G
Guest
·Hi, was just wondering what experiences members in the UK have had with doctors, meds ect. Has anyone had any contact with the department of Dp in london?
Alan
Alan
Members in the UK
1 - 6 of 6 Posts
Joined
·
136 Posts
Hi Alan!
I saw at least six psychiatrists during my years of hell. They all kept insisting I wasn't suffering from a mental illness. They said it was 'only' depression and acute anxiety. After speaking to many other people from the depression groups I was attending, I knew there was something else wrong with me. I persisted to ask my doctor for second opinions, and I was finally diagnoised with Dp and Dr, after mentioning that I viewed the world through a fog.
I've found that all pyschiatrists seemed to want to control me, as if I was 'just another patient' of inferior intelligence to them. They didn't like it when I dared to ask them questions. Nobody seemed to care. I felt that nobody really listened. It was an extremely frustrating nightmare! I was already experiencing a complete loss of control, so the last thing I needed was somebody trying to control me, rather than help me. Even the psychiatrist who diagnoised me got very annoyed, when I asked him to write down the words Depersonalisation and Derealisation, so that I could look it up.
My psychiatrist wanted to put me on Sodium Valphroate, but I'd had some bad experiences with Seroxat and other drugs, so I refused. I was already taking 150mg daily of Imipramine and high daily doses of Diazepam. I still take the same doseage of Imipramine, but now I only take Diazepam when I have an acute anxiety attack, which is usually once every 2 - 3 months.
I haven't had any contact with the department of Dp in London.
Kind regards,
SS
I saw at least six psychiatrists during my years of hell. They all kept insisting I wasn't suffering from a mental illness. They said it was 'only' depression and acute anxiety. After speaking to many other people from the depression groups I was attending, I knew there was something else wrong with me. I persisted to ask my doctor for second opinions, and I was finally diagnoised with Dp and Dr, after mentioning that I viewed the world through a fog.
I've found that all pyschiatrists seemed to want to control me, as if I was 'just another patient' of inferior intelligence to them. They didn't like it when I dared to ask them questions. Nobody seemed to care. I felt that nobody really listened. It was an extremely frustrating nightmare! I was already experiencing a complete loss of control, so the last thing I needed was somebody trying to control me, rather than help me. Even the psychiatrist who diagnoised me got very annoyed, when I asked him to write down the words Depersonalisation and Derealisation, so that I could look it up.
My psychiatrist wanted to put me on Sodium Valphroate, but I'd had some bad experiences with Seroxat and other drugs, so I refused. I was already taking 150mg daily of Imipramine and high daily doses of Diazepam. I still take the same doseage of Imipramine, but now I only take Diazepam when I have an acute anxiety attack, which is usually once every 2 - 3 months.
I haven't had any contact with the department of Dp in London.
Kind regards,
SS
Hi Alan
Most doctors I have spoken to don't have a clue. I've given up trying to explain, just say 'yeah I'm panicky' get my prescription and go. It was clear they weren't going to help me so I am helping myself. Or you need to find someone who is able to give you the time and therapy you need to help your individual problems, not necessarily a dp expert, but someone who understands psychological issues. Most gp's do not. In my experience anway.
As for the DP unit, I contacted them and they cannot answer direct questions, but they can send you a leaflet about what they do and a questionnaire which they use for their research. You need to be referred to the unit through a psychiatrist.
Hope this is of some help!
Most doctors I have spoken to don't have a clue. I've given up trying to explain, just say 'yeah I'm panicky' get my prescription and go. It was clear they weren't going to help me so I am helping myself. Or you need to find someone who is able to give you the time and therapy you need to help your individual problems, not necessarily a dp expert, but someone who understands psychological issues. Most gp's do not. In my experience anway.
As for the DP unit, I contacted them and they cannot answer direct questions, but they can send you a leaflet about what they do and a questionnaire which they use for their research. You need to be referred to the unit through a psychiatrist.
Hope this is of some help!
Hi Alan,
my experience seems to be similar, ignorant Gp's and patronising psychiatrists, although I took the psychiatrists word as final and came home and tried to accept my change in experience.
