Looking for treatment/therapy for Depression...

LegacyUser

Hello, I have read the rules and charter with regards looking for medical advice. I'm posting this thread in here because there's no unregistered posting in the psychology forum and I read that that is a discussion forum on psychology rather than personal issue. I'm not looking for advice , I'm looking for information on how to be seen by a professional for depression. I'll leave it to the moderator's discretion wether asking this is allowed.

I'm looking for information with regards to seeking professional help for depression.

About a year ago I went to my GP and he put me on medication (SSRIs) and referred me to a psychiatrist. The way I understood that the system worked was that each area in Dublin have their own pychiatric clinics and which clinic you attend is dertermined by where you live. I wasn't happy with the psychiatrist's treatment and even though I expressed by discontentment nothing changed and the pyschiatrist didn't seem to acknowledge or understand my complaint.

Long story short, I missed an appointment and was unable to make a new one and then the psychiatrist sent me a letter saying he was cancelling the service because I had not contacted them. One gripe I had with the psychiatrist was that I wanted CBT and he was very much against it. At first he said "ok , we can see about that" then the more I asked about he would reply "Well these things take time, we'll have to wait and see" then it was "Why do you want that? ....What do you know about it?.... Who told you about that ?"

I don't want to see this psychiatrist ever again but is that the only option? I'm not going to see my GP about this again. Aside from the GP and being referred to your local psych. clinic, is there any other system in place for people to seek treatment and or therapy ? Essentially I just want a second opinion but from this bad experience I have no confidence in being able to get the help I need. If I go to my GP he'll just send my back to this psychiatrist.

I've looked at the links in the psychologists forum but I can't find the answers I'm looking for.

What is the process for seeking medical help ? If it was any other "real" illness then you could be referred around each hospital but it seems that with mental illnesses you're at the mercy of whatever psychiatrist is in your area. Or am I wrong ?

wexford1

Unregistered wrote: »

Hello, I have read the rules and charter with regards looking for medical advice. I'm posting this thread in here because there's no unregistered posting in the psychology forum and I read that that is a discussion forum on psychology rather than personal issue. I'm not looking for advice , I'm looking for information on how to be seen by a professional for depression. I'll leave it to the moderator's discretion wether asking this is allowed.

I'm looking for information with regards to seeking professional help for depression.

About a year ago I went to my GP and he put me on medication (SSRIs) and referred me to a psychiatrist. The way I understood that the system worked was that each area in Dublin have their own pychiatric clinics and which clinic you attend is dertermined by where you live. I wasn't happy with the psychiatrist's treatment and even though I expressed by discontentment nothing changed and the pyschiatrist didn't seem to acknowledge or understand my complaint.

Long story short, I missed an appointment and was unable to make a new one and then the psychiatrist sent me a letter saying he was cancelling the service because I had not contacted them. One gripe I had with the psychiatrist was that I wanted CBT and he was very much against it. At first he said "ok , we can see about that" then the more I asked about he would reply "Well these things take time, we'll have to wait and see" then it was "Why do you want that? ....What do you know about it?.... Who told you about that ?"

I don't want to see this psychiatrist ever again but is that the only option? I'm not going to see my GP about this again. Aside from the GP and being referred to your local psych. clinic, is there any other system in place for people to seek treatment and or therapy ? Essentially I just want a second opinion but from this bad experience I have no confidence in being able to get the help I need. If I go to my GP he'll just send my back to this psychiatrist.

I've looked at the links in the psychologists forum but I can't find the answers I'm looking for.

What is the process for seeking medical help ? If it was any other "real" illness then you could be referred around each hospital but it seems that with mental illnesses you're at the mercy of whatever psychiatrist is in your area. Or am I wrong ?

Recovery Meetings are a form of CBT therapy. you don't need any refferal just turn up on the night. As i'm not a MH professional, i don't know why your psychiatrist would be against CBT but he is the expert. some people may not be ready for the effort associated with CBT and perhaps he was waiting. I do note that you seem at odds with the psychiatrists efforts, (which is a common feature of mental health sufferers by the way). and he may be thinking that if you're resistant to what he's telling you may be resistant to what the CBT therapy tells you and end up not benefiting. If you go to Recovery you will hear things too that you mightn't be very happy with but i don't think treatment of mental health can be confined to just doing things that you're happy with. If only it was that convienient. Why not develop a more open mind and try Recovery and try going back to the psychiatrist with the knowledge that he is 1000times more likely to know the best line of treatment for you than you are.
http://www.recovery-inc.org/
http://www.recovery-inc-ireland.ie/

I hope i'm not seeming like the bearer of bad news but CBT is about change.change of beliefs and behavior. you will need to change your belief that you could possibly know the best treatment and your psychiatrist not know. It would be hard to survive in CBT if you habour this absurd belief.This may be why he was reluctant to send you to cbt. He may see that you have not got an open mind on your mental health and so are resitant to change.

Wibbs

Some good advice there from wexford1. My only concern is an over reliance on the notion that the psychiatrist is an expert. Of course he is, a highly trained one at that, but it is possible that he is wrong and a second opinion would be valuable, or that the OP and this particular person simply don't gel in a way that would be conducive to further progress. I would have thought the second opinion avenue would be at least considered. In any other disease process it would be. So can the OP seek a second opinion?

wexford1

Absolutely, doctors are human and they can make errors too. a different psychiatrist may have a different approach. Many people jump from therapist to therapist always blaming the professional for not improving while the patient only half-heartly (if at all) follows the directions or advice of the therapist because he/she simply doesn't agree or like what he/she hears. If the second opinion is similar to the first it is time to start re-arranging your beliefs about the treatment of your illness. Avoid things like surfing the net looking for information about your illness, our suggestability usually means we tend to believe anything and end up self diagnosing. It is better not to believe anything than to believe something that isn't true.

