For reference
Because I'm sick of saying this and having people look at me like I'm paranoid and/or stupid:
You have no legal right to choose your psychiatrist1
Unfortunately there is no legal right to a second opinion2
My counsellor is very... consumer capitalist. He absolutely cannot grasp the idea that, as a patient, I get what I'm given. And when I say no, while there may be guidelines that doctors may or may not bother to follow, I have no legal right whatsoever to do the things you're suggesting, he looks at me like he's never heard of this before. Then he says he's going to look into that (because my word cannot be trusted, clearly).
Putting someone in a position where they're forced to explain, again and again, just how powerless and screwed they are, is (*drumroll*)... DEPRESSING. Don't do it. Don't dangle false hope. Don't tell me "you're sure" it's not that bad when you don't, in fact, know.
I am very, very pleased that these depressing facts became less relevant when sheer chance granted me a humane psychiatrist. But sheer chance is all it was, and if it hadn't, there wouldn't be a great deal I could do about it.
1 Rethink, 'My doctor is not listening', http://www.rethink.org/about_mental_illness/talking_to_doctors/my_doctor_is_not_lis.html, last accessed 27/09/2010.
2 Rethink, 'What is a second opinion?', http://www.rethink.org/about_mental_illness/how_is_mental_illness_diagnosed/what_is_a_second_opi.html, last accessed 27/09/2010.
This entry was originally posted at http://frightened.dreamwidth.org/36648.html. Comment where you please.
You have no legal right to choose your psychiatrist1
Unfortunately there is no legal right to a second opinion2
My counsellor is very... consumer capitalist. He absolutely cannot grasp the idea that, as a patient, I get what I'm given. And when I say no, while there may be guidelines that doctors may or may not bother to follow, I have no legal right whatsoever to do the things you're suggesting, he looks at me like he's never heard of this before. Then he says he's going to look into that (because my word cannot be trusted, clearly).
Putting someone in a position where they're forced to explain, again and again, just how powerless and screwed they are, is (*drumroll*)... DEPRESSING. Don't do it. Don't dangle false hope. Don't tell me "you're sure" it's not that bad when you don't, in fact, know.
I am very, very pleased that these depressing facts became less relevant when sheer chance granted me a humane psychiatrist. But sheer chance is all it was, and if it hadn't, there wouldn't be a great deal I could do about it.
1 Rethink, 'My doctor is not listening', http://www.rethink.org/about_mental_illness/talking_to_doctors/my_doctor_is_not_lis.html, last accessed 27/09/2010.
2 Rethink, 'What is a second opinion?', http://www.rethink.org/about_mental_illness/how_is_mental_illness_diagnosed/what_is_a_second_opi.html, last accessed 27/09/2010.
This entry was originally posted at http://frightened.dreamwidth.org/36648.html. Comment where you please.