in six months if you're still depressed. Saying you lose 5 hours a day routinely to OCD and lose 12 hours a day a few times a week-- they don't do anything about OCD and certainly won't give you the most efficacious medication for OCD if you beg for it. Describing the difficulties you've had with getting a psychiatrist to give you an intake or follow-up appointment (which is entirely on them)-- the new psychiatrist you're talking to will say they can't work with you because you don't have a regular psychiatrist. Psychaitrist taking no covid precautions and wearing a mask with their goddam nose sticking out looking like a dumbass fool and being so incapable of wearing a mask properly that it actually falls below their mouth in your meeting (which they've decided to have in a very small room with a trainee observing thus making the small room even more crowded)-- yep. I really do not know what the fuck is going on with this discipline but it is clear that engaging in "treatment" makes you worse off than not engaging. Everyone always says reach out for mental health help-- reaching out and being neglected (which has happened virtually every single time) really does make you worse though. And I honestly don't think mental health providers think you're at risk unless you've had at least one unsuccessful attempt; they are apparently incapable of understanding that if you have a gun and your method is shoting yourself in the head in a very isolated area that you probably will only have one attempt and will not live for them to maybe actually think you are at risk.

I have been suicidal for years and have been desperately trying to get ECT since the end of July when I started decompensating rapidly. The best anti-depressant I've ever had has been getting a gun because if psychiatrists are not going to give me any treatment options and I'm faced with seeing myself neglect all my responsibilities and the things I care about and losing everything, I would honestly prefer to go out with some dignity than have that.

I found an online medical service where I was able to just say what meds and what dosages I wanted and a general practictioner called them in without even talking with me-- I know that is considered unethical (especially since one of the meds -lithium- requires monitoring and can be fatal and I said that it would be a new perscription) but it is so what I need right now. I don't expect lithium to treat depression enough or fast enough and I know it won't touch the OCD. So I still need to find additional treatment options and I want options that are actually available and maybe even easy to access (gasp, imagine that.)

I have been trying to order my own danged ECT machine or figure out how I can build my own because I am past the point of wanting to self-administer it. I have been messaging neurosurgeons who say they treat mental illness (and not getting a response or being told that apparently losing 12 hours a day to OCD is not "severe" enough to warrant treatment.) I see case reports of people with less severe illness than I have getting ECT or brain surgery for mental illness and I really don't understand how they access treatment when all the doctors I have interacted with seem so intent on not treating extreme mental illness and having people suffer or be exponentially more likely to kill themselves. I am beyond frustrated and done with these goons who make your mental health worse and increase your risk of suicide because interacting with them is so horrible.

The vast majority of the veternarians I have interacted with have been delightful. They have been beyond responsive, take appropriate precautions to prevent infectious disease/covid, and do a lot of lab work in-house so you have lab work and pathology reports within minutes of your appointment. I have much respect for veternarians and they have earned my respect for their skills.

I want to figure out either how I can get someone to help me with or how I can do my own ECT or legit medication induced seizures. I can't find any instructions for self ECT or medication induced seizures online and can't exactly post to craigslist looking for assistance. I would like suggestions on how I can move forward with this if anyone has any solid advice.

I also am to a point where I would feel very comfortable with a veternarian operating on me to treat my OCD and depression. There is enough literature on procedures out there that I would trust them to be competant at it and think that the benefits far outweight the risks. I apparently can't access any needed treatment through the human un-healthcare system and attempting to do so is a waste of time and energy that has nearly pushed me into shooting myself shortly after an interaction (it is not care but abuse.) If I don't self-treat with ECT or access surgery somehow, I have everything to lose and likely am not living much longer. In contrast, ECT or surgery gives me a chance of improvement at least. My interactions with human un-healthcare system have been such that I honestly do think I would get better care from a veternarian. I have tried a very long list of meds and gotten adverse side effects and no positive response. I have done years of therapy, ketamine, and TMS. My illness is trully extreme and treatment resistant. If anyone has any adivce on how I could get treatment from a veternarian please let me know.

I know there are many conventions against veternarians treating humans and against self or lay induction of seizures. This is an honest matter of life or death though and doing nothing means losing everything and killing myself shortly. This is a desperate situation; don't knock my situation or what I am seeking if you have not also been in a situation where you are given no other options by a system that is about killing rather than helping you. I know there are risks of harm with what I am seeking and do not need paternalistic warnings about what I am seeking-- if you don't understand that not acting is far costlier than what I am seeking please don't comment. If you have advice or suggestions though that address what I am asking about please let me know.

