Today I want to talk about some of the ways I manage my mental illness. Over the past 3 years I have tried everything and seen everyone to pinpoint exactly where my brain sits on a wide variety of spectrums. I was diagnosed 3 years ago with Major clinical depression (along with other personality disorders) based on a brief discussion of my past history and several suicide attempts. I spoke with a psychiatrist for about 15 minutes and he had me diagnosed and prescribed medicine. From that time I started seeing a counselor, combining med management with cognitive therapy. My counselor took my psych diagnosis and went along with that, checking periodically with the DSM and adding additional diagnoses. Fast forward 3 years and I have now been through 3 counselors, one psychiatrist and a psychiatric nurse practitioner. (she is who currently prescribes my medication) I finally came to the point where I felt I needed an in depth evaluation that would concretely give me a diagnosis so that I could adjust and manage my medication to something that works specifically FOR my diagnosis. Medication can be overprescribed or the wrong meds are used to treat disorders that you might not have and will be ineffective. Due to knowing this, I sought out a Psychologist. The difference between a Psychiatrist and a Psychologist, aside from being able to prescribe medication, is that Psychologists typically do an in depth evaluation that includes answering extensive questionnaires followed by one on one evaluation time which could take up to a couple of months before determining a diagnose. Ive often wondered how a Psychiatrist could diagnose you so quickly. In addition, although therapists are also able to diagnose, they do not typically provide an in depth evaluation. They come up with a diagnosis based on your first visit with them and then through a team decision they will formulate a treatment plan. With all of this said, I highly recommend seeing a Psychologist before you decide on how to manage your mental illness effective and what works for you. You will have to see a Psychiatrist to receive medication that can initially get you stabilized, but take that diagnosis with a grain of salt. With mental illness it is imperative that a thorough physical and mental evaluation is done before settling on what is ailing you and how to move forward with treatment.
Posted on: Fri, 05 Sep 2014 19:58:36 +0000
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