Attention amateur psychiatrists

[WileE]

I'm 56 yo male struggling with Depression, Anxiety, and probably ADD.

I'm pretty sure my doctor knows less about psycho drugs than most of the people here.

Rather than start a big discussion here, I think I'll head off the appropriate forum.

Are there any experts here? Or just other nuts like me?

[Catnapper]

Welcome. There are a lot of people here with a lot of personal experience with being various flavors of crazy, but no docs to my knowledge, either psychiatrists (pdocs), or therapists (tdocs). Also, the majority of the people here have done a fair amount of research into their conditions and treatment, so it's a pretty sharp bunch of folks.

Are you sure your insurance won't cover a psychiatrist? If they cover any kind of specialists like dermatologists or ear, nose and throat doctors, for example, they more than likely cover psychiatrists. Psychiatrists are M.D.s and can prescribe medication, as opposed to psychologists / therapists, who only offer 'talk therapy'.

Many insurance plans limit your ability / number of times you can see a therapist / psychologist, but a therapist can't prescribe medication anyways. Lots of people make the mistake of looking under the 'mental health' section of their insurance benefits, but since psychiatrists are M.D.s, they very rarely are counted under mental health benefits in terms of insurance plans; they count as any other medical specialist such as a dermatologist. It's a subtle but important difference.

But your initital assumption that your regular doc may not be an expert in psych meds is probably correct. My GP knows and is comfortable with the fact that I see a pdoc to deal with my MI. My GP isn't expert enough to mix meds together like my pdoc does.

[Velvet Elvis]

A lot of us after our 10th med or so decided to start reading up on this shit ourselves to see what we could figure out. Anyone here who works in a medical or helping profession is here because they are batshit insane, not because they are providing medical services. Some of us are just brain geeks who think the brain is really cool and liked to read about it before we started having mental health problems.

Nobody here is qualified to make a medical diagnosis or medical advice. I don't think it's accurate to say that most people here know more than most psychiatrists. We're just more willing to sit down and answer your questions in a way that doesn't make you feel stupid to the best of our ability.

[Stars]

Well said VE. I am a psych RN but just as crazy ( or maybe more so)as everyone else here. We are are interested in helping each other and offering our own personal experiences . If you have some questions just start asking and someone will probably have an experience they can give you. My insurance makes access to a Pdoc hard. There are very few of them that are contracted with my company ( which is a major company). So I go out of network. Check and see if you have out of network benefits and consider that. My husband Primary doc will not prescribe psych meds,but most primary docs will.

[WileE]

Well said VE. I am a psych RN but just as crazy ( or maybe more so)as everyone else here. We are are interested in helping each other and offering our own personal experiences . If you have some questions just start asking and someone will probably have an experience they can give you. My insurance makes access to a Pdoc hard. There are very few of them that are contracted with my company ( which is a major company). So I go out of network. Check and see if you have out of network benefits and consider that. My husband Primary doc will not prescribe psych meds,but most primary docs will.

Yup. That's been my experience, too. I have a high-deductible HSA BC/BS plan. lowly and poorly. There are very few in-network pdocs that accept my insurance because they pay slowly and poorly. If I go out of network, I have to meet a second $3000 deductible before they begin to pay. So, for practical purposes, I'm paying out of pocket for those services. I've heard that I could go to the University hospital, a two-hour drive.

[Guest Vapourware]

I'm not American so I could be talking out of my ass, but I've heard of psychiatrists who operate on a sliding scale and charge you depending on your income.

Also, giving any sort of professional treatment advice to someone online is, IMO, fairly irresponsible because people don't have all the background information required. That's why it's best to talk to professionals face-to-face.

[Inspired_Neurosis]

Claiming that I could give you medical advice sounds like a nice way to get sued.