Return to Psychiatry?

I just got back from meeting with an advanced practice nurse (APN) for a psychiatric evaluation. I like her a lot: she was down to earth and personable. I felt like I could relate to her and trust her. She made a real effort to listen to me and ensure that her understanding of my history and current situation was accurate. She took the issues I’ve had with medications in the past seriously.

She screened me for bipolar and OCD, but hasn’t made an official diagnosis. First she wants to see the results of the blood work I had done when I went to see my primary care provider a few months ago. She also gave me a prescription to get a sleep study done to see if my problem might actually be sleep apnea or another sleep disorder. It could be that chronic lack of restful sleep has been keeping my brain from functioning properly and causing (or at least contributing to) my depression and anxiety symptoms.

Finally, she sent me home with a self-report measure to fill in over the 4 weeks between now and my next appointment. Every day I get to rate symptoms such as depressed mood, mood swings, irritability, food cravings, anxiety, sleep issues, difficulty doing things, and physical symptoms. There are spaces to mark day of the week and whether I have my period. As I complete it, I’ll be making a graph; it’s pretty neat.

Perhaps best of all, she agreed to talk with Wakana to coordinate my care. I guess time will tell how well they can work together to help me.

To be honest, I have mixed feelings about the situation. There’s a part of me that’s disappointed because I don’t have medication to take and either (preferably) gain relief from or complain about. It’s basically more of the status quo, at least until the data from the sleep study has been analyzed.

The rest of me likes that the APN is proceeding cautiously and trying to gather as much information as she can before prescribing drugs that may do more harm than good. She seems to be thinking about what is best for me as a whole person, not what will be the most convenient. It may take longer than I’d like before I have a treatment plan that’s truly effective, but hopefully I won’t have any more false starts and stops with medication. I may have found a keeper.

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