Hi H,
You made a very good point. I know that I sometimes get so frustrated when I
go to doctors that I don't explain myself well. In fact, I often clam up and
don't really say much at all. I never thought about a therapist helping a
person take control. I only thought about being sent to one, because the
referring doctor figured there was nothing physically wrong and that it was
psychosomatic. Thank you for sharing your experience and making me think
about it from a different point of view.
BJ-Sk. Canada

I don't know.  This last doctor didn't name a therapist; he wrote in his
report that
he wanted to consider retrying some of the psychiatric meds that I had
already
tried (Seroquel, Xanax, Effexor; I'm not sure if Neurontin counts there).  I
think he wanted to try it himself.  (He's impressed with himself, and I'll
admit
he has good reason to feel that way.)

I wouldn't say I was wildly enthusiastic about it, but I didn't have to be
dragged
into therapy, either.

What happened was this:

In 1998 I went to an MD who came highly recommended.  She listened
to me for less than ten minutes, looked grave and said "This is porphyria.
It's life-threatening."  She wouldn't change that diagnosis even after the
tests results came back negative; she believed it could be variegate
porphyria,
and said I'd only test positive when it was in full bloom.  I'd know when I
was ready to be tested because I'd be in so much pain that I'd have to go
to the emergency room.

I wasn't eager to try it that way.  Fortunately, the university hospital had
a
doctor who's an expert in the porphyrias.  I made an appointment to see him,
and he spent two hours doing a work-up.  At the end of it he told me he'd
run
some more tests, just to convince me I didn't have porphyria, but he thought
it
was psychosomatic.  He gave me the name and phone number of a therapist.

First problem:  the therapist he recommended was puzzled when I called for
an appointment.  She didn't analyze patients; her job, outside of research,
was
to supervise the administration of psychiatric drugs prescribed by other
therapists.

I went to see another therapist, who gave me the talking cure.  He didn't
run
any tests; he took doctor #2's word that I had a mental problem, and that
the tests found nothing physically wrong.  After six months, though, he gave
up.  Basically, he said that I seemed well-balanced, if somewhat depressed,
and that "psychosomatic problems don't act like this."

Before I went to the next therapist I got a look at the report that doctor
#2
had written on me.  He said I was delusional, that I had "diagnosed myself
with porphyria over the internet" and that I had "demanded" he run various
tests.
I went on with therapy because I thought I was out of options in the
physical
department.  Therapist #2 ran some thyroid tests, then tried assorted drugs.
He didn't warn me about side effects, and I didn't ask--if this was a
psychosomatic
problem, I didn't want my subconscious to pull tricks on me.

All Neurontin did was to give me three weeks of insomnia; I got by on
an hour or so of sleep every night, until I started hallucinating from
fatigue
(the weird thing is that some of my relatives take Neurontin, and afterwards
they told me it makes them groggy).  I don't know if Xanax helped with
depression or anything else, but it made me hallucinate (which was kind of
cool, in a way; at one point part of my bedroom turned into the beach
near where I grew up).  Seroquel--well, the doctor called it an anti-stress
medication; in reality it's an "atypical anti-psychotic" used to treat
schizophrenia.
When you're *not* schizophrenic, it makes you hear voices, which I did.
Effexor
works as an anti-depressant, but it will also give you the worst nightmares
you
ever had; physically, it effected me the same way as sunlight does, and then
some.
I lost eight pounds in three days, ached all over, had diarrhea and
nosebleeds,
plus fatigue.  I quit that stuff after three days (I didn't go back to that
doctor for
two reasons.  First, he told me that if Effexor didn't help me, he was out
of
options.  Second, Effexor is addictive; he gave me a three week starter-kit
supply and told me to come back in six weeks.)

This doctor had also tried prednisone on me.  I told him I thought it had
given me
some help, but for some reason he didn't pursue that.  He didn't explain
why.

It isn't 100% bad.  How many people can say they wore out two psychiatrists?

--Bill Thompson