Velocity. You are an adult, correct? You are not under some conservatory situation or power of attorney where someone else, like your family, is really in control, correct? Who is paying the bills? If it is you then fire this psychiatriast.
He does not believe you, does not respect you, and is fishing for information so he can tell you why your situtation is all due to your own behavior. Working for your parents is he? Seems like it.
If you are in control of the situation, use that control and tell them where to get off. This is highly unethical. If it were me I would be reporting them to whatever licencing board is in charge of this psychiatrist. He doesn’t need to talk to anyone but you.
The only time I ever heard of anything along these lines is when someone was being evaluated for social security disability for psychiatric reasons, as opposed to having a physical disability. The evaluator does ask if there is anyone who can add to the picture somehow-- I don’t remember the wording, whether it’s “attest” to your story, or give additional information, or whatever.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but have you talked about suicide, or any kind of self-harm? Is it possible the psychiatrist wants contact with someone who can be called if you seem to be in real crisis, and he’s worried about you harming yourself or someone else?
Those are the only two reasons I can think for a doctor in the US making such a request.
If you are outside the US, though, maybe this is normal.
Talking to collateral sources of information is proper and relatively common in forensic evaluations.
As an aside, I have found that psychiatrists are rarely good at therapy/counseling. They primarily proscribe medications. There are of course exceptions. Psychologists are much better trained to provide therapy and their field is based on science, not Freud.
Non-sarcastically, AFAIK you wouldn’t even need a psychiatrist’s permission to ask his former professors and colleagues about his reputation. They might prefer not to discuss it with you, but I don’t think there’s any confidentiality reason why you couldn’t ask.
Of course, patient confidentiality AFAICT would prohibit his giving you identifying and/or contact information about his other patients, whether he wanted to or not.
Neither of my kids is delusional or psychotic. And the therapists didn’t interview me to “learn the truth”. That would be really offensive. They interviewed me to get another perspective. My son may also have found a friend to talk to the shrink.
I think both were being evaluated for ADHD or autism, it wasn’t just generic therapy.
Come to think of it, years ago, my mother was critically ill, with fairly vague symptoms, and one hypothesis was depression. She saw a psychiatrist who interviewed her and several family members, and told her that whatever was wrong with her, it wasn’t depression, and they should keep looking. I think his psychiatric diagnosis was minor situational depression caused by whatever ailed her.
Anyway, if you think the therapist is going to believe your mom instead of you, by all means, find a different therapist. And if you don’t understand why he wants to talk to the people, ask him.
I agree. I work at the local psychiatric hospital doing the medical evaluations of the patients. What you describe is how things run there. The psychiatrists manage psychiatric medications and there are therapists who run the individual and group therapy sessions. I’ve never heard of this sort of thing being done, even for patients who are there under a judges warrant. I’d look for a different doctor.
Psychiatrist here. This is definitely not standard practice. In certain circumstances it might be appropriate, some of which have been mentioned here, such as if there is reason to believe the patient is psychotic, malingering, or an otherwise unreliable reporter. And if one is conducting a detailed diagnostic assessment for things like ADD or autism, talking with people who knew the patient as a child can be invaluable.
But when the patient is a reasonably well functioning adult, demanding permission to talk to family as a prerequisite for providing any treatment at all is weird. I wouldn’t go so far as to say it’s unethical or malpractice; if he feels that’s necessary for him to provide the best possible care, more power to him. But if you don’t want to provide such consent, it certainly won’t be hard for you to find a doctor who doesn’t require it.
What do you mean by “counseling”? In my experience (US/California), psychiatrists prescribe drugs and don’t do counseling/therapy at all. They work with therapists who do. Are you saying s/he’ll see you but not counsel – provide talk therapy of some sort – but still consult on your brain meds and provide prescriptions as needed, regardless of who you let them talk to? Or that they won’t see you, won’t treat you at all! - unless you can provide backup relatives to talk to?
Will the doctor treat you in some fashion if you refuse the request? If you’re not sure, you should ask.
(Perhaps ‘counseling’ means something different where you’re located.)
(IMO, you don’t want a psychiatrist doing therapy. It costs, what? 5x? 10x? the price of a trained therapist?)
I’ve been to several therapists over my 40 years of life. I’ve been a clinically diagnosed manic-depressive since the age of 25, and I have never encountered this situation since I was a kid.
I have, on occasion, voluntarily had my mother or my mother and sister in the room to provide another perspective. But that was usually when I was really, really struggling.
Where I live (Ontario) it unfortunately works the opposite way. Psychiatrists, being MDs, are fully covered by universal health care, but clinical psychologists are not. This is a gaping hole in mental health care that has existed for decades. The effect is that psychiatrists are, in effect, free, while qualified psychological therapists are expensive without private insurance.
The practical reality IMHO is that, very broadly speaking (there are always exceptions) psychiatrists are best equipped to deal with the more extreme sorts of mental health issues, while clinical psychologists with experience in counseling and therapy tend to be a better fit for the more common sorts of problems. They can’t prescribe medication, but they usually work cooperatively with the patient’s GP when medication is deemed desirable.
Sorry for the digression, but as for the OP, I agree that this therapist is out of line. I can see, in some circumstances that I would think would be rare, asking permission to speak to a family member. But making that a precondition for therapy? No way. Unless there’s way more to the story, this is unacceptable.
The red flag is that he refuses to provide care unless you comply with his demand. If it were voluntary, and he candidly explained why, that would be more acceptable.