His mother had been seeing me and they had signed mutual releases. Mother wanted me to see him as soon as possible, because he was “nervous and unable to sit still at all.”
When he came, he denied a “nervousness” which his mother thought looked like “attention deficit disorder.”
I can’t treat what people don’t think they have.
He described problems with his girlfriend and his mother, since his mother had told him he could not go to a party in the home of his girlfriend’s family on the bad side of town, “where they would just as soon shoot you in the street as say ‘hello.'”
He sounded like he had pretty routine mother-and-girlfriend problems.
She contacted me on the weekend, worrying about him frequenting strip clubs, something I had not asked about and he had not told me about. Sometimes, she said he became so angry she physically feared him.
Their two narratives were simply inconsistent. I drew the line at her feeling scared of him physically.
I told her about “tough love,” and I told her if that happened again, to call the cops.
My husband reminded me of the ultimate authority in my profession — Hugh Laurie as “Dr. House” — who repeatedly said on television in public for all the world to hear, “Patients lie.”
Which one of them? Maybe both of them. I told her what I had told them; and would indeed, tell anybody who gave me the opportunity. I can try a session with the two of them together and help to resolve things, but I could not promise that it would resolve things. I would try. I always try as hard as I can to do the best that I can.
She said she knew this to be true.
I had told him and also told his mother on the phone, that the hardest thing a young man (or a young woman) ever had to do in his (her) life was establishing themselves as an individual distinct from parents. This usually meant a period of confusion before resolution. There may be (and there was) some confusion about vocational direction, too.
One can only press forward. The ability to communicate openly is precious, and irreplaceable.
- BE SURE TO CHECK MY FACEBOOK PERSONAL PAGE:
- https://www.facebook.com/estelle.goldstein
Filed under Alternative Medicine, depression, Diagnosis, Disease, Family, life, medicine, Mental Illness, Personality Disorders, Psychology, relationships by on Oct 11th, 2019. Comment. 
It was a particularly beloved patient who asked me if I had any advice about improving creativity. She believed, as many people do, that it is a side effect of treating (even a relatively minor form) of bipolar illness. A lot of research back in the days of lithium, one of the first really robust treatments for bipolar illness, strongly suggested it just wasn’t so. Read more on Will Bipolar Treatment Kill Creativity?…
Filed under Alternative Medicine, Brain, Diagnosis, Disease, Doctors, Family, medicine, Mental Illness, News by on Sep 21st, 2018. Comment.
“GABA” stands for “Gamma Amino Butyric Acid,” a neurotransmitter long known for its relaxing, anticonvulsant (meaning “anti-seizure”) activity. We have certainly found ways to increase its presence with drugs that operate on, well, “lateral pathways” to increase its presence quantitatively. Unfortunately, these usually involve addictive substances, like benzodiazepines, which are pretty heavily addictive for most folks.
I am really glad those loveable Brits at U. Cambridge are saying they help “repress” unwanted thoughts. This is to me, a direct validation of Freudian Thought. We “repress” thoughts, and this seems to be linked to the way we do so. Read more on The Function Of GABA…
Filed under Alternative Medicine, medicine, Mental Illness, News, Research by on Jun 13th, 2018. Comment.
He was in his mid-fifties, quiet and fairly good-looking. I did suspect he was balding or maybe just plain bald as few men would wear a turn-of-the-last-century newsboy-type cap indoors these days. He sat on my couch and told me he thought he had ADD (attention deficit disorder). I interrupted him right there, as I do everyone who comes into my office thinking they have this disorder. Most people professing this diagnosis who are adults and walk in alone to a psychiatrist’s office are looking for stimulants — the amphetamines and the Ritalins of life. I don’t prescribe these. I used to — at least as long as it took to get people weaned off them. But nobody wants to get off them, not ever. I have seen people who have been on them from earliest childhood through middle age, for no clinical reason I can discern. Usually they were just being kids and bugging the adults, so they were put on drugs to control them. Read more on The Regular Looking Guy…
Filed under Diagnosis, Disease, News, prescription drugs by on Sep 19th, 2017. Comment.
How lovely that the first lady carries the banner high – save our children through nutrition, and deliver it through public schools.
How lovely that the United States as a whole and a first lady in particular can plead for the health and future health of children in a world dominated by politics and commercial interests that are simply not assailable with idealistic claptrap.
We may have actually achieved an amazing amount in the past few years, on this incredibly difficult task. Guess who has been saying, for a couple of years now, that any attempt to reform school lunches is in trouble? Coca-Cola, and other large food companies that make things like frozen pizza a French fries. Read more on School Lunches Are A Mess…
Filed under Education, Government, News, Nutrition, politics, weight by on Jun 3rd, 2014. Comment.
The place was Billings, Montana. I was living with my husband in a posh downtown hotel. Sounds nice, doesn’t it?
Oh yeah – I forgot to mention that it was the dead of winter.
You are probably wondering why the original “California Dreaming” girl would take off from a winter haven like Palm Springs to frost over in Montana – and the answer is the only one that would account for these circumstances: Somebody needed help.
Like the Lone Ranger, I could not refuse – and besides, it was a heck of a challenge.
The twist is –- I was helping out a managed care insurance company. A huge one.
So now we have the makings of a first class mystery. Renegade Doctor rushing to help out managed care corporation in the coldest part of the country when she could be warming her tootsies in the balmy desert oasis.
Let me go back and set this in perspective. Read more on Cheap And Accessible Medicine Is Worthless If It Is Shoddy…
Filed under medicine by on Mar 16th, 2010. Comment.