SuZir
Well-Known Member
Okay, difficult child recently told me what kind of dissociative symptoms he has (I wrote more of those in Parent Emeritus.) I decided I wanted to talk with an expert about the whole phenomenon (thanks DDD for an idea) and booked myself a psychiatrist appointment to get more information. I have of course read about everything I can find, but how that really relates to real life is something I don't fully understand.
Our doctors never want to step into colleagues' territory, take a strong stand that they can't say anything relating to any case if it is not their patient (expect disability insurance doctors, they are great in discrediting diagnosis without ever seeing a patient) and generally seem to think that everyone not MD is an idiot. However I'm not eager to pay 200 bucks to have wikipedia article and standard treatment protocol read to me aloud. I mean, I have known how to read closer to 40 years now, I can read those myself, and have done so many times. To get anything more out of it I will need to be prepared and have specific questions to ask.
What I do want to know is of course how I should react to this. I mean, what I would like to do is about this and this but I do get that is probably not a best idea. But I'm not sure about this "Oh, you see and hear things that you know are not real, but can't make it stop. How interesting honey!"-approach is the best either.
Being who am I, I would also like to hear something concrete. I know psychiatrist can not give me any relevant prognosis for my son, but there has to be some kind of common understanding on how things usually go with patients similar to my kid. I want numbers, darn it! I do get that there is not study that tells how many per cent of 19 year old stubborn and idiotic boys with moderate dissociative symptoms along with their PTSD, some older trauma history and neurological differences and relatively high functioning turn out well. But there has to be something more than "many recover well, with some the symptoms become chronic."
Third thing I really want to have an understanding with is how the treatment process should go, what I have to keep an eye. Yes, difficult child is an adult. This is his private issue. He has to be in driver's seat in dealing with it. I can't force him to anything and even trying would be counterproductive. I can ask questions and maybe make some suggestions, but that is it. I get that. But, and that is a big but, difficult child's situation is rather unique. He can be pressured strongly by his employer and their medical team to do this or that. His current team has been good to him but now it seems quite likely he will change teams this summer. With some options I feel more secure, but some could be very risky with difficult child's mental health issues. I need to know how things should go and when we will need to put our foot down, if it comes to that. While that would be counterproductive as I said, if the circumstances are bad enough it may still be an only option.
And fourth thing I want, is to simply get a better handle to this whole phenomenon.
I have an appointment booked for next week with psychiatrist who special interests include trauma patients and I need help on making a list of questions I can ask. Could you please help me with this?
Our doctors never want to step into colleagues' territory, take a strong stand that they can't say anything relating to any case if it is not their patient (expect disability insurance doctors, they are great in discrediting diagnosis without ever seeing a patient) and generally seem to think that everyone not MD is an idiot. However I'm not eager to pay 200 bucks to have wikipedia article and standard treatment protocol read to me aloud. I mean, I have known how to read closer to 40 years now, I can read those myself, and have done so many times. To get anything more out of it I will need to be prepared and have specific questions to ask.
What I do want to know is of course how I should react to this. I mean, what I would like to do is about this and this but I do get that is probably not a best idea. But I'm not sure about this "Oh, you see and hear things that you know are not real, but can't make it stop. How interesting honey!"-approach is the best either.
Being who am I, I would also like to hear something concrete. I know psychiatrist can not give me any relevant prognosis for my son, but there has to be some kind of common understanding on how things usually go with patients similar to my kid. I want numbers, darn it! I do get that there is not study that tells how many per cent of 19 year old stubborn and idiotic boys with moderate dissociative symptoms along with their PTSD, some older trauma history and neurological differences and relatively high functioning turn out well. But there has to be something more than "many recover well, with some the symptoms become chronic."
Third thing I really want to have an understanding with is how the treatment process should go, what I have to keep an eye. Yes, difficult child is an adult. This is his private issue. He has to be in driver's seat in dealing with it. I can't force him to anything and even trying would be counterproductive. I can ask questions and maybe make some suggestions, but that is it. I get that. But, and that is a big but, difficult child's situation is rather unique. He can be pressured strongly by his employer and their medical team to do this or that. His current team has been good to him but now it seems quite likely he will change teams this summer. With some options I feel more secure, but some could be very risky with difficult child's mental health issues. I need to know how things should go and when we will need to put our foot down, if it comes to that. While that would be counterproductive as I said, if the circumstances are bad enough it may still be an only option.
And fourth thing I want, is to simply get a better handle to this whole phenomenon.
I have an appointment booked for next week with psychiatrist who special interests include trauma patients and I need help on making a list of questions I can ask. Could you please help me with this?