And by “one thing” I mean prescribing medication.
Aside from the cost of mental health care, one of the biggest patient complaints I’ve heard since beginning Mental Health Notes and becoming involved with NAMI is the way in which appointments with psychiatrists seem to go these days.
It’s become the norm for a patient to take a half or whole day off work to sit in a waiting room for an hour or more only to see a psychiatrist for a few minutes in order to discuss whether or not a particular medication is working, grab a new or adjusted prescription, and …read more

How much sanity can you handle on this glorious Saturday? Let’s find out…

This week, which was also Children’s Mental Health Week, was fairly busy at Mental Health Notes. I talked about mental health situations in the news (some…bizarre, and some not so uncommon) as well as well as a few mental health studies such as increasing intelligence and how compliments affect the brain. I told you about NAMI and the DBSA participating in the online Women’s Health Expo, how my local NAMI’s cookout for Mental Health Month panned out, and even shared a few extreme ups and downs I experienced …read more

Back in September I posted I’m Firing My Psychiatrist. In short, the post explained the reasons I had for firing my psychiatrist. Actually, the post explained the one main reason I had for firing my psychiatrist: He assured me that I could stop taking Lamictal cold turkey without even glossing over the potential risks for seizures that accompany quitting Lamictal cold turkey.
Yesterday, reader Patrick left the following comment under that post:
This discussion of lamictal is quite educational for me. I really don’t like the person I’ve become, the edginess, being short tempered and irritable all the time but my shrink …read more

I Must Shave My Legs: The OCD Miniseries – Part 5
We’ve hit the halfway point and it’s all downhill from here. Feeling any more educated about obsessive-compulsive disorder? Sure you are.
Now that you know the signs, symptoms, causes of, and risk factors for OCD, how do you know when it’s time to talk to a doctor? And on that note, how will a doctor even determine whether or not you have OCD?
Sometimes people mistake perfectionism for OCD, and vice-versa. Sometimes people mistake little quirks or odd habits for OCD, and vice-versa. However, if your “perfectionism” or “little quirks or odd …read more