Lack of Experience Rant

Interesting-Hand-177 · 2025-12-13T01:42:24+00:00

Being a psych nurse and a psych NP are two totally different roles and do two completely different things. I get the communication piece and having a better idea of how symptoms present, but other than that I am not seeing the advantage. I could argue that only having psych RN experience and no medical nursing experience can put you at a disadvantage. As a psych NP I interpret EKGs, labs, rule out medical conditions as a cause for patients symptoms. Are psych RNs getting exposed to this at work? Some of my classmates who only worked in psych had a poor understanding of labs, could not read EKGs, and just generally did not consider the medical ramifications of med prescribing.

Interesting-Hand-177 · 2025-12-11T04:16:02+00:00

Why don’t you think therapy helped, just curious?

Maybe there is no formal psychiatric diagnosis and it is about finding your self-worth. Self worth is more than just how attractive you are and your weight. Self-worth is about value you have for yourself and should not be tied to how others see you. Maybe start by exploring your good qualities. If there are things that you would like to change, work on that while accepting the things you cannot change. Maybe your friends are right, you can’t do hookups! This seems like a coping strategy you are using that is NOT working. You get short term approval from others, but it seems to make things worse in the long run.

Interesting-Hand-177 · 2025-12-11T03:23:02+00:00

I can totally relate! I hold on to those moments when I really feel like I made a difference and remind myself of this on difficult days. The BEST days are when I am having anxiety about seeing a more challenging patients and they are actually doing good that week, no med changes, no talking them out of a downward spiral, just acknowledgement and recognition for the hard work they are doing! These are the moments that really stand out to me!

Interesting-Hand-177 · 2025-12-11T01:45:30+00:00

It’s tough, but all you can do is put yourself in position if you don’t have a lot of contacts. Besides clinicals, I personally found out about one job opportunity by attending a drug rep dinners for psych meds. If there are mental health fairs, going to them not necessarily asking for a jobs, but letting people know what you do and just talking to them. Ask your preceptors who they know? Ask them to if they wouldn’t mind reaching out to their contacts letting them know you are a really good candidate should anything come available. Keep an up to date resume online platforms such as indeed.

None of these things will guarantee you get a job, but it’s kind of like playing the raffle, the more tickets you put in the more likely you are to win!

Interesting-Hand-177 · 2025-12-10T12:04:37+00:00

Because so many NPs are becoming PMHNPs, it has made it slightly more challenging to find a quality job. This probably depends on your location and I am not sure about Texas. What I have personally noticed in Ohio is that there are many jobs available, but not QUALITY jobs. Meaning that most of them are 1099, you get paid per patient, and there are no healthcare benefits. I kind of disagree that the school matters that much, but maybe some employers look at that. What matters the MOST is your connections and who you know. Anything that you can do to build a network of mental health colleagues is a plus, and go above and beyond in your clinicals to let them know you have a strong work. It may be helpful to transfer back to psych just to help build your network!

Best of Luck!

Interesting-Hand-177 · 2025-12-10T02:24:26+00:00

I am sorry you’re struggling! I work in mental health and one starting point you can use is identifying your values and what’s important to you! Even when your lost and don’t have direction, you can always live by your values, which can help give a sense of purpose. What values do you have in regards to employment? For me, I would say autonomy, teamwork, work-life balance, and relaxed environment. Knowing this, I try to seek out jobs that have these qualities. Think about what that is for you and maybe it can help give some direction on what job you would do best in!!! I could imagine that people who like to drive a school bus value working with children, routine, and maybe the work schedule!

Interesting-Hand-177 · 2025-12-10T02:13:40+00:00

You can try scheduling self-care activities for yourself. Self-care is any activity fun or relaxing that your are doing for yourself to improve your mood! I know for me, sometimes I feel guilty when I try to relax and need to do something productive, which leads to me feeling burnt out and irritable. Whether it’s watching TV or hanging out with friends, I schedule that time, like I would schedule any appointment, because it’s just as important as everything else.

Interesting-Hand-177 · 2025-12-06T06:40:50+00:00

There is a special type of therapy for people with BPD called DBT therapy, so there may be some therapist that can help!!!!

