"Psychiatric treatment/medication"

I was a regular patient of a clinician at the Aurora Marian Centre for several years; since I was a teenager and I am now in my early 20s. I live remotely and would fly 2 hours every 1-2 months to meet for an appointment, luckily the PATS program helped make this more affordable. I have struggled immensely with my mental health for what feels like my whole life. I won’t speak to the years of when I was a minor as my treatment was controlled by my parent which ultimately caused more issues, which I am still working through to this day.

In 2023 I hit a major burnout, I was struggling to work full-time, started burning through my savings to survive and my medications weren’t keeping me stable enough like they had up until that year.

I pushed for re-evaluating my diagnosis and medications as I felt the standard Depression and Anxiety written down 4 years ago wasn’t the root of my problem.

My clinician pushed for hospitalisation or me relocating across state to undergo Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT). I declined ECT as I didn’t feel it was necessary for my condition and there was other options before resorting to something so intense on the brain and body. Moving or staying away from hometown where I support myself was not practical due to my situation financially and support network. To then be told there’s nothing more they can do for me besides taking more medications. I was given a lot of medications and doses to experiment. Or random tests I didn’t ask for such as a 2nd Head MRI and an EEG which I felt didn’t address my concerns and results came back normal.

Here is a list of all the drugs prescribed to me by my clinician in 2023:

Duloxetine (existing med @ 120mg) increased to 150mg nightly

Quetiapine (existing med @ 50mg) increased to 100mg nightly

Mirtazapine (existing med @ 30mg) increased to 45mg nightly

Temazepam (existing as needed 10mg) to every night

Lorazepam 1mg 3x daily

Clonidine 100mcg nightly

Dexamphetamine 5mg 2x morning/afternoon

Lurasidone 40mg nightly

Benzatropine as needed for lurasidone side effects

Clonazepam 0.5mg 2x daily

That’s a lot of medication to seemingly only deteriorate me further… My pharmacists and GP were astounded how I could legally be prescribed that amount or function to pick up my medication.

I had to stay under my clinician’s care until I could get another psychiatrist to accept my referral and wait the 6 months for an appointment. Also in the background waiting to receive Centrelink payments 5 months instead of burning through my savings as I had no leave and couldn’t work or even drive myself safely.

Over the past year and a half I’ve had to try recover from drug dependence whilst also getting back on my feet financially rejoining the workforce. My new psychiatrist has shown me so much empathy listening to my experiences and supported me in getting the outcome I deserve. I feel seen as a patient and can influence my treatment options.

I felt the clinician would rarely remember my name or where I lived, I would have to explain my life repeatedly during consults after 5 years which was extremely frustrating. Not to mention the consistent lateness to their appointments, I would often have the first appointment of the day and they wouldn’t show up until 30min to 1 1/2 hours later every time.

The Marian Centre staff were always amazing to me, were super on top of my travel PATS paperwork, flexible with payment and apologetic of the cliinician’s apparent inability to show up on time. The clinician and my inpatient hospital experiences made me lose trust in the system. I hope no other patients especially vulnerable young people have had to go through the experience I did.