Again, I honestly do not understand why providers won't give me care. Most ECT places where I am require referral from a psychiatrist and you can't get in otherwise. ECT is hard to access inpatient because so few places do it where I am and you have to go through and ER to get ina nd the ER could send you to a hospital where they don;t do ECT. I am gone to the one self-referral ECT provider I could find and been told that they won't treat me because I don't have a psychiatrist and to contact them if I'm still severly suicidal in six months. I have been trying to get a fucking psychiatrist to get access to better treatment for months now without any calling me back and being told that the large university affiliated medical system psychiatrists aren't taking any new patients (but they are willing to do a consultation where they don't give me a perscription or follow up and just say they will but don't actually refer me to another useless assessment from a treatment resistant program that only offers assessment and not treatment and that will just tell me about options I have already know about and have tried or can't access.) I have done herculean efforts to try to get care. I have been more resourceful than most people would ever be in my situation. I have explained the gravity of my situation (and objectively I can quite past the point where nuclear treatment options are warranted) and I have had the door repeatedly slammed in my face. So, if you have concrete advice let me know and I will tune out judgemental replies (I seriously doubt anyone would have gotten as far as I have in seeking options if they encountered what I have.)

[Typing on small screen with a system that does obnoxius autocorrects so please forgive any typos.]

 

[Deleted member 1465]

Well, I hear ya.
My run ins with them... they seemed incapable of listening and utterly incapable of answering basic questions without deception and obfuscation. They completely marginalised any physical health issues and consistently avoided dealing with the one glaringly obvious MH issue that I do posses. OCD (yeah, me too).
All they wanted was for me to take their drugs and go away, despite the fact that I told them SSRIs no longer work on me after twenty years of on and off use. I was clearly making the last two decades up because I'd been given a MH diagnosis and therefore had no judgement.

Having said that, if you talk to people on here, many will tell of psychs who do listen and who prescribe them medications they genuinely need and couldn't do without. So they do have their uses if you find a good one and have a specific diagnosis. Unfortunately the two I met were *****

Advice? I'm still trying to figure that one out myself. I know what you mean about trying to be respectful and still being shut down. When you get a bad psych, It's kind of like you have to outwit them at their own game, be more manipulative and let them think they are in control, almost pander to their egos. It really shouldn't be like this:/

 

[Sherri]

Mine is okish, he knows about my intentions, yet he is understanding. I can't say he's helping me. But I like to go to his appointments.

 

[ut0pia1992]

There is a thing about suicidal patients being visually checked and more often than not they do their thing about ignoring the idea of suicide as they think you're looking for attention even though you're honest. Suicidal thoughts are universal, and their thing is to not take it seriously and focus even on ineffectual treatments but anything else, keywords take it seriously.

 

[Sherri]

Well, I hear ya.
My run ins with them... they seemed incapable of listening and utterly incapable of answering basic questions without deception and obfuscation. They completely marginalised any physical health issues and consistently avoided dealing with the one glaringly obvious MH issue that I do posses. OCD (yeah, me too).
All they wanted was for me to take their drugs and go away, despite the fact that I told them SSRIs no longer work on me after twenty years of on and off use. I was clearly making the last two decades up because I'd been given a MH diagnosis and therefore had no judgement.

Having said that, if you talk to people on here, many will tell of psychs who do listen and who prescribe them medications they genuinely need and couldn't do without. So they do have their uses if you find a good one and have a specific diagnosis. Unfortunately the two I met were *****

Advice? I'm still trying to figure that one out myself. I know what you mean about trying to be respectful and still being shut down. When you get a bad psych, It's kind of like you have to outwit them at their own game, be more manipulative and let them think they are in control, almost pander to their egos. It really shouldn't be like this:/

I was admitted to a private mental care facility once, and overheard 2 doctors talking about the cure for depression, one of the, said, I don't predict a cure for mental illness, not in the next 10 years if so.

 

[SorrySandy]

I've found them useless, no other way of putting it. Think they're some kind of Godlike figures, never admit getting anything wrong and so often do. So elusive to even get to see them ever then in 20 mins without knowing or bothering to check history they reach their unchallengeable conclusion and get paid that salary. I just got discharged partly for telling mine he was patronising ;) which he was

 

[Moon Flower]

The one psych I had told me and my last bf we couldn't come back after he got in an accident and broke both legs and that caused us to miss an appointment. He's dead now.

 

[Nem]

Psychiatrists are the scum bag of medicine, and that is saying a lot. I have for the most part, zero respect for psychiatrists or even drs for that matter

Peace/hugs

 

[LittleJem]

Psilocybin and OCD | The Department of Psychiatry, University of Arizona Health Sciences

psychiatry.arizona.edu

ps, I bought my own meds online after a few appointments with a psychiatrist - so I know what you mean. I decided I would rather choose my own medication to be my own guinea pig, rather than giving a psychiatrist all that power, when really they just make you into a guinea pig in any case.

