It has been 10 years for me of seeing Psychiatrists for medication. From the beginning, I’ve told my Psychiatrists what medications to put me on and have also refused to go on some that they have recommended. Many psychiatrist appointments in the United States are 5 minutes and almost all of my psychiatrists (I have been to SO many) have rushed the appointments and not asked many questions. From the hundreds of comments and messages I’ve received from other people with bipolar, I’ve noticed an alarming trend of psychiatrists invalidating the experience of bipolar people when we communicate that a medication makes us feel emotionless and numb. This could easily be solved by decreasing the dosage or switching to a different medication. Instead, so many psychiatrists refuse to do this and claim the bipolar person just misses being manic and that’s why they feel numb and emotionless, because it is them comparing it to mania While this is sometimes true, there are so many cases where the medication is causing this lack of emotion. Another thing that happens is many people are uncomfortable with a side effect of a medication, whether that is weight gain, loss of libido, acne, mental fog, sleepiness etc. Often psychiatrists will disagree with switching the medication to find one that doesn’t have any side effects for their patient, which often leads to the bipolar person completely going off their medication and ghosting the psychiatrist. When I get told no by a psychiatrist, I keep telling them what I want and don’t leave the appointment until I get the prescription I am asking for. I routinely have told my psychiatrists no over and over again until I get what I want. I do not give up. Fortunately there are so many psychiatry journal articles on PubMed and many of them are about bipolar medications. That is how I do my own research to decide what medications to tell my psychiatrist to put me on. Sometimes I show them journal articles in the appointment. Other times I just tell them no without an explanation. Both are effective in getting what I want. You don’t have to read journal articles and come into the appointment knowing what prescription you want. Instead, you can demand your psychiatrist take you off your current medication and choose a different one to put you on. Switch to a different psychiatrist if your current one doesn’t listen and understand you. Do this on repeat until you find a psychiatrist you like. There are long waiting lists for psychiatrists in the United States, so it could take several years to find a psychiatrist you like. Don’t give up! Remember that medicating bipolar is a giant guessing game and your psychiatrist doesn’t know which medications will work on you or which side effects you will experience until you try the medication. Since they don’t know ahead of time how a medication will affect you, they are generally open to the patient suggesting a different one. Don’t give up. Be persistent. Take control of your treatment plan!
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