My therapist who is a PHD and is not an MD or a nurse, asks me all of the time about how long my psychiatrist appointments are, how often do I see my psychiatrist? She monitors me medically, like a psychiatrist does.
She tells me that Im doing fine on my new med, and that my psychiatrist most likely wont raise the dose -
Just a lot of questions on my psychiatrist and medicine. She asks about my sleep habits, she asks me if I have been cycling mood wise lately - alot of medical stuff in general. Very little CBT or what therapists usually talk about.
Is this normal for a non - medical therapist to be behaving this way? Why would she be doing this?
I’m not sure what you’re saying. And who is saying the words. Is it the monitoring you behavior only, you don’t like? Does your psychiatrist do this? Monitor your sleeping habits.
If you’re seeing a nurse or case manager also, I don’t have any experience with that. I’ve never felt monitored by my psychiatrist. It sounds sort of dehumanizing.
Im sorry, I made the post more clear now, its my therapist asking me these questions
“How often do you see your psychiatrist these days? Do you still go?”
“how’s the medication and is it going still on the same dose?”
“How have you been sleeping lately?”
The rest, not so much. I’ve been with my my normal therapist for a long time so she just wants to get some of this out of the way, stat on the same page as my pdoc.
She just wants to make sure I’m staying stable with some of the physical health. If not, she sort of starts in with… OK, lets talk about the not sleeping and what’s going on there. Because she knows that’s the start of my downward spiral. Or… Ok, let’s talk about why your missing doses or if you’re does is too low or high for what your going through.
Plus, I see the pdoc like what… 30 minutes twice a month? Not really enough time to really open up and “discuss” sleeping, eating, stress.
The Pdoc visit is more blood test, and symptoms and dosage. Not really why there might be a change in sleep. I see the therapist a lot more then the doc. I did sign papers so they could exchange info with each other.
Plus she knows if I’m out exercising, I’m in a better mood, If I’m getting enough sleep, I’m more optimistic, if my meds are too off, I’m manic… It’s all goes hand in hand, the body and the mind.
So I guess this is normal for some therapists to be behaving this way" Im not used to this kind of questioning I guess. My last therapist wasnt really like this
I’ve found out the hard way today… they all bring their own twist to the table…
My pdoc, also a PHD for the last 17 years was identical in questioning. They called the visits “meds management” if I remember correctly, and the copay was $25 for about 20-25 minutes every 4- 6 weeks.
Sometimes she just asked one or two questions then just listened.
Hadn’t seen her since Jan2012.