Posted by Racer on April 9, 2006, at 21:52:08
In reply to Re: Blind Faith In A P Doc, posted by cecilia on April 9, 2006, at 19:20:19
This thread is more than a bit upsetting to me, on several levels. For those of you who know a little more about my history, or have read the archives, you'll expect that discussions of bad pdocs bring examples to my mind that still have the power to upset me. For that reason alone, I think after these observations I had best leave this thread alone.
I don't think anyone who comes here takes what their doctors say on any sort of "blind" faith. I think the purpose of this board is education, as well as support, and participation in this site generally makes us informed consumers. (Didn't GG already say this?) And I think that being an informed consumer of psychiatric care is in our best interests. Doctors are not perfect, and not all pdocs are very good at their jobs. (Again -- I know just a bit about bad pdocs.)
That said, no matter how much I learn from this site and the reading it leads me to elsewhere, I am not the best person to choose a treatment plan for myself. Especially when I most need one. I very much doubt that I'm unique in that, either. Depression and anxiety affect our ability to make optimal decisions for our own care, and they affect it negatively. Someone who is deeply depressed is probably not in a great place to choose the best medication to address it, and is probably not going to be very tolerant of start up effects. Thus, the pdoc, monitoring which of those start up effects are most likely to be transient, and which justify stopping a medication.
After trying a number of drugs, many of us will be able to make some predictions. That still doesn't mean that we know best about what medications we should take, and it certainly doesn't speak to whether or not we can combine medications successfully. It doesn't mean that we should be trying to do the doctor's job. And it certainly doesn't mean that we should change medications without a doctor's supervision.
I am certainly not advocating "blind faith" in anyone except Ginger Baker. And I hardly believe that all pdocs are good doctors. But I do think that we'd be wise to focus on working with a pdoc successfully, rather than trying to direct our treatment ourselves.
poster:Racer
thread:630791
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060408/msgs/631201.html