having a hard day :-( has anyones NOCD therapist helped them get in touch with a psychiatrist or is that something I need to do on my own?

Don’t feel bad about having a mental block with this, it’s a really hard thing to do! Finding good mental health treatment is really hard, you sometimes get exposed to clinicians that actually make things worse for you and you feel like you might as well have not asked for help in the first place. I encourage you to research practices online on websites like the one I mentioned and find somewhere you can book an appointment online or something. Don’t be afraid to ghost the provider or tell them you don’t think it’s a good fit if it doesn’t feel right. You can do this and you deserve to have a doctor helping you out ❤️

@booba I ghosted my last one. She was like a pill machine. Didn’t even acknowledge my OCD. I never felt heard. I didn’t feel like she actually knew my experience and what o needed. So I went off meds. Bad idea, but I didn’t t think they were helping at the time. I have been on over 10 trying to find the right ones. So I guess a part of me also feels like I won’t find it if I try again

@run99 Ugh I’m so sorry! I’ve been there 😕 honestly it sounds like you might need to find someone to see as a regular therapist and just go to a psychiatrist when you have a psych issue that needs meds. Psychiatrists can be nice sometimes but a lot of the time they don’t want to listen to your backstory and only want information that pertains to what affects your meds. My therapist knows literally everything about me and my life. She knows all of my fam and pets and old friends by name and enough about my history to point things out to me that might be related to childhood trauma. It sounds like that’s what you need, a really really good therapist who specializes in OCD and anxiety disorders who you trust. It’s really helpful when your psychiatrist knows you really well but it isn’t necessarily super important. I would say you should maybe focus on therapy and ask your therapist if they think that medication might be necessary, and if so, what medications have worked for their other clients? My therapist is a social worker so she is very careful not to give me med advice, but she can give me information she has heard from her clients and let me use that to inform my decision. When I established care with a psychiatrist, I just called and said I needed and appointment to manage my psych meds and signed papers to allow my therapist to talk about my conditions and treatment with them. Then when I met the doctor I could just say “I am doing emdr and dbt with __ and I need to manage my antidepressant meds and possibly start some meds for nightmares because I am struggling with them.”

@booba Definitely true. And thankfully I have been in therapy the whole time. I am a counseling student so I know it’s Not the psychs job to counsel. I just wish they offered a little more time to understand what’s going on if that makes sense

I’ve been trying to get into an ocd residential place I live in Tennessee and have medicade and there’s no ocd inpatient place in Tennessee I have already been refered to a place in Chicago that treats ocd but they wouldn’t take me cause of my insurance so I no I need residential I just can’t find anywere that’ll take my insurance cause I can’t use medicade out of my state so I tried finding a therapist to do online exposure and response and a doctor to see online that’ll prescribe me meds but noone in Tennessee takes medicade I’m almost non functioning and need to get into somewere there’s a place called parkridge valley in Chattanooga Tennessee they have ocd listed on there things they treat and that’s were I went and they discharged me in 3 days wit a referral to Chicago telling me they didn’t have the resources to help me there they can only medicate and stabilize you they don’t actually treat ocd but I mite just have to go back there to get away from my apartment.

@Rainbow sky!! Oh darling I am so sorry, I’ve been through the same bullshit before and I know how hard it is and how frustrated you must be right now. I’m on Medicaid as well, and I was actually assigned a Medicaid caseworker to help me locate services in the network. I’m going to look up the services in tennesse really quick and I’ll comment them. In the mean time, definitely go the hospital if you want or need to. Your safety is the most important thing. I’m proud of you for going in the first place, don’t stop reaching out for help. Let me do some research real quick and I’ll get back to you

@Rainbow sky!! Okay, so there is a program called the Tenncare Advocacy Program that I think could help you. Their website is tenncareadvocacy.com and I think you should try calling them at 1-800-758-1638. They can help you access services on the Medicaid network. If you need help knowing what to ask for, I would say something like “I am having trouble finding a place that provides the intensive, preferably inpatient, treatment I need for my OCD that is available on the Medicaid network. Is there anything you can do to help me find a provider?” Good luck ❤️

