Sathius005
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- Joined
- Jan 13, 2007
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- HSC
- 2008
- Uni Grad
- 2018
Managing Mental Illness: A Health conservative (patient) inside story
Welcome to Psychiatry
A psychiatrist is someone trained in medicine to control mental health disorders e.g. Major Depression, Bipolar disorder and Schizophrenia. To be a Psychiatric Patient in the twenty first century you must get inside the shoes of the psychiatrist. What is mental illness? Mental illness is a state of being characterised by:
- Delusions (false beliefs)
- Hallucinations (seeing things that aren’t there)
-thought disorder (unable to talk clearly and think in a logical way)
-severe disturbance in mood (depressed or over exuberant)
-severe disturbance in behaviour (agitated or un-conservative and illogical actions)
What causes mental illness? The main reason is a chemical imbalance in the brain i.e. too much dopamine. Too much dopamine is produced in situations of being ‘under the gun’ and an extreme lack of sleep. The main way to correct this situation is to take medication as a risk management exercise, have at least six hours of sleep every night and change your lifestyle. If you aim to do too much you end up doing too little. One key factor that helps when dealing with mental illness is to be a health conservative. To be a health conservative you must tackle life with assurance, risk mitigation and a sense of reality. Don’t set too high goals like being the ‘greatest that ever lived in XYZ profession.’ If you are under the gun and really feeling the pressure learn to compromise and learn to live on your terms. The long term impact of being under an unhealthy level of stress i.e. under the gun is:
- negative moods e.g. always tense and unhappy
- substance abuse
- decreased work performance and poor relationships
- low self esteem
Healthy ways of dealing with stress:
-sleep
- Healthy eating
- chat with a friend or keep a journal
- read autobiographies or biographies about successful people to gain further insight and a fresh perspective into life.
- Relaxation techniques e.g. slow breathing
- have a shower
- Use positive self talk
-Know your limits
-compromise
- adjust your standards (don’t aim too high)
- look at the big picture
- learn to forgive (we live in an imperfect world where everyone makes mistakes)
- learn from your mistakes
Treatment of Mental Illness is done via medication and psychiatric reviews. The best practise formula for those who have suffered from a mental health disorder episode is to accept long term psychiatric treatment to reduce the chance of relapse. However, some patients do not accept treatment and get put under a Community Treatment Order (CTO) under the Mental Health Act jurisdiction via mental health tribunals. A CTO may be made if a person has “a previous history of mental illness and has a previous history of refusing to accept treatment” (Mental Health Act 2007 NSW).
A CTO may be made for inpatients (patients inside a psychiatric hospital) and outpatients (patients in the community). A CTO is made under the least restrictive care.
What happens after I arrive at a psychiatric hospital?
- Seen by a registrar psychiatrist or consultant psychiatrist within 12 hours
- The hospital cannot keep me unless one other psychiatrist finds that I am mentally ill
- Within two weeks a mental health inquiry will be held to determine the least restrictive care and if I am a mentally ill person at risk to self or others.
Preparing for the Psychiatric Reviews
The key questions that psychiatrists ask are:
- How are you?
- What are you doing in your spare time?
- What are your future plans?
- Any problems?
- What kind of person are you?
The best way to manage psychiatric review is to be ultra conservative and be guarded at all times. The job of a psychiatrist is to make the mentally ill person talk about their feelings, attitudes, beliefs and preferences. There is a saying in psychiatry “you give them enough freedom of speech and then the patient gets themselves into trouble.” When you talk too much during a psychiatric review or have an uncontrollable sense of humour the psychiatrist increases the medication dosage with the reasoning that the patient is being manic. The key to managing the psychiatrist is too adopting a small target strategy. Roll yourself into a tiny ball and refuse to debate with the psychiatrist. When the psychiatrist asks you to describe your previous symptoms the best response is “I don’t recall.” The psychiatrist is trying to make you say that you still have some of the previous symptoms and as a result increase your medication. What the psychiatrist asks you a tricky question like “What is the greatest thing in life?” The best response is “I have given the response that you deserve”. The purpose of this question is to make the patient talk too much and as a result increase their medication.
When proceeding with a psychiatric review the thing to remember is that the psychiatrist is always looking for every opportunity to hospitalise you the patient. No matter how nice a psychiatrist may seem they are always best to presumed that they will hospitalise you if they catch you unprepared for the psychiatric review, being too manic and being too depressed. Always treat the psychiatric review like an exam; there are always correct answers and incorrect answers.
The best response to “how are you?” is “I am good thank you.” Don’t say “I am very good, thank you” as the psychiatrist will presume you are being manic.
The best response to “what are you doing in your spare time?” is “I am going to the Library and reading books”. The best response to “what books are you reading?” is “you are not going to get more out of me.”
