Finding a good Psychiatrist Help Please?

how come the hospital hasn't provided you with a psychiatrist, how did you have hospital stays and ECT without a psychiatrist?

I live in a major city & just got referred to my psychiatrist from my GP. I assume there are fewer options in your rural setting but presumably that's where you'd start.

There's no way to know if a psychiatrist is good unless you have word of mouth from another patient or if you go and see them and suss it out for yourself. No one on the forum can suggest a psychiatrist for you because of anonymity restrictions. It's pretty typical for it to take years for the mental health practitioners to make an accurate diagnosis, most of us have been thru that here.

How come you aren't linked into your nearest mental health service or a mental health nurse? Maybe you should get DSP $ if you have complex mental health issues. Lots of people are on DSP here.

Thank you so much for your assistance.

My last hospital stay was 4yrs ago now. I signed myself out after the 23rd round of ECT as it wasn't helping. The psychiatrists weren't listening to me properly and giving me no options other than ECT every second day that has left me with more issues than I care to admit, memory and migraines being the worst of it. I also had a gammut of medication they had me on (almost 30 tablets all up a day!), and feel as though they were just trying to zombie me instead of try find the actual cause of mental illness.

I fought and fought for someone to listen to me until I was broken in to having the ECT which made matters worse (in my case). I signed myself out from there 4yrs ago and still have a counsellor who visits my house fortnightly for therapy. She doesn't even know who they could recommend to try and get me in to see as it's all done through the same place around this area so I feel I would just be stuck in the same dissatisfied, misdiagnosed cycle.

I did apply for DSP a while ago on Psychiatrists advice and was knocked back as not having enough points on their scales and I just don't have it in me to fight them. Maybe I will apply when I can deal with the stress, but right now my stress levels are just much too high.

Thank you so much for your help, I might look in to perhaps some of the Psychiatrists who do conferences 🙂

hello and welcome to the forum @TurnAround

hello @BryanaCamp

just a tip to help you is to remember to put a @ in front of members name so they will get a e-mail message

does the hospital have more than 0ne Psychiatrists where you are

we live in a small country town so it makes it hard to see anyone else

@Bunniekins, @Appleblossom , @eth , @CheerBear , @frog

@TurnAround Thats a great idea to look at the conferences.

My ex was very picky about his pdocs and taught me how to be. ONe thing I admit is good that I learned from him.

@BryanaCamp has a point about sussing them out for yourself ... and the anonymity on this site as it cant be seen as an advertisment.

Sometimes those recommended work, but sometimes it is the personal mix of client and doc.

Maybe you felt your last one did not take you seriously enough, or having a passive aggressive go at you ???

I have found that to be a problem sometimes. Bottom line for me is that they are open to "collaborative therapuetic" approach and not pill or ect pushing. They are around, but you must also work on your side of "therapuetic relationship".

I would not be here if it was not for the good work of some pdocs.

Good Luck

wow @TurnAround sorry you has such a crappy time in psych services.

It sounds like you may have a psychotic illness and a mood disorder. You probably have some insight into your own mental illness by now. I have Borderline Personality Disorder (I prefer the term attachment disorder) and schizophrenia. It's pretty much hell. It was caused by chronic child abuse. The abuse & my current day symptoms are one on the same. So it really sucks. You're not alone in your suffering. Lots of us here have similar complex mental health issues.

That's a big bummer about DSP. You sound eligible. Sometimes it's a case of working the system to get what you need. I'm able to work casual shifts but only just. My crazy can pop out at any minute but I try to keep myself professional.

It really does sound like your rural setting is limiting your mental health services - it seems like there's just one crappy clinic. That's something you should try to overcome as a priority. I have worked tirelessly for years to get effective treatment, had a lot of bad therapy & been re-traumatised. You may need to travel to your nearest major city to access a more effective psychiatrist. When I finally got put on anti-psychotics it did get me back into the workforce & able to form friendships. It's still very hard every day but the meds help a bit. So there may be a helpful med, or combo of meds, out there for you. Once you nail it you can switch to your local GP to just keep filling your prescriptions ongoingly.

It would also be in your kids' best interests to get effective treatment asap. Both my parents were very mentally unwell and wound up absuing & neglecting me, as a result & did life long damage to me. I know it's not what you want to hear but it's true & I hope that helps to motivate you rather than paralyse you.

We can't talk freely here about psychotic disorders, personality disorders or medications due to forum guidelines. Those conversations helped me to gain insights into my own mental health & new treatment strategies & hope - I belong to another forum which is peer run for schizophrenic & psychotic sufferers, you can get a lot of good info about symptoms & meds from peers who are going thru the same thing as you. so let me know if you want the link.

Hang in there mate, I believe there's hope for you.