was my conversation with the psychiatrist.
He would say “Some people hear things, or see things that aren’t there, do you ever do that?”
I would say “No, I have never hallucinated.”
He would say “Do you have the need to do things over and over again?”
I would say “No, I do not have OCD.”
And so on, until I wanted to say to him, Look, I probably know the DSM-IV as well as you do, so just use the damn names for things!
When I told him I’d been on lithium, xanax and trazadone, he looked amazed. “At the same time?” More or less.
He did, however, sum me up very nicely. “You do well on meds. You do okay for awhile off meds, and then it all goes pear shaped for a bit. But overall, you’re doing fine!”
My family is amused by the saying ‘pear shaped’. Not a US saying.
Doctors always seem to think you won’t understand big words. I find it rather annoying.
Doctors also don’t seem to cope well with informed patients a lot of the time. Which is a shame.