When I first went to the GP I was diagnosed as depressed despite describing that I felt as if I never properly woke up and I didn't feel, (no really Dr I don't feel, not even depressed). I tried going back after a few months, spoke to a different Dr who thought the dreamlike feeling may be caused by the AD's (despite this being the symptom I went to the Drs with initially) so he reduced my dose and advised me to use a good reading light to combat my difficulty reading words on a page.
Simultaneously I had been reffered by my health visitor to the local mental health intervention unit as she was concerned I didnt have feelings for my children. This was more luck than design. The psy nurse who visited me agreed with me when I told him I didn't 'feel' depressed and scored me for a thing called dissociation. My score was high but the information that he could give me on the condition was very limited, I came away believing I must have been abused in childhood to have developed this method of mental escape. This wasn't helped by my absent memories.
I was also reffered to a psychiatrist. I spent several months of visits to a couple of different senior house officers who again either had limited understanding or If they did, I only saw them once or twice. One of these increased my AD's beyond their initial dose as he believed the dissociation was secondary to deppression. With no continuity I called to cancel any futher appointments because I became more frustrated trying to explain the unexplainable to proffessionals possibly not even specialising in psychiatry (I had to ask myself for whose benefit was I going.) It was then that I was given an appointment with the actual psychiatrist.
In a bizzare session she used analogies of carburrators to describe how different people feel, how blind people have to adjust to losing that sense and how perhaps if I would just accept my change in perspective I would begin to feel better. 'do you think you would like to see me again?' 'I don't think' so I said quietly.
Not long after I was discharged by the nurse, as unless I could explain how it was affecting my life or work there was not much more he could do.
That was a year and a half ago, and it has taken until now to understand that its not ok to accept the condition and that it does serverely affect the relationships I have with my children and my partner. How anyone with impaired perspective could evidence their own petition I'll never know. I accepted these proffesionals authority. Until now. I have pieced together a better understanding of my mental health with help from sites like this and the people who post on them.
Its best to make you aware that I still don't feel, not even anxiety so I don't suffer in the sense that lots of you do and Im fortunate in that but it makes me even less human and I desperately want to rejoin/regain life.
my experience seems to be similar, ignorant Gp's and patronising psychiatrists, although I took the psychiatrists word as final and came home and tried to accept my change in experience.
When I first went to the GP I was diagnosed as depressed despite describing that I felt as if I never properly woke up and I didn't feel, (no really Dr I don't feel, not even depressed). I tried going back after a few months, spoke to a different Dr who thought the dreamlike feeling may be caused by the AD's (despite this being the symptom I went to the Drs with initially) so he reduced my dose and advised me to use a good reading light to combat my difficulty reading words on a page.
Simultaneously I had been reffered by my health visitor to the local mental health intervention unit as she was concerned I didnt have feelings for my children. This was more luck than design. The psy nurse who visited me agreed with me when I told him I didn't 'feel' depressed and scored me for a thing called dissociation. My score was high but the information that he could give me on the condition was very limited, I came away believing I must have been abused in childhood to have developed this method of mental escape. This wasn't helped by my absent memories.
I was also reffered to a psychiatrist. I spent several months of visits to a couple of different senior house officers who again either had limited understanding or If they did, I only saw them once or twice. One of these increased my AD's beyond their initial dose as he believed the dissociation was secondary to deppression. With no continuity I called to cancel any futher appointments because I became more frustrated trying to explain the unexplainable to proffessionals possibly not even specialising in psychiatry (I had to ask myself for whose benefit was I going.) It was then that I was given an appointment with the actual psychiatrist.
In a bizzare session she used analogies of carburrators to describe how different people feel, how blind people have to adjust to losing that sense and how perhaps if I would just accept my change in perspective I would begin to feel better. 'do you think you would like to see me again?' 'I don't think' so I said quietly.
Not long after I was discharged by the nurse, as unless I could explain how it was affecting my life or work there was not much more he could do.
That was a year and a half ago, and it has taken until now to understand that its not ok to accept the condition and that it does serverely affect the relationships I have with my children and my partner. How anyone with impaired perspective could evidence their own petition I'll never know. I accepted these proffesionals authority. Until now. I have pieced together a better understanding of my mental health with help from sites like this and the people who post on them.
Its best to make you aware that I still don't feel, not even anxiety so I don't suffer in the sense that lots of you do and Im fortunate in that but it makes me even less human and I desperately want to rejoin/regain life.
1 - 6 of 6 Posts
