The first year or so after I had my breakdown I would do exactly what my doctor said in the belief that he had the answers to my situation but reality kicked in when I realized that no progress was being made and if anything I was going the wrong way rather quickly.

Part of the problem was my doing and I will be the first to admit it. The doctor in order to provide the best suggestion needs the proper information to do so. The poor information that I provided comes from a Borderline Personality Disorder brain that spends to much time looking for potential attacks and not the situation which really cuts down on a healthy interaction. The last trip to the psych ward I knew I had to find a way to overcome the barrier with my doctor so I began to write everything out from moods to urges to the odd thoughts circling through my brain and just handed the sheet over to the doc at the start of our daily meetings. By doing this I ensured that everything I thought and wanted to be covered in our appointment would take place plus it provides the doctor with the right kind of information where then he could suggest the best course of action to take. The other side to writing everything out is it will show you and the mental health professional any patterns or trends that are in your life so tools can be created or implemented to try to alter any negative routes. My doctor can never play dumb with me and say the typical "You have never mentioned that" to get out of a difficult situation as everything is written down in black and white.

What I have found or heard from a lot of people with mental health difficulties is that they are unhappy with the relationship with their doctor. I ask why and normally the answer is "The doctor just tells me what to do and I am expected to do it" when I ask if they ever question their doctors logic or approach the answer is no so again I ask why to which they respond "He/she is a doctor so they know more then I do so there is no point " or something close to it. I question everything for the simple reason being if I am going to do something I want to understand why I am doing it. The other reason is to make sure my doctor stays on his toes and that will increase the odds of his suggestions applying to my individual case and not a answer that applies to people within a certain diagnostic group. My Mother said it best "Your doctor works for you so make sure he earns every cent"