The only way to combat it is to talk about it. The more we try to keep it under wraps (it’s depression for me), the less chance we have to confront ignorance and change perceptions.

My personal opinion is that people fear mental illnesses because they don’t understand them or they don’t know anyone in their personal lives who deals with it on a daily basis.

I must triage 20 people a shift. I would venture that at least 75% of them are taking an SSRI or a benzodiazepine for anxiety. We see ads for SSRIs on television in prime time. With so much information out there, it is depressing (no pun intended) to think an educated surgeon would be so ignorant.

Part of what the health care team needs to realize is that underneath the medications, behind the patient presenting with psychosis to the ER, attached to the psych diagnosis is a human being. Someone who deserves to be respected and cared for and treated with dignity. Why is that so hard to get across to people?

All the time. Common consults: ‘Old psych meds’, ‘patient known to psych, ‘patient with issues’. Worse, patients who have No psychiatric diagnosis or meds whatsoever, but have simply committed the crime of living to a ripe old age have to get a psych consult just because the surgeon doesn’t have the time to talk to them. As a psychiatry resident it pisses me off, and I have no hesitation in indicating the uselessness of the consult in my report.

I came to them with:
*BP 193/110
*Left side weakness/left-hand numbness
*RAGING headache left-side
*family history 3 generations worth of death by TIA/stroke by mid-50’s
*50% blockage of right carotid artery

Yeah, definitely all in my head. My shrink was so SO angry. She’s filing a report against the Risk Management team at his hospital. She’s had several patients with this problem and they were 1. female, 2. being treated for a mental illness, and 3. had VERY clear physical symptoms ranging from a ruptured eardrum to a mini-stroke. But the “professionals” just see lithium and the human patient no longer exists. It’s gotten to a point where I ask new docs point blank if they are prejudiced against my bipolar disorder.

See. hot button issue there. Sorry for the rant.

OH, and to the steroid injection person. I’ve had a couple for my L5-S1 problems, 1 sent me into a moderate mania, and the other sent me into a 6 week agitated depression. make sure you tell your shrink if you’re going to have the injection so you’re prepared. And these psychiatric reactions are not just limited to those with pre-existing mental illness. Steroids are weird things.

About the other thing, you might want to try not even putting the explanation. Enough doctors are awkward about mental illness that they probably won’t even ask.

i routinely, when i fill out forms for healthcare providers, list the medications (antidepressant and mood stabilizer) along with the explanation “maintenance medication for (bipolar) depression” – regardless of whether it’s “maintenance” or not. i understand that any doctor prescribing medication needs to know whatever i’m taking. but my dermatologist/gynecologist/dentist/etc do not need to know any other details unless I choose to share them. I may have a mental illness….but that doesn’t remove my autonomy or individual right to decide who knows what about my private life and experiences. Which, I realize, is exactly the point of the post.