Been to the doctors

Went to see the doctor today, told her as much as I could remember about myself. She decided to refer me to my local place that does assessments and therapy and she sends them a questionaire I filled out (which was stupidly vague). Anyway, I ring them next week and speak to them, and they decide who to send me to. Her guess was for a full psychiatric evaluation as, and I quote, "10 minutes with your doctor won't help you". She was right. So I'm to ring them Tuesday or Wednesday when they've had time to see my referral and questionaire.

Great News James!!!!

How does that make you feel?

Well I told her I'm not sure why I even want a diagnosis. I said I don't know if it's so I can tell people I have a label for attention, or if I really want it.

I'm like that with everything. My job, my band, my music, my clothes, my car, everything. I never know if I'm doing it for me or attention. Like I said, I have no self.

You going for a diagnosis, to find yourself.

That's why.

To get happy and make a great life for yourself. The only way to do that, is to find out why your are so unhappy all the time and have these thoughts that hurt you.

You need to be diagnosed properly, to get the proper "treatment"

Open up to the DR. you see!! Please!

I didn't spent alot of time on here with you, to see it pissed away! lol

dude. your doctor recommended that you go for a full psychiatric evaluation. -> go for a full psychiatric evaluation.

don't rationalize it, don't argue it, just go and take the evaluation.

Your not doing it to seek attention your doing it so you can start picking up the pieces in your life and make sense out of them, and then move on.

Your also doing it because your doctor told you to.

Proud of you for going to the doc James, now go to the shrink and seewhat comes next- k?

Good work- keep it up

Yeah well I have to ring these people, they actually decide what I need but if it's anything less than an evaluation I'll tell them no, that I want an evaluation.

jameshpd wrote:Yeah well I have to ring these people, they actually decide what I need but if it's anything less than an evaluation I'll tell them no, that I want an evaluation.

Everything they do will lead to an evaluation, that's what it all is- looking at you, talking to you and getting your back ground, present, and those mood charts to get a clear and concises diagnosis of your condition. Be aware though that this doesn't just happen with one visit. They can through out an educated guess as what to they suspect it is, but until they get to know you, see you several times, and observe your dimenor, emotions/lack thereof, body language and speach patterns, thay can not give any kind of 100% clear full diagnosis.

An evaluation in and of it's own right is merely something to determin a few small things:
- weather of not you're an imediate danger to yourself or others
- if what you're describing is souly a on one end of the spectrum (ie depression, anxiety, panic attacks) or whether it's more flux.
- if this is something that has been consitent or at the very least been present for the majority of your life, or whether it's just happened following recent stress or trauma
- past traumas and life experiences
- your sense of self worth
-patterns of behaviors and/or depressions
- anger, stress, sadness and other negative emotions, and how deal with them.

So the basic 'eval' will determin whether or not you need to be medicated, seen by a counsellor, psychologist, or pyschiatrist, and give them some kind of back ground as to where this stems from and where they need to go from here. Long term care vs short term, in patient vs. out patient and so on...

The eval can be done through a series of interviews (or even one) to determin these basic things, but a true diagnosis needs much more time to develope.

Some of it seems so trivial, and is quite annyoning at times, but it's all pasrt and parcel in the end goal of getting you well.
You've set the ball in motion now, so keep on it. If you don't feel you're getting what you want or being heard- TELL THEM THAT! But give them chance first and see if they can figure this all out.

Look at SansStars post "had my first therapy session today" and see how her's has been evolving from day 1; note the issues where she felt she wasn't being heard or seen properly and where she spoke up and was listenede to.

Have a look at my own post "off 2 emerge" and see the experience I had there- that was an evaluation- not a diagnosis (already have one of those, but I am looking to be re diagnosed as it's been several years now) and see the kind of questions they ask, ect... I had several interviews that day, and I wrote about them all- lots of info in there

you've got loads of information, and lots of people here to help guid you. we can't always 'push you' though because we too are unwell and have moments of difficulty and despare...

You were strong enough to come here and voice your concerns, strong enough to make that call and go see your doctor, you are strong enough to do this too- stop second guessing yourself all the time! Even if you don't what you think you have- you've got something going on, and that's where they're gonna help you- to figure out WHAT that something IS and help correct it!

You've got your mood charts and you're working on them- GREAT JOB!!!! Take some of your forum posts and any other writtings you have of your self and bring them with you when you go see who ever it is you see next. It's very hard to get it all out there in an houror 2, so take these things as some guidelines to what you have going on here. You're insecurities, your lack of self image, the fact you think you're only doing this for attention and so on... All of that will help you in this journey, and if you can dive even deeper into yourself- all the better!

YOU CAN DO THIS WE KNOW YOU CAN!!!!

Take Care

Ok my referral went through, rang the people today. They said I'm being sent for an assessment (a one off) and then whatever they decide I need. Does that mean I'll have a diagnosis?

Great news James.

I will let someone that has actually been through the process answer your question.

Just wanted to say Hi and give you my best.