Should I tell my medical doc?

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Yeah. That's my problem. I'm 52. To enter school now for a PHD (no point in trying for less) would make me close to 60 if I strayed outside of computer science. A medical degree? I don't think I could handle the pressure of med school.

I assumed your psychologist, or whatever, would have wrote your Dr. and put something in the records. Although, I think you would have to sign some sort of legal paper for him to do so.
It says something in my records but I went to a guy my dr sent me to.
There's also meds if you have also have bad anxiety or something. SSRI's and that stuff have never really worked me though. I get some other sometimes for anxiety.
Actually, as I think about it, I would have liked this info in my records a few years when I had to go to two hospitals for a serious sinus infection and was treated like a drug addict. At the time I didn't know I could have told them to call my dr, he told me to have them call him next time. But maybe info would be helpful, I'm not sure. I know I learned I tell them the right numbers on their 1 to 10 pain scale they had asked me ot give. I figured a 10 was being stabbed multiple times in the stomach. I was pain, I got a huge black eye.

Why? I didn't require a referral from my primary care physician. My insurance company will end up with it on file. But they won't forward that to my primary.



I suppose if meds have adverse effects on autistics it might be good for my primary to know. But it appears atypical responses to meds are very individual and my primary care would have little experience with that.



I could see this could be an issue. I don't generally appear zoned out. I'm more of the absent minded professor type.

I told my doc, I just said "in case you need to know..." kinda thing.

I don't know. I was only saying from experience with the mental health people, etc, I've had in the past. I don't know anything about how the system works and I'm not a professional. Like if your psychologist or therapist communicate to your doctor about you. That sort of thing. I've had to sign a piece of paper before. I don't know the laws or anything about insurance.

I don't even know why I said that now. I just thought you might want the two to communicate together. It might not even be needed. So maybe ignore what I said.

OK. I see what you mean. Makes some sense. Thanks for commenting.

I don't think it is necessary, but I don't see any reason not to tell him. He's a doctor, after all.

I see reasons why it would be useful for a Doctor to know this information and zero reason why it would be harmful. I would tell.

BTW: Another reason why it may be useful (for me) is to work with a physical therapist on reaction and propeoception skills training. (both are issues with Aspies)

I'm sorry this happened to you. Institutions can be pretty lousy places. And your doctor is right on the mark. In such a case, you need someone on the outside advocating on your behalf.

Now, if you struggle with depression, as I understand it and I certainly am not a doctor, SSRI's are merely one class of medication, and people's biochems are way different. What might work great for depression for one person, might not work at all for another. The important thing is to keep tinkering. Plus, diet helps some people, great for some, not at all for others. So there might well be several dozen good approaches to depression.

Now, your doctor sounds like a pretty good guy or gal willing to help with the hospital. Doesn't necessarily mean he or she has the patience to keep tinkering with medication/diet/cognitive behavior therapy/social skills/and just plain good luck! But hopefully, he or she does.

I might well go on a riff in another post regarding psychologists and psychiatrists, basically that they are "be righters," basically that they are pontificators from the sidelines, and even worse listeners than most doctors! they are so into hearing themselves talk

And an internist or family practitioner can just as well prescribe an anti-depressant as an psychiatrist.

(and cognitive behavior therapy seems mainly to be realistic positive thinking and keeping track of what works and rolling with what works, and also skills of self talk in which you are a good coach to yourself. A person could just as well get it from a book, and in fact, a half-assed approach to the whole thing might be better than a dogmatic approach!)

NOTE: I think in some cases a person, even if an anti-depressant's not really working for them, if you stop taking the medication, your neurotransmitter can drop even lower and find yourself somewhat more depressed, as if your body has adjusted and stopped making so much. So the standard advice is to wean off it in phases. I've also read that when a person stops taking it, sometimes the medication is still working for a while, but the side effects are much less, so the person feels great for a while. Now, this one seems like you could play to your advantage. As always, it sure helps to have a doctor you can halfway talk with. And it also occurs to me, if a medication has real side effect issues, you can make the decision on your own to go down half way, make an appointment, and just say to the doctor, 'I went down halfway. It's not working for me. Can we try something else,' and in that way assert yourself as a patient. Okay, and hopefully you're have a doctor, who perhaps not thrilled by it, says 'Okay' and goes from there. And you definitely need a doctor with some patience willing to tinker with medication (as well as diet/positve mental framework and self-talk/light-touching new social skills and events/and again plain old good luck!) And good luck with all of this!


DISCLAIMER: NOT A DOCTOR.

Last edited by AardvarkGoodSwimmer on 12 Jan 2011, 5:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I'd tell him.

I have quite a few odd or rare problems in varying medical specialities, and my experience has been that the more complete my medical records are, the better off I am. (I carry around a list of my diagnoses along with whatever treatment's been tried.)