self-appointed psychiatrists...

[vibrant]

my mom and step-father haven't taken to dearly to the diagnosis or the meds, and now they want to take my care into their hands. seriously. they don't trust the medical field when it doesn't agree with them. my step-father is reading up about lithium and doesn't like what he reads, and wants to wean me off of it by the time i go back to school in the fall. it's like they now self-appointed psychiatrists, who can decide what's good and bad.

my mom asked me to ask my psychiatrist how to wean off lithium, and has been asking me to ask for every single appointment... i don't even bother wasting a breathe because he's not going to tell me. and it's not like he's just any doctor... his business card is full of the titles of offices he holds among a handful of hospitals. that doc actually wants me to take more meds, because i'm actually below the minimum dosage.

i'm like being pull back and forth, and right now i'm really weak from getting over the flu so i'm taking a time out. i sure this would be a lot clearer if i have had a long history of the bipolar disorder. but i don't. just one episode because of a lot of stress and isolation. one episode and i'm thrust into this world. so on one hand, it may never happen again, which is where my parents stand, or it may happen again, where my doc is.

 

[Mr.Cheese]

If the medicine is working for you then I don't know what their problem is.
They're playing with something that affects you profoundly.
The medical field isn't all bad.
Luke , a physician, wrote better than 25 percent of the New Testament. I figure God doesn't mind doctors so much. So maybe your parents should relax a bit.

 

[Jeshu]

It seems to me that it is not the Medication that are at stake, but you and your ability to make choices that affect you. If your parents want to take you off the meds but don't take wat you want and feel into account than this is the real issue as far as I'm concerned.
If you feel, that your pdoc is right in putting you on more meds, then take more, if you feel stable enough go with a bit less take less. I wouldn't let your parents interfere with your mental health too much, if I was you, it something you need to discuss and work out with your doctor.

God bless you with this.

 

[Lenora56]

Maybe I"m misunderstanding you, but did you say that you have not mentioned to your psychiatrist that your parents want to wean you from the medicine? Perhaps you should mention that to him, because your parents have a definite effect on you. I don't mean that you should ask him to wean you off it, just that it might be helpful if he knew what was going on at the house.

 

[LostnFound]

I agree, with everyone. Are your parents aware that bipolar is progressive, and that can be hastened by messing around with your meds too much? This is something you are going to have to be firm about. You are an adult! If your Pdoc doesn't think you have reached a therapeudic dose, then you really need to give his expertice some attention! You'd be amazed at the result, if he's right! I speak from second-hand experience. My Mother bopped along at too low a dose of her meds for over a year, because she didn't like the idea of taking meds. After a particularly greuling depression, she finally agreed to up her dose, and she was amazed that she could actually be functional!!