If I am not seeing a psychiatrist, would this be considered refusing help? My last experience with my pdoc was very upsetting and I don`t want to go back. I am not refusing help, just refusing the help of this pdoc. Do I need a referance from my pdoc to get anotherone?pdoc I mean.
The doctor who has been treating you may be the one to say whether you are refusing to be treated or not. Were you required by the court or by an employer to complete a treatment plan? Did you and the pdoc discuss why you don't want to come back? Are you rejecting his personality or the treatment he proposed?
I've been in therapy for bipolar for 30-some years. I've seen lots of pdocs and I haven't always liked them. But I think the ones I thought were hard to work with usually ended up doing more for me than the ones that I could talk with easily. The reason it was hard to like them was because they made me do the work. I've had a few that seemed as easy to talk with as a good friend would be, but that's not what I needed or wanted to pay for. I needed to really work on myself and when you're bipolar you sometimes need a drill sargeant to reach you and keep you motivated.
I don't know why you want to change doctors; but before you go to someone new, give some thought to what you expect to get from your therapy.
If your doctor was assigned by the court or by your employer, you may need to get reassigned officially. Otherwise, you don't need permission to change doctors. You may even get a good referral from your current pdoc (who now knows what you don't want in a doctor) or your family doctor. If you have a support group for bipolars in your town -- those people will be able to tell you all about every doctor within driving distance!
No you don't need a referral from a pdoc in Canada. You just need one from a gp. Or go to the mood disorders clinic of the nearest psychiatric hospital in any large centre near you and ask them to find you one. Or you can do what I did, just go to a friend's pdoc, somehow we snuck that one under the wire and health insurance never did find out I did not have a referral. Some docs are much better than others, I chose mine because he had run a hospital ward as head and was old and had seen many very very sick people, my previous pdoc mostly did neurotic upper middle class people with psychological problems and alcoholics, so he did not have much experience with psychotic illnesses.
Sorry to hear you are having problems, to repeat you just need to go to gp for ref. for appointment...no big deal. I hate starting over with a new pdoc having to go over all "that" again... Happy hunting......
Hi all, I went to my fam doc and asked him for a referal for a psychiatrist. He said he did`nt know one. Can I call The College of Physicians and Surgeons? This is in Canada. What do you think? To refer me to a pdoc in my area, is what I mean.
SheerLin
Life is what happens, while you`re busy making other plans.... John Lennon
Help
Posted - 11/22/2005 : 06:35:22
Sorry to hear you are having problems, to repeat you just need to go to gp for ref. for appointment...no big deal. I hate starting over with a new pdoc having to go over all "that" again...
Happy hunting......
