Quarterly meeting with my psychiatrist

Today I had my quarterly meeting with my psychiatrist. We talk about how I am feeling, dicuss therapy options, or change my meds.

I go to the psychiatric institutional outpatients’ department (PIA) of my local hospital. What I like about it

• in case of emergency an inpatient stay can be arranged quickly,
• a psychiatrist is on call 24/7,
• during day shift, it is easy to get a second opinion from another psychiatrist.

What I don’t like aboout it

• sometimes you have to wait an hour or so even if you have an  appointment, this happens when many urgent cases are brought in,
• doctors often change, because they rotate between outpatient, inpatient and day unit.

In the last months I feel very tired, at the same time anxiety attacks and self harming became more frequent. That shows depression and anxiety often are two sides of a coin. So we agreed to change the anti depressant I take in the morning, and to increase my anti anxiety medication. “We”, because I had the final say in this discussion. Talk therapy and occupational therapy will be continued.

And now I need to be patient, because it takes a few weeks before the brain gets used to new meds. This is the worst, waiting while I just want the inner pain to stop. But this is not how it works. Stupid game!