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Q: Pdoc' Overwhelmed by Family
Dear Dr. Phelps,
I have been seeing the same psychiatrist for two years and have been treated
for ADD with Metadate, Neurontin and Effexor XR. I have not had a rage during
that time and have functioned better than I ever have, but still had high
anxiety all of the time. I had one of my rages on Nov. 1st and have not washed
my bed linens, dishes or kept my grandchildren since. I normally keep them
almost daily and enjoy it. I prearranged with my doctor's receptionist to have
my adult daughters attend my last session with my psychiatrist. We could all
tell he resented this and he refused to answer any of our questions and left the
session as soon as possible. He did prescribe Depakote and stated he thought it
was bipolar. I am so confused an hurt that he treated us this way. I am still
not responding to the Depakote after 3 weeks. Any advice you can give will be
greatly appreciated.
Brenda
Dear Brenda --
First, you'll need to learn more about
Bipolar II.
Sounds like your psychiatrist got overwhelmed and may have felt blamed for not
coming up with this diagnosis sooner; but you can use that website to learn more
you might have learned from him.
You shouldn't have to take care of your doctor's ego,
but on the other hand, we're human and we can get overwhelmed (like maybe he had
three other episodes of frustration that day before you got there and your
family was just a "last straw" for him that day). So you could remind him that
you value his efforts to help you and tell him you've been trying to learn more
about bipolar disorder; and then note gently that so far you're tolerating the
Depakote okay but that it doesn't seem to be helping much so far (you get the
idea...).
If you're still taking Neurontin and Effexor, that
might account for the lack of response to Depakote so far, so remember you
won't get a fair evaluation of Depakote until you don't have antidepressants on
board (DON'T stop taking them though; they have to be tapered, and your
psychiatrist needs to lay out that plan); but there are other
mood stabilizers
to consider, as you can see.
Dr. Phelps
Published January, 2003
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