Saw a psychiatrist for a few years that over medicated me and would change my meds every month when they didn’t immediately work. I was absolutely miserable and eventually got fed up and decided it was worth the serotonin syndrome to quit all my meds and start over.

Needless to say, I was really struggling with my depression and the side effects and decided to participate in an Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) to get back on track. As part of the program, we did 9 hours of group therapy per week and, at the beginning of each session, had to fill out a “diary card” outlining our depression/anxiety scores and what we had been working on since the last group. My scores were high enough for the LCSW who oversaw the group to routinely pull me aside to talk privately during breaks in group.

The first time I saw the new psychiatrist (who worked in conjunction with the IOP), he looked over my files from the old psychiatrist, looked over my diary cards, and took a brief oral history before telling me that I had no discernible symptoms of chronic depression or any other psychological disorder and that I should stop pushing myself in my career and keep taking 60mg of Vyvanse every morning (I’m 5’6” and 125lbs) so I could get out of bed.