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Psychiatry-UK 2024-08-25 Person 1 5 0

I don't really do reviews, but after thinking about it for months I decided to do one. I spoke to someone with Psychiatry UK after referral through the right to choose service. My reason for the referral was that after seeking counselling through my university I was referred to a psychiatrist (someone who has written published works on ADHD) and they strongly advised me to seek an ADHD diagnosis. After that I spent weeks of my life reading everything I could find online about ADHD and listening to multiple audiobooks (I don't have the attention span for reading books). A year later, finally having the motivation, and feeling I fully understood ADHD and confident I should look into it further. This is when I was referred to psychiatry UK and the nightmare began. Now let me start by saying that Psychiatry UK and their portal was great. That is until I had my consultation. The doctor my consultation was with left me feeling suicidal and like a time waster. Initially they tried to shorten the appointment to 30 minutes. Which I just felt was a bit weird when this is my health we are discussing. Granted I was really unorganised and did not have my ID ready for the call and then could not find it, and did not find it for about a month after. So I had to use a student ID card which was not ideal. The doctor seemed pretty annoyed by this, but unfortunately that is just my life, and I was extremely apologetic. So we then start the consultation, the doctor was quite aggressive and it was quite intimidating, and I'm not someone who is intimidated easily. When talking about why I lost my job she suggested that the reason I gave her couldn't possibly be true, and I must have lost it because I was bad at the job. I was actually very good at the job/the company I worked for were so bad organised it made me look good at my job. She kept pushing me to say that I was incompetent in someway, when in reality the company I worked for were really laid back and so I could arrive 10 mins late every day and that didn't matter as long as I did my 40 hours a week. I understand that her job is to probe me for anything that signals ADHD, but had she read the information that came with the referral she would know that she wouldn't find the information she needed there. After spending far too long on employment we moved on to talking about education. Now I am an extremely intelligent person when it comes to maths and science, not because I have tried, just a natural flare when it comes to analytical problem solving. Therefore, educationally, I have always scraped by on raw talent. This isn't me boasting, I WISH I had been more present in my education, but I never had the ability to be. That aside, I did eventually, achieve a PhD. After discussing education, she told me that there didn't seem to be any issues there that I just sounded ARROGANT and IDLE. That is correct I got call arrogant for knowing I am good at something and idle for leaving school work and assignments until the last minute. There was not much time for anything else in the call after she accused me of lying and insulted me. So I then was told that I needed to book another consultation. This was in June, it took a few weeks before I could book another, and this isn't available until the end of September. So I have spent the time since wondering whether I am just arrogant and idle and honestly dreading having a second consultation. It has resulted in bouts of suicidal ideation and self harm (thankfully my self harm is mild in comparison to what you're likely thinking right now). It is now giving me nightmares. I have essentially gaslit myself into thinking that it didn't happen to the point that I have requested the recording because I just cannot believe someone dealing with potentially vulnerable people would say such things. So far my experience is horrible, and I doubt I'll get a diagnosis. I am so happy for all those posting good reviews, but I didn't even see the name of my doctor on the list, which says it all really! Note: I do have a history of mental illness, this wasn't the first time I have self harmed or felt suicidal, I have received therapy for this, and therefore have an understanding of how to deal with this.