Psychiatrists and Debt Advisors and More, Oh My!

I went to see the psychiatrist today for my first appointment. He kept me waiting for forty minutes, but was apologetic and turned out to be a nice man. The bulk of the session (around 2 hours) was taken up with me describing my life to him, while he wrote it down. It’s somewhat discomforting to know that my medical records will now include a small biography with all my least favourite incidences in graphic detail. Never mind, if I’m crazy, there might as well be some evidence for it.

The psychiatrist, as expected, pushed his friend’s new age book (he’s got an IQ of 200!), while slating those damn scientists who demand things like evidence and actual research. It works so well that my psychiatrist has cured all his private patients, apparently. Which must be why he’s slumming it as a locum now. He did say that this should be combined with conventional therapies, including psychotherapy of some kind. And he’s prescribed me fabulous killer anti-depressants.

I did happen to ask about the bipolar thing that the acute mental health people mentioned, but he’s of the opinion that it’s too early to stick labels on, and anyway, he thinks I’m borderline. Personally, I think the idea that I have borderline personality disorder is in-fucking-sane, but what do I know? I’m not a psychiatrist. So I get to take my Sertraline (that’s Zoloft for our American friends) for the next few weeks to see if it helps. He’s confident it will. Meanwhile, he’s not doing anything about my sleep problems. I guess he thinks they’re caused by the depression. It’s another point we differ on.

Afterwards, I went down to the Citizens’ Advice Bureau and saw their debt advisor. We went through my finances and it looks as if bankruptcy may be the way to go. She was a lovely woman and managed to make the scariness of my debts seem resolvable and something that I could actually deal with. She explained everything and made me an appointment for the Friday after next.

I took my first sertraline 50mg about an hour ago and now I’m feeling a bit weird. I guess that’s to be expected though. I’m probably just tired.