I'm figuring out the balance with the new psychiatrist between me having lived in this brain for three decades and knowing my symptoms/risks/tolerances, and him being fresh out of med school with all the new information but no experience
he has a harder time letting me advocate for myself than my last doctor did and it's really. frustrating.
I convinced him I wouldn't go into a raging manic episode if he upped my antidepressant. I didn't! he seemed genuinely surprised when I spoke to him yesterday lol
even said "well, I guess you know your own body"
I am a little pissed that one of my stipulations about a type of drug I won't take, the one class of drug I will go against medical advice on, is being pushed though
old doctor worked out a regimen with me where I don't have to take it I just have to be careful and keep a rescue med handy
this doctor is like "we'll put you on this and reduce the antidepressant again"
and I know he's going text book with it and he's a good doctor, I like him, but. fucking listen to me.
no interest in living a life being unable to even feel happiness because of that class of drug sorry bro not going to happen. done it before.
so that'll be a fun conversation in two months
tl;dr thank God for modern medicine and the options it does give people with mental illness
BIG sigh
maybe this is not a great combo, how is he otherwise? :/
he's pretty good aside from this, and I think he's also geared up because a lot of people with my disorder are not... compliant...
don't take their meds, self medicate with illicit substances, etc
which I have also done! but I hope he'll learn to adjust away from "the text book says" and be a little more flexible
yeah, its hard to be his uhm
his test case on "youre not treating a diagnosis you're treating a person with a diagnosis"
but i hope it goes well
it does sound like you are hopefully a good patient to teach him a lot of stuff, and it also sounds like you are willing to learn from him and listen to him, too, which is nice. I hope it gets less frustrating for you soon.
(obviously you are not blindly listening to your own detriment, which is good. you know you extremely well by now, and you've got a great handle on living as you.)