Constructive interaction with psychiatrists.
The most important problem of keeping a patient in the family is that the patient needs a permanent doctor.
This is an elementary truth, and there seems to be nothing to prove. A doctor can be a valuable help, but he must be an experienced and wise doctor who knows not only the patient well, but also his family. However, there are many difficulties in understanding and implementing this need, some of which are a consequence of the natural desire to help the patient as best as possible, and some arose as a result of the negative attitude towards psychiatry that developed during the years of Soviet power.
Therefore, when a patient appears in the family, the search for a good specialist begins. This is correct, but here, as elsewhere, it is useful to know when to stop.
.
If the measure is lost, the search turns into constant consultations with one professor, then with another, then with a psychic, then with someone else. As a result, the sick person does not receive the necessary treatment
, because “seven nannies have a child without an eye.”
A patient (by the way, not only a mentally ill person, this applies to any person suffering from a chronic disease) most of all needs a permanent doctor
.
Of course, a doctor must have sufficient qualifications, but he does not have to be a professor. Another thing is necessary - the doctor must enjoy the trust of his patient.
Of course, there are cases when even a very good doctor, no matter how hard he wants, cannot achieve this - this, in our opinion, is really the reason to change the doctor.
The main advantage that a patient receives when constantly being treated by one doctor is that the doctor knows all the features of the course of the disease, reactions to medications, the situation at work (if the patient works), and finally, the intricacies of the patient’s relationships with other family members.
Such a doctor can give truly valuable advice on any matter.
Anyone else who does not have such information will give advice “in general” regarding how “it happens in such cases.”
And such advice is not always useful. The next problem, closely related to the problem of a permanent doctor, relates to the degree of understanding of the essence of what is happening. Only a qualified doctor can accurately predict how the disease will develop in a given patient. the ability to accurately predict the development of the disease is the most important aspect in the relationship between the doctor and the patient.
A huge number of people travel around the country in search of a “consultant” for the reason that they believe that if the doctor is really good, he should quickly cure the patient. “Your” doctor turns out to be bad only because he cannot do this. Before evaluating a doctor from this point of view, it is useful to find out what the nature of the course of the disease is in this case and what one can hope for.
The conditions for the formation of partnerships are:
- the patient and his immediate environment have knowledge about the nature of mental illness and their treatment, communication style and behavior in the family;
- disease-specific problem solving skills;
- knowledge of ways to control symptoms of the disease.
In most families, such knowledge and skills are minimal, and it is unrealistic to require their acquisition on their own. Relatives of patients should have access to the necessary information, as well as the opportunity to communicate with each other to share experiences reflecting their successes and failures, as well as to develop ways to solve the most common problems.
Contacts with mental health workers.
It is very important what kind of relationship you develop with the professionals providing medical care to your sick relative. You will achieve much better results if you carefully consider the form and content of your contacts with medical personnel. Some recommendations may seem banal to you, but when you have a patient with a severe mental disorder on your hands, many simple and banal things are easily forgotten.
Conversation with a psychiatrist
Conversation with a psychiatrist (Opinion of an individual) In recent days, for about a month, aggravated, of course, by the general crisis, I have been in a heavy, gloomy mood. I classify it as depressive.
You get gloomy here: there is no work, no money, no supplies, no prospects. There is also almost no personal life. A character trait is a tendency to loneliness. The ties connecting us with active, active people have been severed. The only engine for at least some movement is a sixteen-year-old son, who needs to somehow be fed, put on shoes, dressed, looked after, in order to give at least some kind of education, some kind of profession.
My son is smart, willing to learn, it’s a pity to throw him to the sidelines at this age. Although, I know that some of his friends, at the age of 16-17, work somewhere in production, making concrete slabs for 500-400 rubles.
I suppose that in five years these fragile boys may seriously undermine their health in hard, harmful work. But for them it is a way of survival. What can you do if our “guarantor” of the Constitution, the “monarch” of the republic, the president who has fenced himself off from all of Russia with “royal walls”, whose name I don’t even want to pronounce or write, has placed the younger generation in such conditions—there is only a desire to spit in his direction.
