what to expect when seeing a psychiatrist

Good Luck @Former-Member I hope the posts have been helpful.

I agree with being honest and ask a few questions yourself.

Actually @CherryBomb I last saw a regular psychiatrist late 1990s.

In last 15 years I have been assessed (2 sessions) and told I am ok about 5-6 times.

Since 2001 I have seen psychologists. It has been good to orient myself to mainstream and "normal" thinking about life span issues, before that, through 1990s I saw 2 different psychologists over a 10 year period. One was a family therapist, I was a young mum, the other was my husband's osychiatrist, who also saw us as a couple and me individually.

@Former-Member Since childhood, I was overwhelmed by a lot of psychiatric jargon about my family, so having a break from them was a good idea .. I have not regretted it, but it seems it may be wise to check in again with a psychiatrist to ensure best quality of health care and smooth running in our household.

Dear @CherryBomb

Tomorrow is my first appointment after all this time .. the GP has asked for long term management .. not just assessment .. so I hope that works to convince them that ongoing psychotherapy would be helpful, but not to be afraid of all the diagnoses floating around. (I think that has daunted some of the psyologists and made them less than helpful.)

Hi @Former-Member,

The first time I saw a psychiatrist was almost 30 years ago and I still see my current one every four weeks to manage my bipolar. I guess you could say I've had long experience of seeing them.

The first session in my experience has usually been about taking a history of you: your life and what is bringing you to see a psychiatrist for the first time. I find that sometimes psychiatrists take the lead in gathering this information and sometimes they are more retiring and inclined to wait for you to speak of your own accord. Either way, what psychiatrist and client are really both trying to do in the first session is build a shared picture of what is going on for you.

I totally agree with the others who have suggested writing some things down. I still do this from time to time when I've been going through a lot that is hard to remember off the top of my head. I usually just write down point form notes. I've never needed to hand over my notes to my psychiatrist (although I think that's a good idea if all else fails), but I've just found it helpful to be able to refer to the notes when I'm speaking and trying to explain myself.

I agree that most psychiatrists are good people who genuinely want to help and I have personally received a lot of help from psychiatrists over the years. Best of luck with your session and hope things work out really well for you with this psychiatrist.

@CherryBomb thats a good thing to know. i really dont like rushing and if they start to make me feel uncomfortable then i question everything they say and then obviously leads to lack of trust and then it probably wont work out will it?

thank you @Former-Member

i hope my both my psychologist and psychiatrist can be kind and willing to help as well as i get nervous very very easily and im already nervous so itll be hard to get anything out if i get too nervous as i shut down.

the notes is a good idea though thank you i might keep a notepad handy with me 🙂

hi @BlueBay

thank you for your advice. im already nervous and its really hard for me to be calm but ill try my best. 🙂

thank you @Former-Member

im really scared so i hope they have a calming effect. im going to keep a notepad handy so that if i think of questions before i go tomorrow ill write them down to maybe bring up tomorrow if i can get the chance.

the main priority is to find a medication that works for me so hopefully i can get a start on that tomorrow hopefully

thank you @mrkotter

well thank you for the heads up. i gathered it was going to be pretty draining as they ahve to ask so many questions but as they have my gp refferral i hope it wont be too draining

i think id like mine to at least have a sense of warmth but at the same time be abit more aurthoritive so at least i think i know whats shes talking about.

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@setmefree wrote:

@CherryBomb thats a good thing to know. i really dont like rushing and if they start to make me feel uncomfortable then i question everything they say and then obviously leads to lack of trust and then it probably wont work out will it?

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@Former-Member your psychiatrist will hopefully go at a good pace, and will work on building trust and rapport. I find that letting them know at the start that you're nervous can also help. I often do this in most things if I'm feeling nervous or anxious - it can help to name the feeling, and can help others know how to respond.