Posted by Christ_empowered on April 11, 2016, at 18:35:18
In reply to Re: Mad in America, posted by Hello321 on April 11, 2016, at 10:29:58
here's been my experience...
I started w/ a university shrink (free for students). I was not considered "college material" in my late teens (my family was working class, intellectual bohemian until HS, so I apparently had "working class loser" written all over me), so I was given relatively high dose Klonopin, as an emotionally trouble teenager. I was given all kinds of meds, actually...I even developed mild-to-moderate facial TD, plus some stiff gait...nobody cared.
Later, I was given high dose (60mgs/day) Adderall. My private practice shrink would hand me a couple prescriptions at a time, post-dated, and get me out of her office. I was then hospitalized at a private, for profit place...they doped me to the gills and decided to "punish" me for having all those wonderful, controlled-substance prescriptions...which I only had because docs did not care what happened to me.
Then, I ended up in a somewhat prestigious hospital affiliated w/ a medical school. Involuntary shock the very night I was admitted. I was started on depakote+haldol, but then my parents (now uber-respectable, white collar middle class) came down to collect me, so it was risperidone and depakote.
Now, my people take care of me. I'm officially diagnosed as Bipolar I of some persuasion by a community health clinic. My people are on the more "genteel" end of the middle class (I guess...social class structure in America is kinda hard to pin down sometimes), and they do take good care of me (LOL). My former "treatment providers" have problems with me...apparently, they now consider me "Schizophrenic," because I started as a working class loser.
--sigh-- My personal experiences have led me to believe that social class--which is a mix of prestige and $$$--has a huge impact on quality of care. When I was in the 1st hospital, the counselor who was so cruel to me would fawn over one woman, who was "Schizophrenic," but came from an established, wealthy family and was married to a rich dude. The minorities on my ward were disregarded...she'd now and then drop hints that they might end up in the state hospital if they didn't improve within 30 days.
The community mental health clinic schedules me for 30 minute session w/ the shrink every 12 weeks. For a while there, I was getting 30 minute sessions w/ my former doc (she moved) every 4 weeks, plus counseling every 2 weeks. Probably common w/ private practice, not so common in public health (at least not here).
Am I "special" ? No. I'm white, male, more functional, and my people are solidly behind me, and they're established, white collar, well educated professionals who have recently entered the more "comfortable" class. Hence, I am "Bipolar I," not schizo-something. I get to have input into what I take (or don't take). I even get low dose, PRN neurontin (not a big deal in private practice, but apparently not often Rx'd here).
So...there you have it. Am I "really" Bipolar I? I mean, on my lil cocktail, I am lucid, have social skills, still have mood swings, and I have gone back to school and resumed writing in my spare time. Bipolar I? Maybe. If I were a poor minority w/ these symptoms, I'd be getting injected with some kinda neuroleptic, possibly by court order.
I don't know what to make of it. I do receive quality care, this place is based on the "recovery model," so its not the 50s, but...$$$ and status play a role in treatment.
Sorry to ramble. Just trying to make a point.
poster:Christ_empowered
thread:1088004
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20160331/msgs/1088088.html