So, how to survive in conditions that do not give you a penny of income, while expenses - at least minimal - naturally should be? I walk around and rack my brains about this day and night.
It’s as if everything is in place: my arms, my legs, my head is still thinking. I have two educations under my belt: university humanities and accounting courses, two diplomas. Moreover, more than ten years of experience in the main profession, six years of experience as a chief accountant.
Everything seems to be fine, you can settle down somewhere if you make a dash. From time to time I make this leap, but still, disappointments from the environment are so frequent and deep.
Suddenly the thought dawned on me: “What if the Lord still calls me to Himself?” If, after all, the minimum program on earth has already been completed, and it’s time, time to go somewhere else, for other, new purposes?
Yes, I don’t like this expression applied to suicidal people: -... the devil leads... - Well, what if it is not the devil, but the Lord who sends me liberation from earthly torment? Or would He have chosen a different path - natural departure, without my thoughts about it? Anything is possible. The questions are not simple, philosophical, they are always contradictory, have hundreds of “yes” and “no”.
There were weak-hearted people in my family. My aunt, my mother’s younger sister Nadezhda, like A. Karenina, came out to meet the train in some German town, starting a love story. Isn't this the way out for me?
I'm looking for ways, but it's been known for a long time. Is it just a son, a son... the thought of him holds me back. But will it hold?
And yet, I still decide to talk with a psychiatrist about these personal topics of mine. For now - with an imaginary doctor, but later, I suppose, I will turn to a real one. I'm interested in his opinion and advice.
“Ah,” I say to myself, “are you interested?” Wonderful! This means that not everything is lost. For thoughts of suicide come when you no longer feel interest in anything, when all desires have died in you, and he, this very engine of all living things, is interest.
And here I come to a new thought: those philosophizers are right who claim that the engine of earthly things, life, progress is the Devil. He is stronger, from him are the Vices, and it is they that feed the desire to live, to move forward.
- It’s true! – I’m thinking. – So I always thought about the spiritual – as the highest, existing. I wished for Love, Beauty, Goodness. I chased them and defended them. She took kicks for Truth and Justice. I didn’t gain anything - no money, no friends, no career. And they? They were looking for compromises with life: they were cunning, they took revenge, they cheated, and all for the purpose of at least some personal gain. The same one rejected by Christianity too.
And what? The period of the dollar and consumer values has come - and they are all on top, they have everything, they feel good, they are full of hope and contentment. But you? You barely survive, you squeak like a chick, and most importantly, you don’t want to, you don’t want to be around all this, let alone have and prosper, you don’t want to be! You live through strength. What is this? Woe from mind? After all, it is the Devil in them, but with them there is Joy. And you – with God’s principles, but in despondency?
Oh, no, by mentioning here the Christian God, whom I generally do not recognize, I am not throwing another stone at him. He has nothing to do with it. It was not he who instilled in me those impulses towards Beauty, Goodness, Love. He is simply unfamiliar to me, a stranger, I have never carried him within me.
Since birth, I have been friends with another God, the one who is in me, always with me, and maybe He is me. He is my nature, to which I submit, thanks to which I exist, live, and perform actions. Which is all from chemistry, physics, biology, atom, ether, quantum... From a thin, unclear fabric to me, at the level of the Spirit, probably. This is my God, who is now, as it were, in me. He is not yet cast down, but as if cast down within me. Overwhelmed by the environment...
But I think I’m not entirely right in these thoughts either. After all, there is a simple objection to them:
— Don’t suicides also happen to the self-confident and rich?
- Oh yes! Yes, yes, it happens to them too, although not often. Well, that says something else: …………………………………………………………………………………………………………
But still, still – what will the psychiatrist answer me? Diagnosis? Recipe? Let's listen.
- You have entered a dark period in your life. Depression dictates your actions and an uncomfortable state of mind. We need to fight this. Don't you remember that life is a struggle? This is the reality. Fight more actively for yourself, and not only spiritually, but also physically.