 

[Deleted member 1465]

Psilocybin and OCD | The Department of Psychiatry, University of Arizona Health Sciences

psychiatry.arizona.edu

ps, I bought my own meds online after a few appointments with a psychiatrist - so I know what you mean. I decided I would rather choose my own medication to be my own guinea pig, rather than giving a psychiatrist all that power, when really they just make you into a guinea pig in any case.

I so wish I could try some of that.

 

[Weather]

I'm sorry that you're having such a hard time getting a psychiatrist to just... behave like they should. It's not fair, it's not right, and I totally hear you. For what they are paid, they should at least hold themselves to general standards of professionalism and duty of care. It doesn't sound like those you have interacted with are doing that. I hear your frustration -- you are very right to expect more.

That said, please please please do not attempt ECT on your own with a homemade device. I think you could end up causing more damage to yourself that would make your life even more difficult. I don't know if you were serious about this or not, but... I really don't think it's a good idea.

I don't feel great about my (former) psychiatrist either. I developed an unhealthy relationship with him and a nurse reported him to the state. He'd give me any medication or treatment I wanted... and didn't charge me for my appointments... but, in retrospect, it wasn't good. It wasn't like a creepy physical thing, but there weren't appropriate boundaries. And even so, he'd forget appointments and text me an apology later. So freaking weird looking back on it. Anyway, I don't think all psychiatrists are bad, I think it's just really hard to find a good one.

 

[Chupacabra 44]

I'll start by stating the obvious, if you can switch clinics or your psychiatrist, do so. Just like with any medical specialty there are good and bad practices and good and bad physicians. I have experience with both, but can guarantee that are some great psychiatrists out there.

The fundamental problem with the field, in my opinion, is diagnostics sucks and the treatment options suck, for the most part, with extremely limited efficacy. There is no blood test or imaging for diagnostics. It's an art form, and this is why so many people are misdiagnosed by psychiatry. Regarding treatment options, it's, at best, akin to psychiatrists are only capable of bringing a knife to a gun fight. Outcomes are typically dismal. This is not the fault of psychiatrists, per se, but it underscores how little is known about the human mind.

Next, your discussing lithium and it's efficacy with depression. Lithium is more effective with mania vs depression. In fact, the largest study ever on depression, the Star D study, concluded that lithium was LESS effective than placebo in treating depression. This is a main reason why psychiatrists oftentimes prescribe Lamictal along with lithium, as Lamictal is shown to work better with depression, but not as well with mania.

Getting treatment from a vet is a bad idea, if in fact you are not being tounge in cheek.

 

[LostInMyHead]

Have you tried external Vagus Nerve Stimulation? Might be worth a shot.

 

[noaccount]

I'm glad you were able to get your prescription from an online service - you know you best, hell we shouldn't even need prescriptions for a lot of this shit at all. For some people, obsessive compulsions aren't helped much by any meds at all, but if there's some that help you that's good. Are you informed about the risks memory loss and so on from ECT if you try it?

 

[Burned out]

In my experience, there handling of your problems will be innapropriate, then when you know what is right and works, they decline to treat. You may also go to the psychologist, and they're like, "lol I diagnosed you as x a few years back and never told you" and not only was the diagnosis obviously wrong, they kept it secret so you wouldn't know to stop seeing them.

 

[noaccount]

Whoa, a lot of stuff these people do is grossly unethical while still being legal, but straight up not telling a client about a diagnoses you're putting on them? That's both unethical and criminal, wtf!

 

[Weary Soul]

Here? All psychs do is throw pills at you until one or a regimen sticks, if it does.

My friend was in a psych ward - she put herself there voluntarily because she needed help after her brother died of an F overdose and she was really struggling with grief.

She did not see a psychiatrist once, never had any one-on-one therapy, and was forced to take meds that did not work and made her situation worse - and no one would listen to her.

It is a farce.

 

[issyishere]

The tile of this post is an utterly true statement.

