How would you explain your symptoms to a psychiatrist?

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Unortunately I am too sick and confused right now to answer this question however I ask you

Which symptoms would you like to explain?

I think you should explain what you want help with. And you could mention that you like WrongPlanet and the people who know you here are worried you don't seem yourself.

I used to understand what you wrote easily and lately, sometimes it's hard. There's your medicine, but also, it's hard to communicate for a lot of us when we get really stressed.

You may get some helpful responses to this thread you could even print out.

I hope they solve your school situation soon. It must be very hard having things so unsettled

And I don't want this to come out wrong, but how I would explain myself to a psychiatrist would depend what I thought was wrong, like if I was really tired and thought it was caused by medicine, I'd be stuck on complaining I was tired. I find people's attention span (mine included) is pretty short. If I want an answer, best to give a doctor 1-2 issues, as more than that, they pick what they think matters most and it's often not what I want them to focus on. Which gets me upset. I'm not saying lie, I hate lying, I'm saying I'd pick 1-2 things and try to stay with those.

May be easier to look at some of the Are you Autistic quizes which list all sorts of things and make a list of the ones that you relate to and which cause you the most difficulties - and make two copies, one for you, one for the psychiatrist, so you can refer to the same list together. Are you going to take a support person? If so, give them a copy too? Hope it goes well for you.

Is there a "patient advocate" system in your neck of the woods? If you don't know, you could make enquiries at a Citizens Advice Bureau. Both services are usually completely free of charge.

In your current state, you sound too vulnerable to advocate for yourself all alone with no support.

I have no symptoms, but I do have a problem. These damn people won't eat the soup I made them. I know they are dead, but do they need to be so damn ignorant? (joke)

It sounds like you are looking for an answer, where the best one to give is the one you have already stated. (Hint: how you feel). when they ask you to describe it use an association to a common situation. (IE Patient: I feel depressed. Dr: Describe that to me. Patient: it's like finding out a different family member died every day for the last two weeks, I've been crying a lot.)

If your concerned that they won't understand, put it all in writing. A daunting task I'm sure, till you realize you already have (your posts here), just need to copy and paste and print. I'd leave it raw without any editing so they can grasp the full meaning and context. Though I would only choose the ones that you express a feeling you want them to know about.

(IE feeling depressed and unmotivated = good to share; an opinion on the social inequalities as experienced by migrant farmers in Uzbekistan and the effects it has on crop production; while it would be an interesting read it would not be something you'd share with a psychologist/psychiatrist)

Maybe if you're printing, print something from several months ago, as well as recently, let them see the difference in writing like we do.

Can you do this or do you need help?

There is nothing to explain, I'll just tell the psychiatrist "You know about Asperger's syndrome? I have it" and if he's a good professional he should know about all aspects of it.

I will PM you an example of what I mean.