Monitoring board as a mental health roadbump.

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Specializes in PDN; Burn; Phone triage.

I'm just irritated and ranty. I have pretty substantial (at times) comorbid mental health issues. I was on psych meds for a while early on in my program but stopped, in part, because the hurdles to keeping my scripts current sucked. (There was other stuff, too.)

Anyway, I need to go back on meds. I've really needed to go back on them for a few months now but I've been absolutely dreading all the hurdles it takes to get started and keep current with any "mood altering substance" even if it's just mood stabilizers and antipsychotics that I need for bipolar disorder.

I never thought I would look forward to the day that I could see my psychiatrist freely and without concern that a third party would interrupt and even attempt to control the doctor-patient relationship. Six more months, hopefully.

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Specializes in pediatrics; PICU; NICU.

I completely understand what you're saying. The BON thinks it knows what we need better than our doctors. I went through the same thing when I was in monitoring. Hopefully the next 6 months will go by quickly for you.

((hugs))

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Specializes in LTC, assisted living, med-surg, psych.

Are they telling you that you can't take meds for your bipolar? That sounds like they're actively trying to sabotage you. How are you supposed to get better if you're not allowed to take medications for mental health reasons?

I don't know if APs and mood stabilizers show up in a UDS, but I think you'd be wise to be proactive and go back on your meds, and then tell them you are taking them. You can't take care of patients if you're unstable.

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Specializes in PDN; Burn; Phone triage.
Are they telling you that you can't take meds for your bipolar? That sounds like they're actively trying to sabotage you. How are you supposed to get better if you're not allowed to take medications for mental health reasons?

I don't know if APs and mood stabilizers show up in a UDS, but I think you'd be wise to be proactive and go back on your meds, and then tell them you are taking them. You can't take care of patients if you're unstable.

Mood stabilizers etc should be okay but still require a note from my treating shrink, me to sign a release of info, having to provide a copy of my script every 3 months. It's a huge hassle. I tested positive for PCP while taking lamictal and that was crazy, I felt a huge amount of scrutiny even after the gc/ms cleared me.

I was having catatonic depression epiaodes about two years ago, the standard treatment is a short course of low dose benzos and my first thought wasn't "will this help?" Or a convo about benzos with alcoholism with my doctor but instead "will this be OK with my monitoring program?" So frustrating.

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