Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr Psychiatrists

[BooooHiss]

Just grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

And why t actual f do they get paid so much?

They r useless (not all, but a large majority)

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

I have to be honest and say I've been very lucky with my psych and mental health team.

I’m currently an inpatient and the psych I’m seeing has started drugs for the depression but has already told me it’s time and talking therapies I need with the psychologist. No labels thrown on me as I’m not emotional enough she’s awknowledged I’m past crying. She’s about the nicest Dr I’ve met and I’m a very experienced HCP

Missed your comment about pay. They get paid the same as other medical consultants. What’s the problem with that?

In my CCG there are 2 psychiatrists in the assessment and treatment service. One is excellent: compassionate, attentive, doesn't jump to conclusions and really listens to his clients, the other is ok - doesn't write off everyone as having a personality disorder, but is not as person-centred.

In the neighbouring CCG's ATS, there are also 2 psychs. One is bloody awful and diagnoses BPD for anyone and everyone who isn't actually psychotic, is rude, arrogant and dismissive. It's said that he has had more complaints about him than any other psych in the whole service (2 counties and a city!). The other is ok, but not brilliant.

It seems really unfair that there is such a marked difference. The area I work in is mostly in the first CCG, but with one town in the other. My colleagues and I always try and persuade clients with MH issues not to move to that town, for fear that they'll end up with Dr Horrid!

I think there's good and bad among psychs, same as in any other field.

yy languid. Practical help would take away a lot of rough edges for me.

And a big YY to some psychiatrists being on a power trip. Very dodgy bunch.
Give me a good long term counsellor any day.

Well I have some sympathy with the ideas in this book www.amazon.co.uk/Doctoring-Mind-psychiatric-treatments-fail/dp/0141023694?tag=mumsnetforum-21 although I wouldn’t describe myself (or that book) as anti-psychiatry.

Disclaimer: my son has been left with a permanent(? apparently?) movement disorder thanks to a drug I raised concerns about three weeks into its use. It appears he’s now stuck on it (for life?) although it makes him feel sick. He has bed sent 400 miles from home to a hospital under the MHA when he does not need hospital treatment (that’s something agreed by everyone involved in his care including the psychiatrists - it’s a misuse of the MHA imo although I can see why it had been applied - largely so he can be restrained- and I have not challenged it). He is non verbal so cannot keep in contact with us easily & it costs us £500 and four full days of travel to see him twice a month.

So I’d personally throw out the who approach and save the psychiatry for where it’s really needed. Having said that current psychiatrist is very much an ally - but largely because he recognises (in his words) that ds1 doesn’t need a psychiatrist.

In other work I do I have seen some fab, thoughtful psychiatry and some bloody awful psychiatrists (no eye contact, no discussion, just writing out a prescription). Unfortunately psychiatrists are often dealing with very distressed people so the bad ones can have a large impact.

My psychiatrist is ok but a brain like a sieve and I have given up on any real help beyond drugs. Same goes for my CMHT. Nowadays if I have a crisis I tell my DH they are the last people to call.
My Gp is far more accessible and responsive when times are dark.

It’s really ignorant to write off a medical specialty group as ‘dodgy’.
If you find a counsellor better for you, it is because you needed a counsellor. Not a psychiatrist. If you needed a psychiatrist, that would be better . I would have thought this was obvious.

I think the problem isnt psychiatrists but thar services and support are being pinned yo a particular diagnosis rather than level of need.

In the neighbouring CCG's ATS, there are also 2 psychs. One is bloody awful and diagnoses BPD for anyone and everyone who isn't actually psychotic, is rude, arrogant and dismissive. It's said that he has had more complaints about him than any other psych in the whole service (2 counties and a city!). The other is ok, but not brilliant

Yeah this is an issue. Everyone (by which I mean professionals) knows the issues with the one who prescribed the drugs that appear to have damaged ds1 (& more importantly dismissed my concerns when I raised them) - but no-one does anything. His prescribing has become even weirder & potentially more damaging since ds1’s day & no-one does anything.