The best response to “what are your future plans?” is “I wish to return to my studies
Welcome to Psychiatry
A psychiatrist is someone trained in medicine to control mental health disorders e.g. Major Depression, Bipolar disorder and Schizophrenia. To be a Psychiatric Patient in the twenty first century you must get inside the shoes of the psychiatrist. What is mental illness? Mental illness is a state of being characterised by:
- Delusions (false beliefs)
- Hallucinations (seeing things that aren’t there)
-thought disorder (unable to talk clearly and think in a logical way)
-severe disturbance in mood (depressed or over exuberant)
-severe disturbance in behaviour (agitated or un-conservative and illogical actions)
What causes mental illness? The main reason is a chemical imbalance in the brain i.e. too much dopamine. Too much dopamine is produced in situations of being ‘under the gun’ and an extreme lack of sleep. The main way to correct this situation is to take medication as a risk management exercise, have at least six hours of sleep every night and change your lifestyle. If you aim to do too much you end up doing too little. One key factor that helps when dealing with mental illness is to be a health conservative. To be a health conservative you must tackle life with assurance, risk mitigation and a sense of reality. Don’t set too high goals like being the ‘greatest that ever lived in XYZ profession.’ If you are under the gun and really feeling the pressure learn to compromise and learn to live on your terms. The long term impact of being under an unhealthy level of stress i.e. under the gun is:
- negative moods e.g. always tense and unhappy
- substance abuse
- decreased work performance and poor relationships
- low self esteem
Healthy ways of dealing with stress:
-sleep
- Healthy eating
- chat with a friend or keep a journal
- read autobiographies or biographies about successful people to gain further insight and a fresh perspective into life.
- Relaxation techniques e.g. slow breathing
- have a shower
- Use positive self talk
-Know your limits
-compromise
- adjust your standards (don’t aim too high)
- look at the big picture
- learn to forgive (we live in an imperfect world where everyone makes mistakes)
- learn from your mistakes
Treatment of Mental Illness is done via medication and psychiatric reviews. The best practise formula for those who have suffered from a mental health disorder episode is to accept long term psychiatric treatment to reduce the chance of relapse. However, some patients do not accept treatment and get put under a Community Treatment Order (CTO) under the Mental Health Act jurisdiction via mental health tribunals. A CTO may be made if a person has “a previous history of mental illness and has a previous history of refusing to accept treatment” (Mental Health Act 2007 NSW).
A CTO may be made for inpatients (patients inside a psychiatric hospital) and outpatients (patients in the community). A CTO is made under the least restrictive care.
What happens after I arrive at a psychiatric hospital?
- Seen by a registrar psychiatrist or consultant psychiatrist within 12 hours
- The hospital cannot keep me unless one other psychiatrist finds that I am mentally ill
- Within two weeks a mental health inquiry will be held to determine the least restrictive care and if I am a mentally ill person at risk to self or others.
Preparing for the Psychiatric Reviews
The key questions that psychiatrists ask are:
- How are you?
- What are you doing in your spare time?
- What are your future plans?
- Any problems?
- What kind of person are you?
The best way to manage psychiatric review is to be ultra conservative and be guarded at all times. The job of a psychiatrist is to make the mentally ill person talk about their feelings, attitudes, beliefs and preferences. There is a saying in psychiatry “you give them enough freedom of speech and then the patient gets themselves into trouble.” When you talk too much during a psychiatric review or have an uncontrollable sense of humour the psychiatrist increases the medication dosage with the reasoning that the patient is being manic. The key to managing the psychiatrist is too adopting a small target strategy. Roll yourself into a tiny ball and refuse to debate with the psychiatrist. When the psychiatrist asks you to describe your previous symptoms the best response is “I don’t recall.” The psychiatrist is trying to make you say that you still have some of the previous symptoms and as a result increase your medication. What the psychiatrist asks you a tricky question like “What is the greatest thing in life?” The best response is “I have given the response that you deserve”. The purpose of this question is to make the patient talk too much and as a result increase their medication.
When proceeding with a psychiatric review the thing to remember is that the psychiatrist is always looking for every opportunity to hospitalise you the patient. No matter how nice a psychiatrist may seem they are always best to presumed that they will hospitalise you if they catch you unprepared for the psychiatric review, being too manic and being too depressed. Always treat the psychiatric review like an exam; there are always correct answers and incorrect answers.
The best response to “how are you?” is “I am good thank you.” Don’t say “I am very good, thank you” as the psychiatrist will presume you are being manic.
The best response to “what are you doing in your spare time?” is “I am going to the Library and reading books”. The best response to “what books are you reading?” is “you are not going to get more out of me.”
The best response to “what are your future plans?” is “I wish to return to my studies