first appt with psychiatrist what to expect?

[PainForLife]

usually post on the sertraline thread & also have another one about panic attacks and voices in my head but wanted to get some advise about psychiatrist appt's. I've got my first one tomorrow & am feeling a bit scarred.

a bit of I've had a major mental breakdown 2 weeks ago & have been monitored by crisis team ever since. I'm on 150mg venaflaxin & 300mg quetiapine. have self harmed twice so far the most recent being y'day. have not mentioned it to crisis team yet will be doing that at the appt tomorrow.

guess what I'm asking is what should I be expecting? I know there will be an assessment of some sort. bearing in mind I self harmed yday can the psychiatrist tell me to be admitted. I really don't like hospitals & would rather just stay under the home treatment team.

sorry for long post... any experience or advice would be great.

[KeemaNaanAndCurryOn]

They won't admit you if you tell them about your self harm, but it is something you'll need to discuss with them.

In my experience, the psych will go through your history and also talk to you about current feelings and behaviour. You may find it helpful to make notes about things you want to say in the meeting so you don't come out and remember something you've forgotten.

My first psych assessment very much focussed on how I was feeling at the moment and then it was a history - had I ever been depressed before, was there any history of mental illness in my close family and so on.

Don't worry too much about being admitted - the MH team much prefer to treat people at home, especially if they have good self-awareness, which you seem to have. The crisis team are also there for home treatment.

Have you ever self-harmed before? If this is a new thing then try your best to stop before it really gets going - I found that waxing my legs had the same sense of 'release' that you can get from SH, but without the longer term problems.

[PainForLife]

thanks for responding keemaN

self harm is new to me just done it twice so far but both time I wasn't in control of myself. it was like the voices in my head had taken over my body. that scares me as it means it could happen again & again.

[KeemaNaanAndCurryOn]

When I was at my sickest last year, I started to self-harm. The compulsion was overwhelming and it was a short term release. The best advice I was given by one of the loveliest women who worked there was to try as hard as possible to stop while it was just one or two times as once its gets going its very, very hard as your brain learns that it will help.

If the compulsion is that strong, wax your legs, or get an elastic band around your wrist (not a tight one) and twang it against you. That will give a similar effect without much damage.

I REALLY sympathise as I'm just coming out of a major relapse and the temptation to SH was really strong, but with her words in my ears, I tried my hardest not to do it.

You are obviously in distress at the moment. You're in crisis, you're fragile, but you're doing all of the right things by getting help. If your crisis team is anything like mine, you will have a number to call. When you start to feel that SH is all you can do, call them, that is what they're there for. They are there to help people in distress not hurt themselves.

I'm here and I'm listening x

[KeemaNaanAndCurryOn]

I found that talking to them really worked.

Call up, say something like - "I need Help. I feel overwhelmed and want to self harm, can you talk to me" and they will understand and will talk to you. They've come across this so many times.

[springbanana]

guess what I'm asking is what should I be expecting?


In my experience shrinks are little puppets. I can manipulate them and I think they have noticed that. I was given copy of seven pages of meds to choose :D. Sometimes, you have to be really careful what you tell them. They can use it against you, which has happened to me. I don't think I have ever met a clever shrink. And the meds... quetapine seems to be choice of the day. The wonder drug, hehehe. I think they just try to piss me off.