Advice please - seeing a psychiatrist on Friday

[Sidereal]

Interesting @TiredSam. Please do let us know what the report says. It sounds like she kept a poker face. Perhaps the fact that she didn't try to prescribe you any psych meds is a good sign.

 

[Gondwanaland]

(making sure I walked in front for some reason - so I didn't attack her from behind with my concealed axe?).

she didn't try to prescribe you any psych meds is a good sign

I am guessing she ruled depression out

 

[mango]

thank you for letting us know, @TiredSam! i totally get it, and i don't think you're paranoid at all. sadly, we do have good reasons to be careful. best of luck, i'll keep my fingers crossed for you

 

[SOC]

Wow @TiredSam, that was brilliantly done! It looks like you had all the angles figured out and handled it perfectly. I hope that was successful and the doc gives a reasonable diagnosis.

 

[mango]

does anyone else think it might be a good idea to move this thread to the 'members only' section..?

 

[Valentijn]

does anyone else think it might be a good idea to move this thread to the 'members only' section..?

This is probably not the go-to place for German psychiatrists to check up on their patients, especially if they don't know that they have ME/SEID symptoms

 

[mango]

hehe, you're probably right @Valentijn! however, i can easily imagine posts like these getting quoted and spun in psychobabblers' articles on "how damaging and dangerous self-help forums can be for manipulative somatisers" etc

 

[TiredSam]

hehe, you're probably right @Valentijn! however, i can easily imagine posts like these getting quoted and spun in psychobabblers' articles on "how damaging and dangerous self-help forums can be for manipulative somatisers" etc

I'm happy for it to be moved, after all it's no secret how paranoid I am

 

[jimells]

I was forced to see a psychiatrist for my Social Security Disability application.

I was subjected to that nonsense as well. In a way it was kinda entertaining. When he asked ridiculous questions like, "What is the purpose of the prison system?" I responded with, "That's a political question."

I'm not sure why they are asking philosophical questions during a psych evaluation. Maybe they think troublemakers don't make good employees. And they would be right...

 

[jimells]

I've decided to give the second Dr one last chance, because he was very thorough. I took him a 5-page CFS-info document for doctors from the Charite, and to my surprise he seemed interested and said yes, he'd go through the checklist of things to exclude with me, so that's what we're doing.

Wow. sounds like a keeper!

 

[jimells]

She examined me physically by taking my blood pressure, whacking me in the knees with a hammer, tickling my feet and making me pull funny faces.

This sounds like she is also a neurologist. Neurologists also like to observe the patient's gait as part of their exam - that's why she walked behind you.

 

[TiredSam]

This sounds like she is also a neurologist. Neurologists also like to observe the patient's gait as part of their exam - that's why she walked behind you.

Thanks for that, she is also a neurologist. I imagined that after a lifetime of near misses she now makes it a rule never to walk in front of a patient, but your explanation seems much more likely. I guessed that the reflex testing and asking me to twitch my nose, raise my eyebrows etc were a neurological examination.

 

[Sidereal]

Thanks for that, she is also a neurologist. I imagined that after a lifetime of near misses she now makes it a rule never to walk in front of a patient, but your explanation seems much more likely. I guessed that the reflex testing and asking me to twitch my nose, raise my eyebrows etc were a neurological examination.

Given that you are a new patient it's only prudent to exercise caution. How would she know if you're violent until she's done an assessment? Totally reasonable.

 

[WillowJ]

First of all @WillowJ I am quite happy to accept that my view of the psychiatric profession regarding CFS has been negatively affected by being exposed to so many of the "other kind of story" - in fact that's the only kind of story I've heard so far, from CFS patients, my internet research and the books I've read.

I didn't mean to correct you; I just hoped to be encouraging. If not to you (too late when I found the thread), to the next person who finds it looking for advice.

Best wishes.

 

[TiredSam]

I didn't mean to correct you; I just hoped to be encouraging. If not to you (too late when I found the thread), to the next person who finds it looking for advice.

Best wishes.

You were encouraging, thanks. I didn't take it as a correction, but a refreshing reminder that a trip to a psychiatrist doesn't have to end in disaster. I'm cautiously optimistic that it went well for me.

 

[TiredSam]

Just got her report.

Headed "Unexplained tiredness after sport, clarification CFS".

She describes my symptoms as I described them to her (unexplained and disproportionate tiredness and light to medium pressure headaches brought on by sporting activities, which go away following rest). She says that working in my job doesn't exhaust me.

She says that I have no professional, financial or family problems.

She then describes the neurological tests she did, saying that she found no abnormalities.

Conclusion: Nothing found.

So that's it, I suppose I should be happy with it. The description of my symptoms is much milder than my real symptoms, but that's my own fault for minimising them to her. She seems to have accepted what I said about having no major worries (which was true), and not gone down the psychosomatic path, even though she knew I was there with susptected CFS.

She's a Neurologist and Psychiatrist, but confines her report to her neurological examination.

She makes no mention of psychosomatic / psychiatric causes, which seeing as she's a psychiatrist and psychotherapist is good. I was hoping that she'd explicitly rule them out, but that probably was never a realistic hope.

Be interested to hear what you all think.

 

[Little Bluestem]

She's passed you on. That sounds good to me. She may never explicitly rule out psychiatric problems just in case she is wrong.

 

[SickOfSickness]

I think that's a big success. She tried to report exactly what you told her, and that she found nothing abnormal. I agree with SOS that you navigated it very well.

 

[msf]

I have some advice: don't.

 

[TiredSam]

Just wanted to post an update.

I have now had the remaining tests I had to have, including sleeping hooked up to a machine, a gastroscopy, a coloscopy, and an echocardiogram. Most awkward moment was when the cardiologist said "right, let's get you on the exercise bike" and I flatly refused. I tried to explain why, we batted it back and forth for a bit, he said he understood but he didn't really look pleased and it was the end of the friendly small-talk we'd been having until then.

Then back to my GP. While in the waiting room I read that one of the strings to his bow was specialist for psychosomatic disorders, which I hadn't really registered until then. Anyway, he was very pleased that I'd had all my tests, and was happy to fill in the form that he has to send to the hospital in Berlin for me to get an appointment. Against "psychological causes" he wrote "excluded", and told me how well he thought I had been coping. So it looks like WillowJ got it right!

I think @TiredSam has already been to his appointment, but I just wanted to write on this thread that I have heard stories of people saying their psychiatrist said they had no psych disorder and gave them a letter to this effect, and told them they were coping well and was very encouraging. Of course we all know the other kind of story.

I've never been so I have no personal experiences to relate.

TiredSam, I hope your appointment went ok.

Whatever happens next, at least now I am in the happy position of being able to say to any well-meaning wannabe amateur psychologist (and there are some in my family) that I have been examined by a psychiatrist and a specialist in psychosomatic illness and a psychological cause / aspect to my illness has been excluded. It's worth a lot to know that I can truthfully say that if I have to.

I see that the Berlin hospital phoned me this morning while I was out having my haircut. Hopefully I'll be on my way soon!