We live now in such a historical moment when two matters - living and dead - are fighting with each other, and each wants to win back space for itself on earth, in space, or more. We are between them. But we also have considerable grace in ourselves to resist. This strength is our health, will, immunity, instincts.
“In me, I think, there is a weakness of instinct: to grab, tear with teeth, push with elbows. And the immune system is depleted from old age.
“No,” says the psychiatrist. - This is wrong. Not from old age. You are relaxed from... - I thought - from lack of will. Sometimes you need to force yourself to do something. After all, habits form character. You need to develop them within yourself. What is your daily routine? What we are taught from childhood? It must be clear and maintained constantly. Good habits are...
- Sorry, but my weakening of the Spirit did not arise on its own - it was aggravated by those around me, by the hopelessness of real life. Everything positive heals, even faith in something. But what can you believe in today? It’s impossible even for your own children; their tomorrow is also gloomy.
You say to fight, but even this requires desire. And there is no longer anything at all.
- Yes, apathy is a painful thing. This is already a diagnosis.
“I thought you would advise in a biblical way: patience, my friend, that’s all that remains.”
- Patience is not unlimited, at some point it fails...
— I’ll continue my thought about the devilish beginning of moving forward: now it’s clear to me why some poets praised and thanked their enemies. They awakened desires in them - to argue, fight, compete, hate, etc. This is still something in comparison with nothing... (Not completed) 1998 Valentina Lefterova
Why does a psychiatrist always ask people very strange questions?
Our psyche is a very subtle area, which sometimes even the most highly qualified specialists, psychologists and psychiatrists, cannot understand. Therefore, when visiting doctors of a similar profile, many completely normal clients have the idea that they are perceived as mentally ill people. How else, in their opinion, can they explain why the psychiatrist always asks very strange questions.
Most mentally healthy citizens encounter visits to this doctor exclusively as part of medical examinations at school, university, when applying for a job or studying at a driving school. Therefore, almost no one has the skills to communicate with such specialists. Moreover, unlike the West, where a psychologist is almost the house doctor of the whole family, in our country not many will be able to correctly define the differences between the two professions - psychologist and psychiatrist. After this, it is not surprising that for many, communicating with doctors in these fields of medicine brings real stress. In particular, the psychiatrist’s questions during the medical examination are perplexing.
In fact, of course, both of these specialists study the human soul, his psyche. But if a psychologist deals with the clinical manifestations of dysfunctions of the nervous system and problems of an intrapersonal nature, then the sphere of interest of psychiatry lies in identifying pathologies of the nervous system, psyche, significant deviations from the norm and diseases that are hereditary in nature and can be a threat to society.
At the same time, when a normal person hears the questions of a psychiatrist at the commission, he perfectly understands their absurdity and is rather perplexed when giving his answer. And the secret is simple - it is non-standard questions that help a specialist identify people with obvious mental disorders. At first glance, such people can easily get lost among completely healthy compatriots, since they do not behave quite adequately at the peak of an exacerbation. That's why a psychiatrist always asks very strange questions - he identifies markers of mental disorders in a person.
For example, if you ask a healthy person what the difference is between a raven and a desk, he will most likely shrug his shoulders and explain. Those especially educated will remember Lewis Carroll, where this comparison comes from. But a mentally ill person will not be able to build logical associations with the book from which the quote is taken; he will also not be able to reasonably explain what is the difference between these subjects from a logical point of view. So the most important reason why a psychiatrist always asks very strange questions is to identify illogical and absurd answers that will indicate that the person should be examined in more detail.
Now that you know about the little secret of psychiatry, you will not be so uncomfortable in the office of doctors of this specialty. After all, the answer to the question of why a psychiatrist always asks very strange questions is simple and clear. The main thing is that they remain as such for you, and you can give a simple and logical answer to them. Otherwise, you will have to undergo additional examinations to prove your own normality and absence of mental illness.