Virtually every psychiatrist I have interacted with has been neglectful and awful. Calling to get an intake with no response- happens more often than not. Psychiatrist not showing up for appointments- check. Saying you're decompensentating rapidly and need more intense treatment and your psychiatrist just not responding- yep. Doing an intake and the psychiatrist not being available for a follow up and not even giving you a perscription when you have expressed severe suicidality-- has happened three times within the last few months. Saying you're severly suicidal and have a gun and begging for more intensive treatment-- they send you on your un-merry way with no perscription and say to follow up in six months if you're still depressed. Saying you lose 5 hours a day routinely to OCD and lose 12 hours a day a few times a week-- they don't do anything about OCD and certainly won't give you the most efficacious medication for OCD if you beg for it. Describing the difficulties you've had with getting a psychiatrist to give you an intake or follow-up appointment (which is entirely on them)-- the new psychiatrist you're talking to will say they can't work with you because you don't have a regular psychiatrist. Psychaitrist taking no covid precautions and wearing a mask with their goddam nose sticking out looking like a dumbass fool and being so incapable of wearing a mask properly that it actually falls below their mouth in your meeting (which they've decided to have in a very small room with a trainee observing thus making the small room even more crowded)-- yep. I really do not know what the fuck is going on with this discipline but it is clear that engaging in "treatment" makes you worse off than not engaging. Everyone always says reach out for mental health help-- reaching out and being neglected (which has happened virtually every single time) really does make you worse though. And I honestly don't think mental health providers think you're at risk unless you've had at least one unsuccessful attempt; they are apparently incapable of understanding that if you have a gun and your method is shoting yourself in the head in a very isolated area that you probably will only have one attempt and will not live for them to maybe actually think you are at risk.

I have been suicidal for years and have been desperately trying to get ECT since the end of July when I started decompensating rapidly. The best anti-depressant I've ever had has been getting a gun because if psychiatrists are not going to give me any treatment options and I'm faced with seeing myself neglect all my responsibilities and the things I care about and losing everything, I would honestly prefer to go out with some dignity than have that.

I found an online medical service where I was able to just say what meds and what dosages I wanted and a general practictioner called them in without even talking with me-- I know that is considered unethical (especially since one of the meds -lithium- requires monitoring and can be fatal and I said that it would be a new perscription) but it is so what I need right now. I don't expect lithium to treat depression enough or fast enough and I know it won't touch the OCD. So I still need to find additional treatment options and I want options that are actually available and maybe even easy to access (gasp, imagine that.)

I have been trying to order my own danged ECT machine or figure out how I can build my own because I am past the point of wanting to self-administer it. I have been messaging neurosurgeons who say they treat mental illness (and not getting a response or being told that apparently losing 12 hours a day to OCD is not "severe" enough to warrant treatment.) I see case reports of people with less severe illness than I have getting ECT or brain surgery for mental illness and I really don't understand how they access treatment when all the doctors I have interacted with seem so intent on not treating extreme mental illness and having people suffer or be exponentially more likely to kill themselves. I am beyond frustrated and done with these goons who make your mental health worse and increase your risk of suicide because interacting with them is so horrible.

The vast majority of the veternarians I have interacted with have been delightful. They have been beyond responsive, take appropriate precautions to prevent infectious disease/covid, and do a lot of lab work in-house so you have lab work and pathology reports within minutes of your appointment. I have much respect for veternarians and they have earned my respect for their skills.

I want to figure out either how I can get someone to help me with or how I can do my own ECT or legit medication induced seizures. I can't find any instructions for self ECT or medication induced seizures online and can't exactly post to craigslist looking for assistance. I would like suggestions on how I can move forward with this if anyone has any solid advice.

I also am to a point where I would feel very comfortable with a veternarian operating on me to treat my OCD and depression. There is enough literature on procedures out there that I would trust them to be competant at it and think that the benefits far outweight the risks. I apparently can't access any needed treatment through the human un-healthcare system and attempting to do so is a waste of time and energy that has nearly pushed me into shooting myself shortly after an interaction (it is not care but abuse.) If I don't self-treat with ECT or access surgery somehow, I have everything to lose and likely am not living much longer. In contrast, ECT or surgery gives me a chance of improvement at least. My interactions with human un-healthcare system have been such that I honestly do think I would get better care from a veternarian. I have tried a very long list of meds and gotten adverse side effects and no positive response. I have done years of therapy, ketamine, and TMS. My illness is trully extreme and treatment resistant. If anyone has any adivce on how I could get treatment from a veternarian please let me know.

I know there are many conventions against veternarians treating humans and against self or lay induction of seizures. This is an honest matter of life or death though and doing nothing means losing everything and killing myself shortly. This is a desperate situation; don't knock my situation or what I am seeking if you have not also been in a situation where you are given no other options by a system that is about killing rather than helping you. I know there are risks of harm with what I am seeking and do not need paternalistic warnings about what I am seeking-- if you don't understand that not acting is far costlier than what I am seeking please don't comment. If you have advice or suggestions though that address what I am asking about please let me know.

