"Disappointing session"

I didn't want to have to do this, but I do think I have to speak up about my disappointment at the service provided by a doctor at the Community Mental Health Service in Kalgoorlie-Boulder recently. I have been taking Sertraline 200mg daily for a year and a half, and was there on referral from my GP.

The first warning sign was that I was originally scheduled with an appointment a few days earlier. When I arrived at this appointment I was told that the appointment had been cancelled but that no one had bothered to let me know.

After rescheduling, when I arrived at the rescheduled appointment, the staff spoke to me about topics that I knew nothing about, and they realised that they had mixed my record up with someone else, and had briefed themselves in preparation for my session based on a total stranger’s details. This was warning sign number two.

During the session with the doctor, it was clear to me very quickly that they weren't listening to anything I said:

I explained that I had felt dead inside for years after losing a brother to suicide, and being the victim of domestic violence, abuse, and prolonged trauma, and was incapable of feeling any positive emotion. I felt the doctor offered trite, patronising solutions like getting a pet (I have one already), and exercising (I go to the gym daily).

When I explained that my psychologist was of the opinion that I have a dopamine deficiency and PTSD, they dismissed this abruptly.

When I told the doctor that I felt completely dead and hopeless when I am not on antidepressants, the doctor told me that this was due to the emotional blunting effects of the antidepressants that I was not taking.

When I told the doctor that I was not afraid of death and would just accept it, although I must stress I am not suicidal, I felt the doctor tried to make it out that I had been fearful of death in the past, which is a blatant mischaracterisation.

When I told them that I am completely devoid of enthusiasm and positive experience, the doctor asked me why I bother doing anything at all, and why I don’t just give up. I told them that I have a sense of duty to myself and to those around me, and the doctor said that that wasn’t a good reason to continue doing these things.

When I told the doctor that I had not felt a positive emotion for several years, and had had prolonged periods of complete numbness for fifteen years, they told me that I don’t have depression, on the grounds that I have fought to have the strength and mental clarity to continue working and looking after myself and others.

At the end of the humiliating session, the doctor told me that they would contact my GP and ask to increase my 200mg daily Sertraline, as the maximum was somewhat higher. I accepted this, as I was willing to try any avenue, and the session was over.

At the end of my last prescription, some weeks later, I saw my GP to get the updated prescription, and was told that the doctor had contacted the GP, asking to increase my dosage to 125mg a day: an actual decrease from 200mg, and I was told that my previous dosage of 200mg was already the maximum. Yet again, it was clear to me that the doctor was not reading the information given to them, and had not been listening to me in person.

I feel it is quite baffling how this doctor is in the position that they are in, having access to individuals at their most vulnerable and in need of open, honest, caring, and professional help. I’m making this complaint for my own sake, but also to raise the issue that I believe this doctor is clearly not working in a professional manner. Had I been genuinely suicidal, I feel the doctor's responses could have laid the seeds for a catastrophic response. I am concerned regarding what kinds of experiences other patients with less mental clarity and stability might have had, and the possible negative impact that their carelessness might have on someone in a state of more elevated vulnerability.