Waves,

I didn't mean to give you decision work. I was trying to put the pdoc's skills/ non skills into a priority.

My summary is that you find the
supportive / sounding board / availability more important than the other things like prescribing skills and CBT-type skills.

Somehow I had not pictured a big main state psych clinic that requires travel. People on medicare here (our version of state care) usually go to local clinics. They often have a degree of choice of pdocs but not always. Partly that is because the clinics might be in small towns that have shortages of pdocs.

I hear you. You are not expecting any progress from the two of you together. I haven't trained my current pdoc, but we do fine. I feel that he is comfortable with me / trusts me . . . We are used to each other. We've probably been together about eight years now. I hope he keeps working. He's not a youngster.


Bizi and Waves,

I looked up Jamison. She was diagnosed after she graduated and was teaching.

http://www.bphope.com/Item.aspx?id=482

M

Waves,

This post confirms your decision to consider changing career paths.


You can move on now to something more suitable, maybe even fulfilling.

M

can't believe that was 1974....wow

Bizi,

Wikipedia says that Jamison was born in 1946. She was 28 years old in 1974 and 65 now.

M

Dear Mari

i see that my post was confusing in some areas. i apologize!

at the moment. because i feel like doodoo. long term i want someone who can help me learn how to mitigate and even prevent these states. i have done some work on my own but some pro input couldn't possibly hurt. to this end i need a tdoc with different orientation i think. CBT is very thinky therapy and i am not particularly looking for that either at this point. i am thinky enough as it is and if you yank on my thoughts... it can be the never ending story. i want someone like the T i had in California who worked with feelings through various channels, without trying to "translate" everything into a thought process. don't know what you've got till it's gone.

i apologize. my post was entirely misleading in this regard because i said the state clinic was "far away" - it is less far away than pdoc actually. also there is not just one for the entire state... it is the one considered "local" for my area, even though it is in a nearby town. technically you can go to any one, even non-local but i don't know if you get to choose a doc any more (used to), or whether, after the first visit, they keep you with the same psychiatrist and psychologist (i believe you necessarily see both).

my mention of seeing my currrent pdoc at a state-conventioned private clinic (distinct from a state clinic, but offering state-covered pdoc services) may also have been confusing. i lived in another town. that is how i met my pdoc. that is too far away and i now see him at his private practice as a TDOC.

thank you for listening and trying to help me sort through things.

~ waves ~

i was diagnosed long after college, and about 10 years into my "career."

prior to that, i knew what bipolar was only vaguely. i never related it to myself until i read several descriptions of episodes in jamison's books and had close-to-flashbacks of things that had happened to me. then i remembered the earlier and even weirder stuff and thought, uh-oh.

thank you both for your continued support. (((hugs)))

~ waves ~

well, to get back on topic, fwiw.

the dancing isn't going to work.

i'm not doing it.

it's that simple.

((((((((((((((((((((((((((((HUGS)))))))))))))))))) ))))))))))))))
bizi

thanks Bizi.

i needed that especially tonight.

((((((((((((((((((((((((((((BACKATCHA))))))))))))) ))))))))))))))))

waves

Waves,

Hugs.

We're here.

M