Appointment with a psychiatrist

It is not going to make you any worse though. I would keep it f I were you.

I know, I will go

You have summed it up really well. 

Thank you!

X

That emoticon wasn't supposed to look so scary lol don't know what happened there! X

Thanks a lot for such a detailed reply

I am concerned about disclosing my current suicidal thoughts to the psychiatrist. I have been having thoughts to the point where I have spent hours at a time reading up on suicide and other people who have killed themselves and thinking of ways to kill myself.

Additionally, I have also been down to the river thinking of throwing myself in but found it too frightening to go through with it. I do not want to be sectioned or refered to the hospital.

I know this fear myself.

Sometimes it's difficult to know how much to disclose for fear of things getting worse.

If you can, I would be honest with them.

The last thing anybody wants is for anyone to commit suicide (please don't!), so it does set alarm bells ringing in their heads sometimes.

But maybe that's a good thing, if you tell them just how low you are feeling to the point of suicide, they may be able to offer you more support in the community, more support with everything really, a better medication that suits you more, more opportunities to talk.

The important thing is that you haven't harmed yourself, despite how bad you've been feeling and that shows strength and deep down a desire to get better.

If they think you are an immediate risk to yourself they may refer you to hospital. I know that's not what you want but it might be what you need to keep you safe and well.

They quite often ask about support you have at home and are often reassured if you have a friend or relative aware of your situation who you could call if things got really bad.

Please try to be honest in your appointment, it could be a great relief even to just say the words and not feel like you're carrying around some kind of secret. And they really will do all they can to improve how you feel right now.

Please stay safe.

Best wishes x

Thanks a lot for your encouraging reply. My GP has been concerned about me and told me that she lost a patient to suicide and certainly does not want to lose another one, she told me how distressing she found it.

How did you find the community mental health support? What did it consist of?

Thanks so much for your kind and thoughtful posts

I'm pleased you told your GP about your feelings that's really good.

I can't comment on the community mental health team I'm afraid. The mental health resources in my area are shockingly under-staffed. So I ended up getting support from my local carer's centre instead (I'm a carer to my husband), and put in waiting lists for CBT and psychology.

So basically I can't be very helpful about the community mental health support you will receive, and to be honest I think it varies from place to place anyway depending on the level of need in that particular area.

I hope someone on here can give you a bit more information in that regard. I've only had a couple of meetings with the community mental health team, I've had more within the psychology/counselling/CBT line of treatment.

Good luck with your appointment I hope you are feeling better as soon as possible!

X

 Hello read your letter with great interest I suffer from chronic depression  suicidal thoughts  I am an alcoholic but have subs stained  from alcohol six years this August  I am 61 years of age male   I see my doctor every month the last two months I have been seeing a psychologist  I asked if there was any other treatment which I haven't done before  he has recommended a  psychiatrist I  have to bring all my medication to my psychologist so we can set up the meeting I see my psychologist every week for the past six weeks  very concerned about questions being asked I was brought up in different children's homes  to be honest not comfortable in any one of the homes the last home I was in was  80% of people waiting to go to detention centres reformed homes all been released  from these places  I was bullied more mentally than physically since stopping drinking a lot of these memories come back and a lot more, what keeps me going is the love I have for my son and especially my granddaughters who live in London  hundred miles away  but visit me and take me to London when I can cope  I have friends who bring food  and other things  I am genuinely scared leaving my flat to go to appointments but Valium helps  any sort of advice about my psychiatrist future  appointment  and any other advice would be most helpful kind regards Karl

 I meant to say psychologist is suggesting psychiatrist

Yes, but they usually write to your GP with recommendation, but in a hospital setting they will prescribe

I'm pretty sure they can, I think that's one if the main differences between psychologists and psychiatrists.

I'm pretty sure a psychiatrist has to be a doctor of some kind that has decided to go down the route of mental health (don't quote me on that one, but that's my understanding).

The psychiatrist I saw certainly had a much more in depth understanding of different medications I'd never even heard my GP mention before.

In my case the psychiatrist didn't prescribe me any at the actual appointment, but instead wrote to my GP telling them what to prescribe me.

I think this was only because I had to taper off the medication I was on in order to start the new one and so he didn't want to give me the new meds straight away whilst I still had the old meds in my bloodstream kinda thing.

X

My mistake, it's actually a psychologist I'm seeing.  Can they prescribe?

No I'm almost certain they can't.

I have been seeing my psychologist for about 5 months and there's been no mention of prescribing, actually he has told me to visit my GP for prescriptions in the past so I'm pretty much sure they can't.

Psychologist appointments are more like in depth counselling sessions. They talk with you about your issues rather than just being somebody to listen to you, like you get if you phone the Samaritans or see a counsellor or something.

They can offer up strategies for coping with your problems, help you delve deeper into what's causing them, suggest ways of changing negative patterns of behaviour, give you things to read that you may find useful, and give you information on other services that may be useful to you. It's a lot of talking and really getting to understand what's going on to make you feel the way you do.

I have found it best to be completely open and honest with the psychologist in terms of your actual problems, but also in terms of your treatment plan.

For example some talk a lot about breathing exercises and meditation and things like that, now I personally don't find those methods helpful. I know some people do, but I just don't.

With my first psychologist I was too scared to say I wasn't doing my breathing exercises because they weren't helping me, and ultimately we didn't get very far. With my new psychologist I tell him straight away what is working and what is not. He appreciates it because he isn't wasting his time talking to me about things I don't want to know about, and I appreciate it because I get more from the sessions by him suggesting methods that do work for me.

I'm assuming this is your first appointment with a psychologist, if its not many apologies for sounding patronising!

Best wishes x

It is my first appointment and I think the fact that you've been seeing your therapist for five months just proves my point.  You have talked about your problems for that long and, I assume, you still need more therapy?  I don't expect a quick fix, but I have to be honest, talking will not change my circumstances and that is what I need to change.  

I totally understand where you are coming from.

But honestly, just give it a bit of a go.

I felt exactly like you before my first appointment and I told the psychologist as much. I had quite a standoffish attitude actually because I'd seen a psychologist, CBT therapists and counsellors in the past and gotten no where.

So we made an agreement I'd do 4 sessions and if I genuinely didn't feel we were making any progress we would stop. I didn't think I'd see any changes, but I did.

Now yes, I am not "better" or anything remotely of the sort but I do have a better understanding of my problems and where they could stem from and how I could try and deal with them.

Also just to point out in my area you get 18 sessions with the psychologist, so although I've been seeing him for 5 months I've only seen him 9 times, roughly once every fortnight. So I'm only half way through my intended course of therapy.

I can already feel an improvement in my life, so hopefully at the end of the treatment I will feel even better.

You're right talking wont change your circumstances, but it might help you understand how/why you've wound up in those circumstances, how to not be in them again, and that can help.

Please try and go into it with a bit of an open mind? At least give it a go maybe? It's really not my decision to make, but all I can say is I'm glad I did it.

X