Mental Health I'm Off To See The Wizard, Any Tips

[LandsUnknown]

By wizard, I mean a psychiatrist. I am a bit nervous due to my unconscious association of such doctors with being "crazy". The reasons why I am going to go are that I feel like I would like to get a formal assessment of my ADHD (this is one of the specialties of the particular doc I'm seeing) as I have never had one before and also to perhaps get a more effective medication for my ADHD as the way that my sleep medicine doctor (the person who diagnosed me) isn't really giving me a treatment that works effectively. That's one thing.

But the other thing is that I have some relatively minor OCD type issues that have caused me to drink excessively and habitually. Despite the fact that drinking does not really help me to be less anxious anymore, I still drink to excess anyways despite the fact that it causes rebound anxiety while sober on occasions that I drink too much, and I have also done some rather out of character things while drunk that I come to regret later. This sort of thing happens probably every month or so for me.

I used to have compulsions with regard to arranging stuff, but now it's just these mental compulsions. The whole experience feels similar to what I've read from people who have OCD. The compulsions and mental obsessions often drive me crazy to some degree. What I am wondering is what the appointment is typically like? Do they talk to you about issues in your life or is it more of a medical approach? I have been to counselors in the past. Is seeing a psychiatrist similar to seeing a counselor in some ways? Or is it more like a doctor's appointment for mental health?

 

[simco]

Sessions with psychiatrists really vary. Some of them do indeed feel very much like being with a therapist/counselor, while others are more strictly medical and run things much like a visit to a plain old doctor. It can be a bit anxiety-producing, trying to tell what is surely a complicated story (we're all pretty complicated, after all) to a total stranger. But if your shrink is at all skilled, he or she will hopefully help to put you at ease.

My main advice is to try to be as honest and open as you can (and as much as seems/feels appropriate). Talk in whatever way feels right to you. And you don't have to explain everything in the first appointment...there's no need to explain everything on your first visit. Just try to relax, and let the conversation unfold as naturally as possible.

 

[Escape Fantasy]

Psychiatrists are doctors certified to give out medicine. Psychologist/counselors are mainly there for talk therapy, they cannot prescribe medicine.

And, for the record, you coming in to their office, they're the ones who are gonna mainly look at you as the crazy one.

It's a hit or miss. They don't usually go on to ask about your life story/mental problem necessarily. They're just mainly concerned with giving you the medication.

Mental illness is pretty much all in your head that you don't want to get over.

 

[Tubbs]

That's not even remotely true.

 

[herbavore]

Mental illness is pretty much all in your head that you don't want to get over.

Everything is "in your head" if you mean it takes your brain to perceive it. It is interesting to look at all the different ways that mental illness is defined and perceived. For me what makes the most sense is that there is an imbalance in your mental state that locks you into thought patterns that you feel no control over (delusions, audio hallucinations, paranoia, extreme anxiety and extreme mania or depression); the causes may be a confusing mix of everything from genetics to early childhood trauma to a vulnerability in one's physical brain. But I have never met anyone that deals with extreme states that has not wanted to "get over" them--these states are stressful and often terrifying to the person experiencing them.

 

[chompy]

Obviously mental illness is 'all in the head' otherwise it wouldn't be labeled as such. SMH

To the original poster, drinking alcohol and having some sort of mental disorder is not going to help your brain learn to develop good coping mechanisms. It's like the party week after finals and you forget everything you learned/binge studied up to the test.