I have not yet been diagnosed but have my psychiatric evaluation tomorrow. I’ve been on Seroquel for the past couple of weeks and it appears to be helping. Even though I’ve discussed my symptoms with a therapist I’m a bit nervous about tomorrow…I don’t really enjoy talking about what’s been going on but I know it’s necessary. Can anyone shed any light on what happens at an evaluation?
I don’t know, but be honest, don’t hold back. They’re doing it for your well being, remember that. Nothing to be nervous about, you’re going to give a name to what you already feel and experience.
I wish you good luck!
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They check to see if you are alert, orientated and ???hmmmm, forgot the 3rd- aware???
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Are you a danger to yourself or others?
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how good your math skills and working memory are…
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stuff like that.
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Just be completely honest because they don’t judge. Theyve probably done hundreds of evals and have probably heard it all. The more transparent u are the better off ull be. What i do for evals is pretend im telling everything about me to myself like theres no one there. It helps a lot and eases any anxiety for telling another person everything about myself. Ull be fine no one bites i promise. Lastly u can tell them ur nervous about the eval and they’ll understand
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Thanks everyone. The initial eval went fine, I was nervous but the two psychiatrists were very pleasant and straightforward about what we were doing. I did fine on most of a cognitiventest (made a picture of a clock, identified several animals) but had some major issues with memory/recall. They’re having me do some additional testing in that regard next week.
It was difficult but I was able to admit that I’d been having someone tell me to harm my wife and chikdren; this has actually been going on for quite a long time. Every time I receive a command to do something (usually with a knife) I get angry and yell at it to get out of my head. I’ve never even considered giving in to it…but because its gotten more difficult to control the symptoms ive been hiding for years they gave me the option of several days at a behavioral hospital where they could start me on a higher dosage of meds and really monitor me. My work situation wont really allow for this right now…we discussed everything (along with my wife, that was a difficult conversation) and they told me that because im so high-functioning they would be willing to up my dosage at home and check in with me daily to see how things were going. I took 50mg of Seroquel last night and will take 100mg tonight and everynight thereafter; if this appears to help I can forego the hospital stay, if it doesnt then I’ll have to be admitted.
Im glad they gave me the option, I do have quite a bit of insight about whats going on. Theyre currently discussing my medical history with my GP and neurologist to rule out other conditions, I assume thats standard procedure on the road to a diagnosis.
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Glad it went well, and good luck for the rest of it. Hope you don’t get hospitalized.
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Thanks Minnii. I’m “cautiously optimistic”
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what dose of seroquel are you on? if it’s only 50 or 100mg, you probably aren’t schizophrenic. maybe BPD?
That very well may be the case, I’ve not yet received a diagnosis. 50mg last night, 100 tonight and the doctor is monitoring.