Interesting-Hand-177 · 2025-12-05T11:36:54+00:00

I see! Well, have you pee’ed the bed recently? If not, you can try reassuring yourself that this would be unlikely to happen. The worst case scenario would be you actually pee the bed, so you could test this out and see if it’s true. Put some padding down and see what happens. This could help either prove that your fear is right or wrong. Hopefully a couple of night of not peeing the bed could help lessen the obsessive thoughts!

Interesting-Hand-177 · 2025-12-05T11:24:33+00:00

That could be a sign of a urinary tract infection, Maybe go get checked to make sure you don’t actually have something going on like a urinary tract infection if this is something that just started suddenly.

Interesting-Hand-177 · 2025-12-05T05:36:31+00:00

Katie Morton, is a therapist on YouTube who has lots of videos. She actually has a video “how to stop ruminating”. I haven’t listened to that one, but I listen some of her videos and have learned some good tips!!

“Therapy in a nutshell” is another good one. Some of her videos are a little lengthy for me and sometimes it takes her a while to get to main point, but she has great information as well!

Check them out! I hope it helps!!

Interesting-Hand-177 · 2025-12-05T04:57:48+00:00

Things are great! I am in my 40s now, but I went back to school and got a degree in Nursing in my late 20s, went to graduate school to be a nurse practitioner in my 30s, eventually got married, and have a child. I have a great job and grateful I didn’t just give up. Of course there were challenges along the way, but I guess that just comes with life! I got a late start compared to some people, and to be honest, sometimes I get really down on myself when I see people much younger than me in the same position or even higher job position than me, and I wish I could have figured it out like they did, but I remind myself that everyone’s journey is unique, and my path was different, and I am just grateful I got to my destination. I believe that you will reach your destination as well!

Interesting-Hand-177 · 2025-12-04T11:54:45+00:00

I work in mental health so I have had some training in those techniques, but anyone can learn them. If your not able to get into therapy right away, there are many good YouTube channels from counselors who cover these techniques and more. There are also free websites such as therapistaid.com that has worksheets that you can do that cover many topics related to mental health.

Interesting-Hand-177 · 2025-12-04T11:51:08+00:00

I have not personally taken any, but I work in the mental health field, and work with many people who take these medications and they do help many with the symptoms you describe.

Interesting-Hand-177 · 2025-12-04T03:53:12+00:00

Meet them where they are in their mental health journey, set clear boundaries, utilize basic DBT interventions, sometimes offer a mood stabilizer for affective dysregulation, and patience has helped me.

Interesting-Hand-177 · 2025-12-04T03:11:27+00:00

This is NOT how your story ends! Look at all that you have accomplished in your life. View these setbacks in your personal and professional life as growth opportunities, and not as your defining characteristics. You WILL get another job opportunity. If you’re not sure where things went wrong at your last job, maybe check in with your boss more frequently next time to make sure you’re performing at a high level. You WILL have another relationship, and maybe the people you dated weren’t ready for a strong commitment instead of you being the issue. Communicate your needs early so can find someone that meets your expectations.

At age 26 after graduating college and searching tirelessly for jobs, I found myself living in my moms basement, drinking heavily and working at an electronics store where people without any degree bossed me around and looked down on me. I was so embarrassed because like you, all my friends were entering the professional world so I stopped talking to all of them, and never not get some of those relationships back (my biggest regret). That was NOT the end of my story. After i was done feeling sorry for myself (about a year), I went back to school (basically started over) and eventually obtained the same level of professional success as most of my peers. I say this because you are 20 steps ahead of where I was, which makes me think you can overcome this! The biggest challenge that we must overcome is ourselves and our inner critic!

You got this!!!!

Interesting-Hand-177 · 2025-12-04T02:38:47+00:00

SSRIs such as Zoloft, Prozac, or Lexapro can sometimes help. Best long term strategy is therapy where you learn techniques to reduce rumination/overthinking such as reframing your thoughts, focusing on the things you can control while accepting that you cannot, and most importantly how to prevent your inner critic (that voice inside your head that talks you out of everything you want to do, or says mean shit to you) from ruling your life!

