How do you find a psychiatrist who is good with diagnosing anything or treating? I am in NY (Orange County), near NYC? Anyone have a recommendation?
What is going on with Orange County? It’s starting to make me wonder. Did you try Dr. Batson @ crystal run? 700-6999. Tell them it’s an emergency and see if they can fit you in.
703-6999 Sorry about that.
This link may help.
Hi - I’d recommend you start with the early psychosis treatment centers that are associated with a university. They are usually the most up to date on treatments and many are free.
http://www.raiseetp.org/sites/
Even if there isn’t one close to you - call the nearest one and see if they can recommend a person/facility that is close to you.
Also - NARSAD is based out on Long Island and not too far from you. They might be able to contact you. Call them, and see. http://www.narsad.org
You can ignore this if you have seen a psychiatrist before. This is mainly stuff I have found out through mistakes I have made. But if you aren’t new to the mental health system you probably know all this.
I would line them up. Have a plan A plan B and plan C. Try to get recommendations on all of them and then go to the one who sounds like the best fit. Psy A might work for you, but you might feel like they aren’t listening because they never look at you. Psy B might get an idea that you don’t agree with. One psy tried to tell me that I was OCD and not sz after 30min. I never even thought of going back to him.
I would find all three names at once so you don’t think “hmmmm this doctor MIGHT be better” you can give that doc a fair evaluation. I know some people would like to try all three and then decide, but I think it takes a little while to get to know a doctor. If you dislike them at first meeting, you should probably not go back. However if you do like them, or feel neutral, stick around a little while so that you can assess them. A doctor you are neutral towards just might be bad at first impressions.
Maybe your general practitioner knows a good one? Mine did. I don’t even have any idea how they know each other. My general prac. is in a small town. My psy is in the state capital and was at a prestigious hospital that I don’t think my general prac. would have even gotten interviewed at. But somehow they know each other. And it probably wasn’t just my prac looking him up. My psy knew my prac. So yeah, doctors have some sort of secret network or something so that they can know every other doctor in every other field like three states away it seems. Any whooooo if your general prac doesn’t know anyone ask him to ask his nurses and the other doctors in the clinic. A nurse might have worked for a good psy or a doctor might have gone to a psy’s cocktail party and got to know him there (I guess. I don’t know what doctors do).
A warning: I had a good doctor my last year of high school too. He gave me pills pretty quickly, and by the sound of your type, you are looking for a medicinal solution. Just be wary of a doctor who tries to prescribe you something before you feel like they even understand what you are saying. If it’s an emergency (which I’m guessing it kinda is due to the illness this site addresses) he might want to give them to you on the first visit. If you feel like you need them, take them. But don’t go with someone who is going to pull out a prescription pad almost before you open your mouth. I’ve found the phrase “Let’s start with this and see how it goes” is a good thing. Anything that shows they are willing to change diagnosis/medicine/therapies when they show they aren’t working is good. I had a doctor that only gave me one change in medicine and then changed me back and refused to change it again even though I begged him because what I was originally on wasn’t working.
Finally: don’t get attached too quickly. I think some degree of attachment is good. It helps you when everything is going south quickly. I am attached to my psy and therapist. I have a great deal of confidence in my psy so when I started hallucinating and he recommended something I didn’t understand I went with it because of that trust/attachment and the new medicine seems to be working. This has limits. Don’t let yourself get attached to a doctor who is ineffective no matter how good a listener or how understanding they seem. I did that and nearly lost out on C (my now fiancee) over it. We weren’t engaged then and my ineffective meds were making me push everyone (including him) away, but my psy then was such a sweet old guy I didn’t want to upset him by going elsewhere.
Thank you all for the very helpful suggestions!!