– if they do not like that you research your disorder/s and treatment/s
– if they do not explain the reason/s behind certain treatment/medication that they are prescribing you
– if they are reluctant/refuse to let you access your medical records
– if their first response to symptoms is medication without any talk therapy
– if they say they “don’t believe in therapy”
– if they say they “don’t believe in medication”
– if they insist on seeing your parent/legal guardian without you being present
– if they tell you that there are no other treatment available if you complain about your current treatment/medication not working/having unmanageable side effects
– if they diagnose you without explaining how they came to that diagnosis, what it entails, and which treatments you have at your disposal
– if they fall asleep during a session (you’re laughing but it happened, several times, and i’m not boring)
– if they assure you that you cannot have [insert disorder here] because you are too young/wealthy/poor/fat/skinny/smiling/old/whatever bs (the only valid reasons for not having a disorder is if you do not meet the minimum criteria for it, age/body/ethnicity/etc are not criteria)
– if they tell you that you obviously do not want/are not ready to get help (that’s a super abusive technique, would only see this as a valid comment to make if you are pressured into seeing them by someone who has authority over you)
– if they insist on you continuing to take a medication despite the side effects very negatively affecting you (for example: if you are recovering from an ED and you get the “gaining weight” side effect and that is very triggering to you)
– if they are flippant about/disregard your feelingsi’m probably forgetting a lot. feel free to add.
if you go in explaining that you are concerned you have certain symptoms and they try to “reassure” you that they do not think you have [some scary disorder] instead of looking at it neutrally and having an open and fair discussion about it and consider your words seriously.
if they use vague language about treatment options that they aren’t willing to elaborate on, or provide specific plans of action for. (ideally, with most conditions and illnesses, they should give you a variety of options and freedom to have input regarding your treatment options, hear out your opinions and concerns, answer questions about them etc.)
they use outdated language for your condition or are not aware of or concerned with recent laws and regulations regarding them. (for example, they use terms like “multiple personality disorder” instead of DID, etc.)
if you are trans, they consider your identity to be a delusion or other kind of symptom. (similar goes for orientation probably.)
if they consider you standing up for yourself to be irrational/acting out/being manipulative
– If they keep repeating the same question in hopes you’ll give an answer they like better.
– If they ask to meet with you alone, when your spouse is the patient, and when you ask for time to consider this they keep asking “what do you need to consider?” until you agree (actually happened, emailed the clinic as soon as we got home to cancel my appointment and ask for a different psychiatrist).
Mooncustafer 