This is going to be complicated, but it's important. If you aren't up for this right now, get some help. Somebody needs to do these things.

Whether you've not yet seen a psychiatrist or you've already seen several over the course of years you need to keep all your medical records, psychiatric and non-psychiatric, nice and organized for three very important reasons:

 

Taxes. Applying for SSDI / SSI benefits, state disability or company disability benefits. When you talk to your doctor it is so much easier to both prepare a script for your appointment and to answer any questions your doctor may have for you when you have your medical history all together in one place. The more complicated your history and your diagnosis or diagnoses the more difficult it is to keep it all in your head. And, like it or not, doctors don't always believe patients about stuff. Especially mentally ill patients. You need proof that something happened to you, otherwise you stand a very good chance of getting the same damn medication that didn't do you any damn good if you happen to switch doctors and your records haven't caught up with you.  I've been there.  I've had doctors not believe me.  I've been with Mouse when doctors have not believed her about stuff, but when I would confirm that, yes, she really did have that wacky side effect or that stuff really did happen to her and she wasn't being paranoid, then they would take her seriously.  Why?  Because there was confirmation?  Because I wasn't coming across as crazy as she was at those times?   Some of both? When you're mentally ill you're a shit magnet, that's all there is to it.  People who aren't mentally ill have a hard time wrapping their heads around that.  They just don't get that all this crap really does happen to us.  It's our lives and it is not just in our goddamn heads!  In her career in the health services (hah!) industry my mother for a time worked with mentally ill outpatients, and dealt with a lot of the bipolar community.  In a conversation we had she told me some of their stories and in comparing notes with the lives of the bipolar people I know the experiences she related were not all that outrageous.  "So they're all true?" she asked.   "Maybe a tad embellished," I replied, "because sometimes things get exaggerated in the retelling.  Everybody does that, it's a human trait, not a bipolar one." "So when they say, 'It was red' you can be sure that it was at least pink," she said. "Exactly." "I had no idea." "Nobody believes us because we're crazy.  But this stuff happens to us anyway, perhaps because we're crazy.  Then it makes us seem even crazier.  Then we get frustrated with doctors and therapists and therapy, get the wrong meds or don't stay med compliant, and it just piles up and really does make us crazier."

OK, so what do we save and how do we save it for each reason? What sort of stuff should we be writing down and how? When should we get started doing this?

As for when, the answer is right now. It doesn't matter where you are in the process of dealing with your mental illness. If you're all freaked out and haven't yet seen a doctor, get somebody to help you with this and start now. If you've been seeing plenty of doctors and are well on your way to mental health, start now anyway. Reconstruct your history as best you can, just get it organized!

Here's what you should be saving and how you should be organizing. These are guidelines that have worked for me and Mouse. Modify to fit your own life circumstances, of course, but we think they're pretty good tips.

Taxes  Applying for SSDI / SSI  Talking to Your Doctor

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Hey, did you find this page all by itself through Google or some other search engine? Great! But to really appreciate the entire site, you need to start here.

 

Created Monday, December 1, 2003

Last updated Saturday, May 15, 2010

 

 

Copyright © 2003, 2004 Jerod Poore. All rights reserved.

All material on this site is copyright © 2003, 2004 Jerod Poore. Except, of course, the PI sheets, that are the property of the drug companies who developed the drugs the sheets are about.  And any documents that are written by other people which may be posted to this site will remain the property of the original authors.

All rights reserved. No warranty is expressed or implied in this information. Consult one or more doctors and pharmacists before taking, or changing how you take any psychiatric medication. Consult a lawyer about any legal matters.  Your mileage may vary. What happened to us won't necessarily happen to you. I am not a doctor, a lawyer, nor a pharmacist. I don't portray any of them here or on TV. Only a doctor can diagnose and treat an illness. Only a lawyer can offer real legal advice.  Some doctors tend to get pissed off by patients who know too much about medications, so tread lightly when and where appropriate. Diagnosing yourself from a website is like defending yourself in court, you suddenly have a fool for a doctor. Don't be a cyberchondriac, thinking you have every disease you see a website about, or that you'll get every side effect from every medication. All information on this site has been obtained through personal experience, the experiences of my friends, the experiences of people reported on online support groups, and from sources that are referenced throughout the site. As such the information presented here is not a substitute for real medical advice from your real doctor, just a compliment to it.  No psychiatrists or pharmacists were harmed in the production of this website. All brand names of the drugs listed in this site are the trademarks of the companies listed after them in the pages about the drugs, even though those companies may or may not have been acquired by other companies who may or may not be listed in this site by the time you read this. Always read the PI sheet that comes with your medications and never ever throw them away.  If you didn't get a PI sheet, demand one.  No information about visitors to this site is collected or saved. Although from time to time I do look at search terms used to find it in an effort to make the information I present more relevant. Use only as directed. Void where prohibited.

 

"Everything is true, nothing is permitted." - Jerod Poore