My one experience with a (private) psychaiatrist was awful. I spent 3 or 4 hours with her, but then after a 15 min chat to a family member she decided I was imagining things and schizophrenic so stuck me on a load of strong anti-psychotics. I wasn’t schizophrenic, I had PTSD .

lasttimeround - the problem is that most people requiring mental health services would class their level of need as ‘high’

Who has the highest need:

1 Someone with Schizophrenia who is hearing voices and hasn’t eaten and slept for days, who is found wandering around outside in a state of undress

2 Someone in a manic episode who has spent £7000 in the last two days, hasn’t slept and is brought in by the police after being gettin in a fight

3 Someone with autism who is non verbal and has seizures, who has started self harming and stopped eating

1. A new Mum who has severe depression, and is having suicidal thoughts

5 A new Mum who in the last couple of days has begun t think her baby has been possessed the devil

6 Someone with a personality disorder who has rung up saying they are suicidal

7 someone who has recently been fired from work after having an outburst. They think their awful childhood might be the underlying cause

8 Someone who feels that might have autism that has never been diagnosed before, as their marriage has just broken down, they are depressed and not coping and think they fit the criteria

All are in need, but you can only class some as ‘high need’. The resources tend to be allocated to the most severe cases, but everyone would consider their or their family members suffering to be severe.

Psychiatrists can offer a diagnosis, medication and inpatient care, along with signposting to relevant services.

It would be completley unethical and outrageous to misdiagnose someone with something that had more funding available/services to help. Not only because of the impact on that person over he course of thread life through inappropriae therapy/etc but also because it diverts resources away from people who really need t.

Some mental health proffesionals are ‘people pleasers’ who promise the world to clients, and then when it falls through because what they have advised/promised was inappropriate they blame the medical team to shift blame away from themselves. Sadly these people will stay in a job as it’s difficult to recruit, even though they are clearly not acting proffesionally or appropriatley

I have seen psychiatrists since I was 15 (now 43) I've never been off the book since.

The very first one sticks out in my mind as there wasn't a CAMHs service so I ended up with her in adult service, she admitted me to a ward at 3am with a lot of dementia patients as she thought an acute ward would be frightening for me. (go figure)

As I was very slim and wouldn't eat the hospital food the first couple of days (you could turn the dishes upside down and they wouldn't move, the food was so solid) she decided I had an eating disorder apart from other problems so I was fitted with an NG tube to get food in, 3/4 days of not eating but still drinking fluids wasn't actually going to do a 15 year old any harm but what did I know.

After 2 weeks I was allowed to go to OT, which entailed playing bingo to win cigarettes, I kept winning which was good however I didn't smoke so they were pointless to me. She was a deeply religious woman and spoke about God a lot, whereas I wasn't. When I was discharged she advised me to go to mass and sit near the front and that would help me a lot. (it didn't). She retired the following year and went to Africa to work with a charitable organisation.

I met various consultants in my time but the one I have now, we don't get along at all. He is completely closed off and doesn't want to hear what I think on anything If I get upset its a manifestation of my illness, doesn't want to know of side effects from all the meds I have been on. (my diagnosis has been changed since he arrived and when he was away on a research placement for 3 years the replacement psych rediagnosed me during a hospital stay - to schizoaffective disorder which was my diagnosis before the current one arrived originally - and when he came back he told me I pulled the wool over Dr Xs eyes and I wasn't fooling him) - so I was back to a personality disorder.

Apparently, I'm not depressed, I'm attention seeking. That would explain my last attempt which led to me lying in ICU for several days, I had absolutely no intention of waking up.

I can recall one med, in particular, it was the cause of my periods stopping for over 2 years but he wouldn't concede to this at all, I was also leaking breast milk constantly and my breasts were constantly engorged and I had about 5 bouts of mastitis.

The GP kept getting appointments with psych as knew this was a side effect of X med but apparently I was making it all up according to the psych. That's a pretty hard symptom to "fake" if I was going to fake something I would have gone for something easier.

I finally asked the secretary for a first appointment of the day which was a 9.30am and so as soon as the outpatients centre opened I went and sat, at 9.05am as he swiped himself thru the panelled doors, I said "look dry tee shirt" he just stared thru me, by 9.30am I had soaked a set of breast pads, my bra and my tee shirt. He finally agreed to change the med and Ive never had that problem since once the med got out of my system over the days that followed.

The psych took me off everything except this drug as it "was safe in pregnancy" even if I was in denial about it. I now know the drug wasn't safe in pregnancy either.

That was a long non-pregnancy with a massive relapse afterwards due to being pulled off the other meds which were keeping me stable due to my "pregnancy" even tho all tests showed I wasn't and never have been.

I was in hospital afterwards for 11 months. Due to his balls up, I was cared for on a different ward as the situation is unworkable.