LegacyUser

I was recently diagnosed with mild depression and asked my GP where I could get some counselling/therapy. He highly recommended three forms of help a) a self-help book called 'Feeling Good - The New Mood Therapy' which has exercises for you to work on and is in fact a fascinating read; b) checking out this website: www.livinglifetothefull.com and c) checking out this site: www.cognitive.ie where you can find a list of counsellors. The advice I took so far was to buy the book (but as I am not very disciplined I needed some help) and so I emailed the Cognitive site and got the number of a counsellor/therapist and have been to see her twice and so far so good. There was no referral required. Early days I know, but I have a good feeling about her.

Hope this is of some help.

sam34

op, if you want a second opinion and another psychiatrist to take over your care, what you can do is put it in writing to the clinical director of your local psychiatric unit (Secretary can tell you who this is). say you want a change of consultant because of the reasons you outlined above.

allabouteve58

Go to your GP and get a referral to the Dublin County Stress Clinic based in stillorgan. They are fantastic and they have CBT specialists, life coaches, relaxation therapists etc. The inital fee is pricy as you must see a consultant first but it is definitely worth the money! Hope it all works out for you.

crazzzzy

why wont u go back to ur GP? if u dont have good relationship with ur GP mayb u shld consider finding another one. ur GP should have other options that would suit u as they would know ur situation.

u didnt say whether u cld afford to see a private psychiatrist/counsellor but if u cld all u do is get GP referral r ring up for appointment.

do u have a community nurse from the psychiatric clinic? try speak to them about ur issues with the psychiatrist u have & mayb they cld change u to diff one.

Victor

Ask to be transferred to a different psychitrist in that clinic.

LegacyUser

sam34 wrote: »

op, if you want a second opinion and another psychiatrist to take over your care, what you can do is put it in writing to the clinical director of your local psychiatric unit (Secretary can tell you who this is). say you want a change of consultant because of the reasons you outlined above.

I can't get another psychiatrist. There is only one and then there is a registrar or second psychiatrist (that changes every 6months) beneath the head psych. These junior psychiatrists all just echoed the main guy's opinions and responses. In fact, their only job was to have short appointments with me every 4weeks. they were all foreigners with very broken english which made communication very difficult .

allabouteve58 wrote: »

Go to your GP and get a referral to the Dublin County Stress Clinic based in stillorgan. They are fantastic and they have CBT specialists, life coaches, relaxation therapists etc. The inital fee is pricy as you must see a consultant first but it is definitely worth the money! Hope it all works out for you.

No I've no money at all. I've been out of work since last year and as of 6weeks ago I'm not getting any disability benefit.

Victor wrote: »

Ask to be transferred to a different psychitrist in that clinic.

As I said above, the clinic only has the one pyschiatrist and then one beneath him. These psychs that work under the main doctor are just for check ups every few weeks. One of them told me as such. He said that he would just be meeting me every few weeks for short 5,10 mins appointments.


I'm in a really desperate way here. I went back to see my GP doctor today.

He said that there's nothing he can do, he suggested that he could ask the psychiatrist to take me back.

The psychiatrist I was seeing sent me out a letter in August. In the letter he says that it appears that I've not responded to their treatment methods (which is just presciption of pills) and havn't shown any improvments in the time I was seeing them. He said that I there was nothing he could do until I was prepared to make changes to my life. I've been suffereing from depression for the best part of 10 years on and off. This is self diagnosis but I think that it started at about 14 and now at 22 last year it really reached a point where I had constant suicidal thoughts for many weeks. Basically all of the symptoms were getting stronger and stronger and weren't going away. I had 2disciplinary investigattions against in work in the space of a month and I was downsized. I thoguht that leaving my job and seeking help was making a change.

In this letter he also said that because I had missed appointments and hadn't been in contact with them he was returning me to the care of my GP. In June I had a violent outburst and my parents had the Guards take me to the police station for evaluation by their psychiatrist there. The psychiatrist and the psych nurse all knew about this and after the incident they didn't make any contact with me. I had an appointment 2weeks after this incident which I tried to change. I rang up the clinic, said I couldn't make it to the appointment and I was told that the psychiatrist was busy the rest of the week and then away on holidays until sometime in August - the appointment was for mid july.


I wrote a 6page letter outlining my experiences with this psychiarist and their treatment and my feelings on it. I handed this letter to my GP . After he read it, or skimmed through it, he then took out all the previous letters he recieved from the psychiatrist. They sent him a letter in August as well. Only his letter was twice the length of the one that I recieved. My GP read out most of this letter. The psychiatrist noted in it that I had a girlfriend in Scotland and that I had been over to Scotland numerous times. He also wrote that he wasn't sure if I was taking my medication (which I was) and that I had been taking it then I wasn't responding to it or their methods and that I wasn't any better than at the start even though 2months after I started seeing the psych. he more or less said that I didn't exhibit any of the symptoms, which he came to the conclussion after seeing me every few weeks again , for very short appointments.

The most shocking part of this letter was that the psych suggested there was a possibility that I had a personality disorder rather than depression or in conjunction with it. I had never once heard any mention of a personality disorder from the psychiatrist or his homecare nurse or anyone. This shocked me.

Anyway, my GP after reading out this letter to me, asked me what I expected him to be able to do. He said that he could try and see if the psychiatrist would take me back . I said no, I didn't want to see him. Then my GP's voice and tone got louder and harsher. He talked about how he didn't have any magical cure to make people happy, and that nobody does. He berrated me for not having a job. As he was more or less shouting at me "why don't you go out and do something with yourself, get a job" I stood up, said I was sorry for wasting his time and left.

I don't know what to do.
OP