Seeking any other medical providers on the forums…
Wait you are a medical professional with sz or sza? How did you make it through school and how do you deal with people so regularly?
I received my diagnosis of BP Type I a year and a half ago just shy of my 45th birthday. I now have routine visual and occasional auditory hallucinations that make me fall into the BP1 with schizoaffective features. Now that I’ve had 18 months of proper medication and marginally effective therapy, I see that I’ve had it since the age of 17. I have no rational explanation for why I am sitting here typing this. It has been a very difficult road to get back to a point where I can work at half the level I had been since 2006. Knowing the book theory and actually walking through the last 7 years since my schizophrenic son’s suicide have left me in an unusual and unenviable position. These are not “mental” illnesses but are organic based seizures in non-productive loops of neurons. I have been able to conclude that these illnesses are akin to a seizure that doesn’t involve the motor cortex. I have been able to train myself to detect which thoughts and hallucinations are due to my disease and not to be payed attention to. As for how to handle seeing patients, I am fortunate that my interactions are short and very direct.
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That’s commendable.
You must be a very strong person.
I come from hardy people but I don’t feel I have anything special. We all have the ability.
I agree your story oozes with strength…im sorry about the bad crap but it seems like you have a good handle on it despite it all…
I am slowly retiring from clinical practice and am going to try and reach us and our loved ones through art projects. After seeing how pathetic my son’s disease was treated by 3 different psychiatrists, it’s obvious to me that I will also be helping some of my colleagues have a little more compassion. It is very difficult for the non-afflicted to understand a disease that does not manifest any outward signs until it is often too late, physicians included.
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I’ve considered becoming a psychiatrist someday but highly doubt I’ll make it into med school with a 3.2 GPA and only research experience. So right now I’m planning to go the research route. Maybe become a prescribing psychologist someday.
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Upward trending on GPA is more important to them.
Meaning that it’s improved over time? Because mine decreased over time as classes got harder and stress made my symptoms worse. Honestly if I wasn’t dealing with mental illness I could do so much better in school. Ugh.
@FMGM I might be a bit slow on the uptake asking this question, but what kind of medical professional are you?
Are you a psychologist?
One of my favorite lines to use on a patient on psychiatric medications before I take them to the operating room is “I’ve been sent here to take care of you”
So you’re a surgeon?
Other side of the curtain…
@orange is a medical professional with MI. But she hasn’t posted here in a while.