Jimmy, I love you to death but I could not disagree with you more with your statement that everyone should go and see their shrink once a year.
It's no secret that medical folks and psych folks often do not see eye to eye. They think we are pill pushers, and we think they think everyone is bat shit crazy and needs to have a dx supporting that. I went to one a few years back for an over all psych eval. I had been through quite a bit at that time and I talked to the woman for almost 3 hours. A week later when I got my report she had diagnosed me with 3 different psych diagnoses.
I had the two biggies that I consider "umbrella dx's" which they slap on every single person that goes to see a shrink which were anxiety and depression, and of all things, alcoholism in remission. Now you know the saying, lawyers who represent themselves have a fool as a client, well medical professionals are sort of the same way. We should never diagnose ourselves because we either under diagnose or over diagnose. I was no exception, however, this woman was way off base.
Yes I will admit that I probably was having a small amount of both anxiety and depression, but so would have anyone else going through the same things I was going through at that time. But, I felt I was handling it pretty well all things considered. Everyone has periods when anxiety and depression happens, but that doesn't mean they need a formal diagnosis. It's normal, and that also doesn't mean you need to be on medications for either of them either.
Now for the third diagnosis, the alcoholism in remission. I told her that I had a half of a beer when I was 20 on a hot summer day after I mowed the lawn, I hated it and tossed the other half can. Then on my 21st birthday I had 3 drinks and then I had not had a drop of alcohol since, which at that time was the truth. I hate drinking, the taste and the way it makes me feel, I just can't stand it. So I drank twice, never got drunk, didn't black out, didn't have a hang over. It was when I was 21 and at the time of that meeting I was 43. Not a drop in over 20 years. Her dx was absolutely not founded nor was it even close to being medically accurate. Needless to say I had a fit! If a nurse gets a diagnosis of any sort of alcoholism and it gets on her record and the board finds out about it they can and often do mandate you to drug testing and AA meetings for the rest of your career. I was not going to stand for that.
With all this being said, she asked me for my medication list and history. Well that was a total of my synthroid, birth control pills, and Ambien because I have sever insomnia. Insomnia is both a psych and a medical diagnosis. She never even mentioned anyplace in that report that I had insomnia and was taking Ambien for it. Which would have been the accurate and true qualifying diagnosis if that's what they needed so that the insurance company would have paid the claim had I filed it with my insurance. She totally missed it.
Also, because the diagnosis' of anxiety and depression were written as "true" diagnosis'" and not "rule out" I would have thought treatment and or medications would have been prescribed. At least she should have written for further sessions. Given this information she knew the diagnosis' were bogas. I mentioned to Mary later on that with those diagnosis' had I walked out of that building and walked in front of a bus to commit suicide that would make them liable. If the diagnosis' were accurate then it was their place to put a treatment plan in place to prevent such events from happening. Just sayin..
So, I went back in and demanded a meeting with the head of the facility. She stood there in the lobby and talked to me. She was lucky there wasn't anyone else in ear shot because I could have sited her on HIPAA, and technically I still can. I told her my story and how and why my diagnosis' were wrong. Doc had even sent them a letter with my medical history and also sited their own DSM4/5 guidelines for those diagnosis' and how much I didn't fit them and how and why they were medically inappropriate, especially the alcoholism diagnosis. So, Mary (real name here) stood there and looked me in the face and said, "well we have to have some sort of psych diagnosis or we can't bill the insurance and get paid". Hello, insurance fraud!!!!! I also reminded her that I paid with cash. She didn't know what to say to that.
I just got another bill from them for the other half of that evaluation. It's only 65 dollars but I will not pay it. As a matter of fact, after the holidays I will march my tush in there and tell the director she had better make that bill go away because my statute of limitations for a sever misdiagnosis isn't over for another 5 years and it will probably be a lot cheaper for them to just make that bill go away nice and quietly.
So that is why I would never suggest that anyone go see a shrink unless they really have a very obvious and or debilitating psych condition that they need help with so that they can live a somewhat normal existence.
That's just my two cents worth on this topic lol.
Mashie