I have a new psychiatrist

Well, I guess she isn’t a new psychiatrist because other then when I was inpatient last fall I’d never spoken to a psychiatrist in my life. She’s more like my first psychiatrist…..and she’s fabulous! Which I already knew of course because we went to high school together. We never really hung out, but we would chat in math sometimes and I remember her being really nice back then–definitely not a mean girl.

So last Thursday I had my very first appointment and she put me at ease right away–yes, she would still see me even though we went to high school together, yes, it was okay that we were at that time Facebook friends (we aren’t anymore which is totally okay with me) and yes, it was okay that I knew personal things about her (she wasn’t worried I would end up stalking her or anything like that).

How did I get a psychiatrist so quickly? Have I ever mentioned how totally amazing my therapist is? So, my family doctor was dragging his feet–surprise, surprise–and was telling me I’d have to wait at least a year until I could get into seeing someone. We’d been working on my meds for months with no improvement and he still didn’t refer me out. So my T, being the best T that he is, offered to put in a call to Dr. W for me. I told him I didn’t want to put him out and he said it wasn’t a problem and he’d be glad to do it. So she agreed and told T that all she needed was a referral from my doctor. I called, he was shocked but didn’t hesitate to put it in and within a month I had an appointment with her.

It was a hard appointment but a good appointment if that makes sense. We talked about all my meds (psychiatric and other), she asked me all types of questions trying to get a better view of my symptoms and where to start. I was totally honest with her and tried to give her as much detail as possible. In the end we came up with three options, she asked me what I thought and we agreed we’d start with Option 3–trying to get the sleep, or lack thereof, under control. She upped my Seroquel and I have another appointment with her next week. It isn’t working so far and I’m a bit disappointed but at least I know she’ll listen to me and we’ll find a path forward.

In the end she diagnosed me with major depression and PTSD. Neither one of those were a huge surprise to me considering my life story. I did ask her about being Borderline considering that’s what I was labelled back in October but she told me they really aren’t supposed to label people as borderline when they’re in the middle of a crisis. So, that got kicked out of the window.

She’s also going to refer me to DBT at the hospital. I’ve never done DBT but she assured me it would be extremely helpful and that everyone should take it at least once in their lives. She asked me if I’d be interested in any group activities but I’m not too keen on that at this point in time but she said I didn’t need to answer right away and could change my mind at a later time. I really appreciate how she actually takes my thoughts and feelings into consideration and doesn’t tell me I ‘must’ do something.

T is happy to say the least because now we have more members on our team. For now, we’re on another path but it somehow feels different this time. And I’m feeling a bit optimistic about where the future of all of this will go.