He is like a cardboard cut out, doesn't want to hear what patients have to say and so since that suicide attempt I have been reallocated to the trust grade psych as I have refused to work with him as I put in complaints about how I was treated which he tried to obstruct, he eventually had to apologise for his poor treatment and conduct.

I will be stuck on his ward if I end up in hospital again. I have made legal provision for that event as too much shit has happened and have been guaranteed by the trust that will be overseen by the other ward psychs due to his apology and what was covered in it.

God complex and some psychs - totally - I say some as I have met some brilliant ones who really give a damn and work with the patient to find the best outcome for them. The trust grade is one of them, he gives a damn.

For someone who isn't depressed that would explain why I'm on 2 antidepressants, mood stabiliser, antipsychotic (although apparently, I don't have psychosis) and an antiepileptic to help boost the mood stabiliser. All started by the other psychs who actually cared and wanted to try and treat the symptoms as they saw them in front of them.

I saw the trust grade a couple of weeks ago and I asked him something from my notes, he started to laugh a bit and said I only have this year and last years in front of me, we are in volume 7 of your outpatient notes now. I asked how many volumes were of my inpatient, he just said multiple filing cabinets worth.

Feels better for getting that out. @BooooHiss I hear you, esp post #3

I went on to work with people with severe mental illness as a support worker, I also saw how they were treated, some had addiction problems, some were homeless, some were treated like pure shit and rarely they were treated with the dignity of a person with an illness and going to see someone who was meant to help them

My DB has long been on anti psychotic medication having been diagnosed with Schizophrenia. Sadly, it was clearly the wrong diagnosis and what he suffers with is CPTSD following SA in childhood, as do my DSis and I, who have already been diagnosed as suffering with this. In addition, he has a personality disorder and he's being assessed for autism.

The problem now is that his memories are deeply repressed (although DSis and I believe that he remembers more than he lets on. We also can't have him around us as he also abused us and we now have young children. He's also got it into his head that our abusive F was perfect and we can't bear to hear him eulogise about him.

He's 50 years old now, has been pumped full of medication for over 20 years and hasn't held a job in all that time. The chances of him ever getting anywhere in life are gone.

I obviously can't claim that the psychiatrists who diagnosed him wrongly were necessarily incompetent, and I don't think any of them were arrogant or unpleasant, I suspect it's true to say that some of them need to think outside the box and not be too quick to diagnose patients?

Lizzie48 -

Could he have both? Abuse during childhood increases risk of most mental health conditions, and schizophrenia and personality disorders/CPTSD can coexist

Thank you, @DorasBob

Yes that's possible. He had a psychotic episode after taking Lariam, the anti-malarial prophylactic. (We went to The Gambia as a family for one week and he wasn't even bitten by a mosquito ironically.) He was accidentally given an overdose because he forgot that he'd already taken his dose for the week.

It was after this that he was diagnosed with schizophrenia. He's never had voices and he's never been particularly paranoid, except during the Lariam episode.

But he had serious problems long before the MH diagnosis, and had a personality disorder from being a teenager (not surprisingly).

Agree OP!

I have OCD and spoke to a fellow sufferer who spent time at an OCD ward- the Psychiatrists put 90% patients on a high dosage of a new drug and if patients refused then they were labelled as having personality disorders or lacking insight (e.g. suffering from psychosis). This was for sufferers struggling with a (traditionally referred to as) 'neurotic' disorder so it must be soo much worse for sufferers of psychotic disorders, particularly in inpatient settings!

Psychiatrists seem mostly to work with labels/diagnoses and medications and both those things can make massive differences to people struggling with psychological problems. This can be positive or negative depending on the Psychiatrist and the patient/client but I think there is the potential for a lot of harm.

Devilish pajamas

It's not how the MHA should be used. I work in the LD field and the lack of social care provision for people with significant challenging behaviour is leaving the service I work is extremely stretched.

We spend our time trying to avoid MHAAs for people without mental illnesses because of the risk of inappropriate admissions like your DSs. We end up with people detained in hospital mostly because of a lack of quality care providers able to manage behaviours (appreciate that this may not be the case in your situation)

I hope that there is some way that your son can be supported in a less restrictive way than detention in the future - I have seen many cases like this where eventually a solution has been found and the people I support are living their lives to the full.

I have been treated by and worked with some very good caring psychiatrists. They are under a huge amount of pressure. It’s very easy to get burnt out by patient demands. I tend to find it’s the people with a diagnosis of personality disorder that seem to have a love hate relationship with the team. We don’t always get it right