Again, I honestly do not understand why providers won't give me care. Most ECT places where I am require referral from a psychiatrist and you can't get in otherwise. ECT is hard to access inpatient because so few places do it where I am and you have to go through and ER to get ina nd the ER could send you to a hospital where they don;t do ECT. I am gone to the one self-referral ECT provider I could find and been told that they won't treat me because I don't have a psychiatrist and to contact them if I'm still severly suicidal in six months. I have been trying to get a fucking psychiatrist to get access to better treatment for months now without any calling me back and being told that the large university affiliated medical system psychiatrists aren't taking any new patients (but they are willing to do a consultation where they don't give me a perscription or follow up and just say they will but don't actually refer me to another useless assessment from a treatment resistant program that only offers assessment and not treatment and that will just tell me about options I have already know about and have tried or can't access.) I have done herculean efforts to try to get care. I have been more resourceful than most people would ever be in my situation. I have explained the gravity of my situation (and objectively I can quite past the point where nuclear treatment options are warranted) and I have had the door repeatedly slammed in my face. So, if you have concrete advice let me know and I will tune out judgemental replies (I seriously doubt anyone would have gotten as far as I have in seeking options if they encountered what I have.)

[Typing on small screen with a system that does obnoxius autocorrects so please forgive any typos.]

Hey I have OCD too and intense debilitating fear of going psychotic. It's gotten to the point I have panic attacks in bed holding my SN. Just wanted to say you're not alone. And that we're here for you.

 

[Mentalmick]

The psychiatrist I had in hospital ended up killing himself. Talk about setting of an irony bomb.

 

[kappa]

Used car salesman.

 

[Deleted member 1465]

Question: what do you get if you ask five different psychiatrists to diagnose one patient?

Answer: five different diagnoses.

Conclusion: the psychiatric profession is literally a joke.

QED

NB. Only joking

 

[Sherri]

Well I take back what I wrote about mine the other day. He just prescribed me anti psychotics to sleep. And I'm not very well but I don't suffer from that. So....I'm disappointed at him....

 

[CrazyMary]

Most of them do suck, and even if you fins a good one they might one you to be on meds for years and also taking therapy for over 3 years. I don´t know if they only see us as cash cows.

 

[Deleted member 1465]

I don´t know if they only see us as cash cows.

Frasier did

 

[Sherri]

Mine just gave me olanzapine for imsomnia , still I can't sleep. And don't like the way I wake up, like empty and shallow.

 

[kappa]

Mine just gave me olanzapine for imsomnia , still I can't sleep. And don't like the way I wake up, like empty and shallow.

That didn't do anything to me. The doctors seemed really skeptical, said it always puts people out.

It did help with nausea though- I don't know how it worked but it stopped me from throwing up in the mornings. They didn't really believe that either lol

 

[Sherri]

That didn't do anything to me. The doctors seemed really skeptical, said it always puts people out.

It did help with nausea though- I don't know how it worked but it stopped me from throwing up in the mornings. They didn't really believe that either lol

It has been working for me though, I'm surprised. Last night I only took one benzo and one olanzapine and I slept well. Hugs

 

[Deleted member 1465]

It has been working for me though, I'm surprised. Last night I only took one benzo and one olanzapine and I slept well. Hugs

Nice one! Sleep

 

[Sherri]

Nice one! Sleep

Yeah but feel feel weird in the morning though... like a slight hungover lol hugs

 

[rs929]

I'll start by stating the obvious, if you can switch clinics or your psychiatrist, do so. Just like with any medical specialty there are good and bad practices and good and bad physicians. I have experience with both, but can guarantee that are some great psychiatrists out there.

The fundamental problem with the field, in my opinion, is diagnostics sucks and the treatment options suck, for the most part, with extremely limited efficacy. There is no blood test or imaging for diagnostics. It's an art form, and this is why so many people are misdiagnosed by psychiatry. Regarding treatment options, it's, at best, akin to psychiatrists are only capable of bringing a knife to a gun fight. Outcomes are typically dismal. This is not the fault of psychiatrists, per se, but it underscores how little is known about the human mind.

Next, your discussing lithium and it's efficacy with depression. Lithium is more effective with mania vs depression. In fact, the largest study ever on depression, the Star D study, concluded that lithium was LESS effective than placebo in treating depression. This is a main reason why psychiatrists oftentimes prescribe Lamictal along with lithium, as Lamictal is shown to work better with depression, but not as well with mania.

Getting treatment from a vet is a bad idea, if in fact you are not being tounge in cheek.

Where have you read that? I've found plenty of studies that say that Lithium is effective as an antidepressant augmentation strategy