Help me. First mh appointment

[BeyondDoesBootcamp]

I say first, it is the first in a long time. I hd one before and it couldnt have gone worse, i was postnatal after ds2 at the time and my long term (like 8 years) deprssion was just written off first as pnd, then when i mentioned my health it was attributed to that. I felt he wasnt listening to me at all and just wanted to stick me in any old box rather than actually listen to me. It also didnt help that my gp referred because of his bipolar concerns but he wouldnt listen to that at all, said my moods were way too fast cycling to be that.

So, i mentioned possible asd to my occupatinal therapist (i have been concerned about some behaviors my boys have and when researching had a bit of a 'ping' moment), and i think that is where this appointment has come from - i didnt ask my gp for one.

But i'm terrified it will go badly like last time. Please help :(

I'm sorry you had a bad experience last time and I'm sorry you're struggling again. This is, however a brand new assessment, presumably with a different MH practitioner and your experience will likely be very different from last time. I've had lots of assessments and the majority of them were positive experiences, overall

Phew, it was a different nurse and did go much better. And he was agog at hearing my "pnd" diagnosis

It did come from my OT, and she mentioned asd in her letter. Very long interview, but he was quite happy with my suggestion of asd and is referring me on to the psychiatrist who will probe further and hopefully give some sort of diagnosis :)