What to expect from seeing a psychiatrist ?

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Anyone has any experience from that as I will be visiting my psychiatrist for the 1st time soon.

Anything that I suppose to say and not to say ?

There is a saying that "to a hammer, everything looks like a nail". Whatever you say will be considered evidence of some kind of pathology in that setting. The assumption is that if you are there then you must be mentally ill, so there is such a strong bias to diagnose that open-mindedness is absent. Other kinds of therapy no doubt have biases too though not to the degree psychiatry has, nor the same potential to cause lasting harm. Don't be overly trusting of someone until you know them and remember that you can vote with your feet if it doesn't feel right for or to you.

My experience was the opposite: since I work full time and seem 'normal', then there is clearly nothing wrong with me. Even when I struggled to find reasons to stay alive a couple of years back I was clearly perfectly fine according to this guy. After all, everyone struggles with that all the time!

Psychiatrists specify in the role of Prescribing medication for mental disorders. He/she more than likely wont care if you have social problems, executive functioning problems, sensory issues and obsessions. Hell prescribe you something for Anxiety and Depression and might diagnose you with something that can be treated (Depression, Anxiety, maybe BPD but behavioural issues make them mad) . This is just based on my experiences with Psychiatrists.

My latest psychyatrist wouldn't even listen to me, he said i had Borderline, which i know i have traits of the disorder due to the fact my sister and my mother both have it but my psychologist has been working with me for about 5 years now and he says the traits are there but not enough for a diagnoses. In fact this psychiatrist said "You have borderline behaviour, your mood is on the borderline between upset and happy" like this

---------Me---------:(

So, i didn't understand a f*****g word and was just left there confused.

Then i tried to explain to him that i have trouble doing things for myself like remembering to feed myself and change my clothes ECT and he said i was lazy and spoiled and i would just freak out to get what i want and that i didn't even try to do these things. I replied with "no no, you see, i would go a full day fine, until someone asked me, "did you eat today" only to realize that i didn't" and " i dont WANT people to help me, but if i dont get peoples help i end up breaking down, kinda like i just did" and he replied with " you have a behaviour problem, theres nothing i can prescribe for that" and discharged me from the hospital.

Dont get stuck with a sh***y psychiatrist...

I've had many psychiatrists. Only liked one, as I recall. They tended to be quite arrogant. They usually just prescribe medications. They don't typically diagnose anything anymore or actually do any therapy. I saw them to be prescribed medications, and for medication check-ups.

I'm not on any psychiatric medications, so I have no need to see one.

I only see a therapist with experience in working with those who have autism.

I'd second Yigeren's opinion. Success is very dependent upon having a therapist who understands the implications of having a developmental condition.

Most psychiatrists and counsellors are predisposed to seeing all issues as being psychogenic - i.e. caused by upbringing; current environment and relationships; or neurosis (false beliefs about oneself). For the vast majority of the population, that is a reasonable, though still fallible, assumption to make. Homogeneous services are cheaper to provide, and front-line mental healthcare is often poorly funded, so I see why it happens - but it can fail really badly if the patient has a developmental condition, and this not recognised from the outset. Autistic patients may require adjustments to the standard techniques that are taught to practitioners.

Prior to my autism diagnosis, I had found talking therapy incredibly frustrating, if anything, it increased my anxiety. Any autistic traits that I talked about were attributed to psychological faults in my perception or reasoning, rather than accepted for the innate behaviours that they are.

Since diagnosis, I have been seeing therapists and psychologists who do have good autism awareness. This has improved both my experience of therapy, and I think also the outcomes, though it is a little early to tell for sure.

Caution is always wise, but try to keep an open mind until after you have seen the psychiatrist. Do not be afraid to question what he says if you think he draws conclusions too quickly, or if he attributes emotions to you which you do not truly feel. If he does know autism, he should recognise the reason why you might contradict him, and take no offence if you do this.

This first visit to the the psychiatrist is not simply about his judgement of you or your condition. Try to remember that this meeting is your opportunity to satisfy yourself that this person's judgement is credible. A good psychiatrist is a person that you can imagine being very comfortable with - enough to talk very openly about your inner state, and possibly over an extended period of time. Try to ensure that you are the one who is setting the goals - the psychiatrist should not be telling you what kind of life to aim for, only to help you in achieving what you have decided for yourself.

Thanks for the replies and detailed feedback based on your experiences.

I think after today's consultation, feeling that it was difficult to express my own feelings towards questions and nothing much came out but to continue taking prescribe medicine for depression & anxiety for 6 more weeks.

She did not think that I have ADHD according to a 15 questionnaire but its difficult for me to express my emotions toward some questions either. I did not challenge her on that as I feel it wasn't comprehensive and feel like asking her to re diagnose on that.

My family member is a psychiatrist. So I thought I could get advice.
But they did not believe me when I said I think I have Asperga
But they were really very wrong. What kind of "doctor"??
Psychiatrist seem more cold, Psychologist more warm.

How does someone do a diagnosis with a 15-question survey? That's doesn't seem comprehensive at all.

I see psychiatrists as being super-specialized, more interested in a bio-medical/chemical solution to things and not really getting into my therapy needs or how I feel beyond how it's affected by the meds. I've seen several psychiatrists, and they usually just ask how I feel, (rarely) adjust meds if necessary, and occasionally do a blood test to make sure they aren't ruining my organs. They usually seem pretty cold to me too. One psych had a single answer for every stressful situation I was in: mindful breathing. Now that I have the diagnosis, I can see how stupid her advice was: I've been bombarded by painful sensory assaults all day long, BREATHING is not going to solve it! Another psych dozed off during sessions and sometimes didn't show for appointments. The latest one declared my previous diagnoses to be wrong based on a 15 minute interview and said all my mood disorders were caused by junk food. After a while, I just see them as my (legal) pill pusher and little else. If I want therapy, I go to my LCSW.

I try to assemble a team of people to work on me:
- GP to keep track of everything and make sure the meds aren't messing with my non-psych issues (hypoactive thyroid, blood pressure)
- Psychiatrist to manage psych meds
- Licensed Clinical Social Worker to do the talking therapy
- Group therapy to practice social skills
- Would like to work occupational therapy into my schedule when i get time

About a 95% chance you will have an SSRI thrown at you and tossed out the door.

The dark history of psychiatry is historically recent. This is the science - or pseudoscience, depending on your point of view - that inflicted lobotomies, electric shock, involuntary incarceration, chemical straitjackets, negative labelling and social exclusion of minorities (especially disabled and gay minorities), "aversion therapy" (eg making gay men vomit daily for weeks on end to 'cure' them), which has blamed mothers repeatedly for "producing autistic children", which venerates forefathers like Freud (who lied about his findings), Kanner (who lied about autism, hardly alone in that) which lies about deleterious side effects and effectiveness studies regarding drugs, which makes up each version of the DSM and calls it 'science', and which misdescribes autistic people all the time, misdiagnosed them as mad for decades, incarcerated many for life, which still largely ignores the impact of rape and other vile abuse on mental health outcomes, and exercises unchallenged power of social control as a sancrosanct institution...

Admittedly, those are examples from the dark side, and it may have done you personally some good. I am relieved and glad if it did. I regard you as the exception rather than the rule. Like most pseudoscience, psychiatry lacks hard scientific evidence of achieving what it claims to achieve, and even worse (IMO) it's one of those professions that is a magnet for some very dangerous practitioners..