How to find a local psychiatrist?

In general, you find a psychiatrist about the same way you find a psychologist. You go online. You search Google and read the websites and online reviews.

For both psychologist and psychiatrist, there is word-of-mouth. Sometimes you can ask around and find people who had good experiences with a certain provider. Then look at that provider's website. Some people ask around at their church or synagogue, their group of friends, or maybe people they know in recreation groups, such as a baseball team or Salsa dance group. You can also ask your family doctor if they’ve heard something good about providers who are dealing with the issues you uniquely are dealing with.

As I’ve described elsewhere, there are many different kinds of psychiatrists. Some just prescribe medicine. Some do medicine and counseling. Some will not prescribe certain medications. Some don’t prescribe any medication. For instance, some will not prescribe benzodiazepines or stimulants. This is what is called a certain “camp of thought“ which every profession has. I take the approach called “Positive Psychiatry,” which is focused on helping people make progress in their personal life and supporting their strengths, rather than the traditional medical approach of focusing on the medical problems and putting the patient in the “sick role.”

My book “Prescription For Positivity” (available on Amazon) gives over 100 examples of positive psychiatrist in action, working for people’s lives.

You can ask ahead of time at the doctor's office when you do a phone call, and ask if this provider treats the condition you’re talking about, and if they prescribe the medication you may be interested in getting or continuing. I don’t prescribe the medication “Clozaril,” but I prescribe most of the others, for example. You can ask if the doctor follows a certain kind of counseling approach, such as cognitive behavior therapy or psychodynamic psychotherapy.

You can ask what kind of medications the doctor doesn’t prescribe. As I mentioned above, I don’t prescribe Clozaril. The government regulations are just too much for me and I gave up trying to get through them. Isn’t it nice that the government is creating more and more regulations, driving doctors away from perfectly good medication? But recently a person came to me and wanted me to prescribe it, but I just could not do it. I didn’t have the special certification required to prescribe that medicine. Special training is also required to prescribe certain kinds of medicine for opiate addiction, ketamine IV therapy, and psychotherapy associated with the use of mushrooms. If you already have in mind that you want a specialized service, or a unique medication, then ask the doctor's office before you schedule an appointment if the doctor can prescribe that medicine or provide that service. This one piece of advice may have saved you hundreds of dollars. A new patient visit costs about $300 at this time. Good to know, huh?

Another hurdle is for those who have attention deficit disorder, and non-stimulants have not worked for them, then they may qualify for a stimulant prescription. But, state and federal laws require an in-person visit to be prescribed a stimulant for the first time. So some people have seen an online doctor, someone who only does online work, and then they want a stimulant for their attention deficit disorder and find they can’t get it. Depending on their insurance, they may have wasted weeks and dozens or hundreds of dollars. I’m trying to save you money and time! So it’s good to know these things if that’s what you are dealing with.