Hi Subeta,

So here's the deal: I've spent over half a year on the waiting list for inpatient treatment for depression, anxiety and suspected/developing bpd. Two months ago I hit rock bottom and spent two weeks at a closed section of a mental hospital until I calmed down enough to return to my parents.

In the last three years, I've had pretty much all psych meds available to prescribe to minors (I'm seventeen) in this country, I had pretty much every kind of therapy offered outpatient. Last week my parents got a call: I can come in for an intake talk in a week to go inpatient. It feels like the only thing left to possibly help me -- save me. The hospital is at the other side of the country, but I don't care. They have a spot and they might be willing to take me in.

But this intake talk is what frightens me.

What do I say? They have the right to decline me if they don't think they can help me, and I'm terrified they will do so. It happens to be the same hospital as I spent half of my closed section admittance at (I got transferred eventually to a hospital closer to me) so they kind of know me, which makes that I'm not too afraid they won't think I'm sick enough, I'm more afraid they might think I'm too sick and might not get better.

So what do I say to get in? Does anyone here have advice or experience?

Thank you.

Tell them the truth. Don't leave anything out. Even little things can help on diagnosis. It's much, much harder to diagnose when the patient is telling the doc what they think they want to hear instead of what's actually happening. A good way to start is to write down your symptoms day-by-day, and then report on that with the journal in hand.

Also it sounds like your psychiatrist isn't very... well, good, if I'm being totally honest. "Approved" for children under 18 and "works for children under 18" are two, very, VERY different things. At least that's what I'm amusing your talking about. I've been on moderately heavy antidepressants/anti-anxiety for well over a decade, from a very young age. If you have a competent doc off label use can be a godsend. Truth is, many docs are scared shitless of being sued or loosing license, even if that means withholding treatments that might/can actually do something.

Can I ask how long you've been on any one treatment? SSRIs and other related meds take weeks to truly get into your system, and then generally take a while longer to figure out the correct dosages.

I've already been diagnosed - although I'll do what you said, because I wouldn't be surprised if they want to check the diagnosis or anything.

I've been on prozac/fluoxetine for three months, then zoloft/sertraline for over two years, oxazepam (a benzodiazepine) occasionally since this summer, and now I've been taking seroquel/quetiapine for almost three months. The last one is offlabel indeed - it's an antipsychotic that's been seen to help with depression. For me, it just makes me freaking tired. My usual psychiatrist didn't prescribe it - the one from the closed ward did.

Thank you.