Friday, May 07, 2010

How Long Do You See Your Psychiatrist For?

Again, just psychiatry visits, not sessions with a non-MD therapist. Thank you and I'll explain soon.


1 comment:

Sunny CA said...

When I started with my psychiatrist, he left open 2 hours and told me the session would be 90-120 minutes based on how long it needed to be. It was closer to an hour and a half I think but it may have been an hour and 45 minutes. Then he started me on twice weekly sessions. After a very short time he talked me into going off the psych meds I had been previously given and it took me about 2 months to make the decision and taper off and then a while to get off completely since I did a super slow taper down (slower than on the drug company websites). After about 20 weeks we ended therapy by mutual agreement. It wasn't going anywhere after initial reasonable success mostly because I only partially shared what was going on. Then about a year and a half later I had a major life crisis. The second time I was more revelatory, and now I have been seeing him during this rocky and changing time for about 2 years. I still struggle with (not)telling him everything. You'd think I'd be over that by now, but there are things I just can't say, even in 50 minutes. Sometimes it is partially his fault, I think, too. He does not ask probing questions often enough and I am so used to hiding emotions that without direct questioning it can be very difficult for me.