The best thing I’ve ever done for my mental health was talk to a very well accredited psychiatrist with a priority of doing what is best for the patient in order to “do no harm” you know. He has tons of experience and people referring people to him and positive reviews.
He spent two hours with me in our first session to get a proper screening, after I filled out mountains of questionnaires as well. And he felt it wasn’t quite enough time so he had me come back for a second two hour chat.
I mention this because you really don’t want a diagnosis from someone who will not spend more than 30 minutes with you… in my experience.
He also had a very good background in trauma, which is important. I wanted my diagnosis from someone who really understands the psychology of trauma at a very wide and detailed- and modern way, as well as how to treat it and complex disorders that can arise from it.
Because my struggles with mental health have been basically life long, starting from the age of ten, we had a lot to cover, and he was very patient in doing that and saw it as important.
he did not try to rush or press me, into an uncomfortable state aka, triggered, dissociating, etc- as some have done in the past.
He really cared about establishing a thorough plan of treatment for me not just medication, providing only what he thought were the best programs, therapists, medications, specifically tailored to help me best.- not just in opinion or in hopes I’d get better but based on research and science only. He did not make decisions based on anything but considerable scientific results. Evidence.
He tried to give me a medicafion that would work best for me in my favor, aka help me the most while providing the least risk of negative side effects of any sort, that would hinder me or my functioning and well being or health over all
And lastly he also considered medical and bio physiological factors as well, and reviewed detailed blood work and ran necessary tests to also rule out metabolic problems for example or hormonal or dietary what have you, and a long list of all the rest of things there is to look at in blood work.
I also worked with a functional medicine doctor and dietitian/nutritionist specialized in endocrinology to analyze and address any issues going on in my body
So yeah! after doing six months of a really excellent top tier mental health program and working in one on one therapy, plus having all the psych visits and the rest that I mentioned. I’ve been able to swing a decent recovery.
I don’t want to play armchair psychiatrist, but. I can speak from personal experience that when I felt like I was noticing something wrong but it didn’t seem bad enough to warrant getting help about it- it actually was a very good time to be getting help.
Your intuition doesn’t lie to you, it’s hard to be perfectly clear about it when you’re *in* it, but in my experience when I had that line of thought like, something isn’t right. you know… somethings wrong, I just don’t understand what.
It turned out to be very warranted that I was in treatment, I didn’t realize how ”off” I had gotten or like where there was room for improvement because I was used to it if that makes sense. Blind spots.
A good psych can see through those blind spots for you and point you in the right direction to get you back up to better speed.