@booba I’ve been dealing wit this for 15 years I went to valley when I was younger I was takeing showers for 2 hours cause I had rituals to do I had alot of other ocd to but the main 1 ppl could see was the showering for 2 hours so when I got to the hospital they made me sit in the hallway for 2 weeks and told me if I didn’t take a shower since it had been so many days that they’d have someone make me get in the shower I told them I took 2 hour showers they told me I couldn’t do that they thought I wanted to take a shower for 2 hours they didn’t no it was the rituals they new I was there for ocd but they didn’t no anyway to treat it until 1 day someone asked if they knocked on the door ever few minutes to let me no the amount of time I was I there so I’d no to hurry if thatd help so we did that and everyday I got down a few minutes till I was showering a normal amount of time but they didn’t help wit my other ocd things and I didn’t no wat was rong wit me either so I thought I was better meanwhile I’m still counting I’m still doing rituals I still had ocd but I was scared to tell anyone cause I was punished for those 2 weeks I was on an antidepressant and thought I was better cause I felt better but I still had debilitating ocd and I’d slowly get worse and worse everytime I tried getting help it’s cause noone was treating my ocd and helping me get threw my rituals and I thought that I’d always be like this until I found out bout exposure and response and that ocd needs help by treating each ocd habit and that so many ppl have gotten help and took medicine to thinking they were getting help when really they weren’t I no this is long but I gotta get it out.

@Rainbow sky!! Oh my god, you poor thing, that sounds absolutely terrible to deal with. I have a lot of trouble with showering as well, I have childhood trauma that makes me feel scared in the shower and I get stuck in there doing cleaning rituals a lot. I can’t imagine how hard it is to have to take a 2 hour shower to feel “right”. It sounds like your OCD is really intense and having a really negative impact on your whole life experience. You should absolutely not have to spend another second feeling like this! I’m so sorry you didn’t get the help you needed. It honestly sounds like they made things worse and probably traumatized you in the facility you were in . I am so sorry they did that to you. You are doing the right thing in asking for help and trying to get it, even when people don’t give help in return or when they make things worse. You deserve to be free of this and you can’t do it without medical treatment. I’ve found that, as an adult, medical professionals have been a lot more willing to listen to my input on my treatment and they are much more accommodating to my needs. If you are voluntarily in the hospital, you should be getting exactly the treatment you need and ask for and if a single boundary of yours is violated you should leave immediately. They work for YOU, they are getting paid for a service, and you can and should absolutely walk out if the service isn’t what you need. Don’t stop asking for help until you get the right help. I’m here if you ever need to talk. 15 years dealing with that is way too many. You are not alone and you are going to get better.

@booba I appreciate you helping me and help wit wat to ask for this has been so hard I’m hopeing I can find something soon another thing I have a hard time wit going into hospitals that don’t understand ocd is the rituals I’ve done for 15 years are so hard to do in the hospital wit a roommate I have rituals wit changeing my clothes I gotta wash my hands and lay clothes out in order turn circles and put like deodorant and other stuff on in order and do rituals wit all that and need a certain amount of clothes to take in and I no it sounds like I just need to work on them I can get threw them that’s the point of going to the hospital but this is 15 years of rituals I’ve done everday in all parts of my life and being in a hospital we’re I’m not getting help wit these spacific habits isn’t helping so it’s like counterproductive going in when I do these certain things that I’d need help just working up to actually changeing them and eventually no my haveing to do them at all but a lot of these things would be on my top hiarchy I no this is long but I just gotta get it out.

@Rainbow sky!! No worries about it being long, you are dealing with a mountain of absolute hell !! ☹️ you poor thing, no wonder you’re exhausted and so frustrated. I totally get what you mean, you need someone who can help relieve you of these rituals and compulsions at YOUR pace, and not in a way that is so stressful that you can’t do anything but feel terrible. It’s definitely not going to help you for the doctors to just take away all of your comfort rituals and tell you to cope. You need long, compassionate treatment that you have control over and that won’t push your boundaries to the point where you feel actually violated and traumatized by their exposures. My therapist has OCD herself and she has been an absolute godsend, I know that you will be able to find the right treatment if you keep trying.

@booba I appreciate your advice so much it’s been really helpful i hope to get into treatment and actually be better it’s so hard telling ppl that I’m not just uncomfortable like someone would be going into a hospital but it’s traumatizeing when you have ocd and aren’t being treated for it in the hospital your just there there’s no therapy you just sit round all day there was nothing in the hospital I went to that was helping me get threw it it just sucks.

@booba I hope I can get into a residential place and actually get help I’ve never really explained my ocd to anyone cause I was always made to feel embarrassed bout it but I’ve just been letting it all out cause I’m tired and I want ppl to no the reason I’m tired and i never new I wasn’t ever being treated for my ocd I was just given medicine noone ever helped me wit not doing rituals and other ocd stuff so I’m hopeing to get help soon.

@Rainbow sky!! Keep me updated on your search, let me know if you reach out to tenncare advocacy and if they help at all! You have nothing to be ashamed of and you deserve the right treatment to relieve you of this.