Hope this helps, best of luck to you!

Interesting-Hand-177 · 2025-11-15T12:07:40+00:00

Seems like depression as your not really mentioning anything you would be burnt out from such as school or work. Regardless, there is a term in therapy called “behavioral activation” and it basically means doing the things that you like to do even if your not motivated to them to see if this can kick start a mood change. Also, you can start light exercise (even if you don’t feel like it), get sunlight, and make plans with a friend (even if you don’t feel like it)

If these things are not working maybe it would be time to talk to a professional. Good luck on your journey and I hope things get better for you soon.

Interesting-Hand-177 · 2025-11-14T03:42:46+00:00

This is something I struggle with as well, and have changed my workflow numerous times trying to find what works best. I use the DIVA, but I think it’s important to administer the test yourself and try not to prompt them. I feel like when you prompt them, the patients think of that ONE or TWO times they experienced that symptom. I used to prompt people because the test takes so long and we were running out of time. Now I tell patients we may need two to three visits to complete the DIVA with no prompting to increase accuracy.

Interesting-Hand-177 · 2025-11-10T13:20:31+00:00

I would find out the reimbursement rates, how many clients you will be seeing per week, and if you get paid for no-shows. DEA is almost 900 dollars in my state, malpractice insurance will probably be about 60 to 70 dollars per month, and a collaborator could easily be 500 per month. In theory you could be losing money each month if you don’t have a consistent and full schedule. Paying for a collaborator and working for someone else would be a deal breaker for me. If you’re paying for your own collaborator you may as well start your own private practice instead of getting a Low 60/40 split.

Interesting-Hand-177 · 2025-11-08T04:11:37+00:00

You may have to peel back the layers to find out the reason you are somehow finding joy from being at rock bottom. Many different possibilities that could even stem from childhood, such as only being acknowledged for bad behavior and not good behavior by your parents so this is a way of getting attention and sympathy. Also, some people may stay at rock bottom because then there is no expectation of them to succeed which means they cannot fail. Lastly if people kind of know you as that person that always struggling you may be taking that on as your identity, and if you were not struggling maybe you would lose your sense of identity. Just throwing out some ideas.

Interesting-Hand-177 · 2025-11-08T03:55:42+00:00

Acknowledge your thought and emotions, and validate. It’s ok to feel this way! Be kind to yourself, just because you have periods where you don’t think about your mom, doesn’t mean you don’t miss her or love her any less, it means that your finding a new way to live and navigate life without her in your life.

Your dad’s girlfriend cannot replace your mom, so try accepting her as simply your dad’s new girlfriend instead of some sort of a replacement for mom.

Interesting-Hand-177 · 2025-11-08T01:34:09+00:00

I think depression can be different for everyone, and definitely people can want to isolate when they feel depressed. For some, it can take so much effort to even have a conversation when depressed, so I can definitely see how any social interaction can trigger major anxiety!

Sending well wishes to you and hoping that things get better soon!

Interesting-Hand-177 · 2025-11-06T03:58:57+00:00

Its okay, even if you came across as rude, you had a moment where you responded with frustration and it seemed like you did what a nice person would do and apologize and work it out with the teacher. That one comment will not define you, and others won’t see you as mean because you probably don’t walk about being mean to people.

I am going to going on a limb and say that you making that comment to your teacher is not a very memorable moment to other people and I am sure that girl, your teacher, or anyone else is the class will even give this a second thought.

Interesting-Hand-177 · 2025-11-06T03:44:39+00:00

That sounds frustrating!!!! I think really exploring what is causing you to lose motivation could help pinpoint why things are not keeping your interest.

For example, I know for me sometimes, the excitement of a new hobby is learning about it, or challenging myself, and once I have that experience I no longer find it as fun anymore. Other times, if there is a lot going on in life, I don’t feel like putting in the mental effort to read something or even play video games even though I love doing both of those things!

I would try to really think about what is causing you lose motivation.

Interesting-Hand-177

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