psychiatrist woes

Do you have a GP who will give you a prescription to tide you over? Otherwise, just tell your p-doc that it works much better for you to have a larger amount prescribed, especially if you're feeling stable on your current dose.

Your pharmacist should be able to contact your Dr. and get you a full refill.

If you need just a few pills to tide you over, your pharmacist can frequently help you out even if they can't reach your doctor. You can also try urgent care clinics, which are frequently open later and which can also prescribe the meds for you. It might be a little more expensive - my insurance co-pay for urgent care is $50 and my regular co-pay is $35 but if you're only going every 3 months, that might be workable. I know how overwhelming things can seem so I took the liberty of finding a probably close zip code and got a list of psychiatrists from psychology today: http://psychiatrists.psychologytoday.com/rms/prof_results.php?sid=1325775767.7994_31375&county=Ulster&state=NY&zipcode=12401 You could go through those and see if any of them have the right hours/insurance combo you need. Hope that helps.

Have you talked to your psychiatrist about the situation itself? A lot of p-docs will alter their schedules for patients, and if not, they have referral lists of other doctors who do have the right schedule. You don't have to do all the searching on your own, is what I'm saying.

It sounds to me like once you get a new psychiatrist, your overall drop in hassle will make it worth the bother. Call your insurance company for a list of covered providers, and take a lunch hour to make some phone calls. What your asking for is totally reasonable, and it's out there. I see my shrink every three or four months, and if I have paperwork or need a short term prescription (I get free meds through the drug companies), he takes care of it the same or next day. I concur with editrixx as well. Your mental health should be a priority, and even a monthly visit is reasonable to schedule around.

Seconding having your GP, if you have one, give you the prescriptions. I see a psychologist who can't give prescriptions, so the meds all come from my doc. My schedule is super flexible and I can see her every six weeks, but she still gives me my prescriptions six months at a time (2 month prescriptions, 3 refills). I'm also going to add a voice to the chorus saying it would be good if you could find a solution to the problem of leaving work. Going without meds is a serious medical risk. Not taking the meds may be contributing to your not being able to come up with a solution to the problem. I've had several therapists who worked later in the evenings, but I don't know about psychiatrists. If you're in crisis, though, you could probably go to an ER and see a psychiatrist at all hours. Probably an expensive and inconvenient option, however.

First, get yourself some meds right away via one of the methods described above. It's not good that they're not getting back to you. But is there any other kind of doctor you would need an post-8pm or weekend visit in order to see on a monthly basis for a serious chronic health problem? I'm worried that there is some small part of you that does not want to be on bipolar medication, that is perhaps itching to get to one of the poles (I know whereof I speak here), and that you're sort of playing right into its hands by minimizing your illness and the importance of what are in fact a couple of serious medications. Especially if you're stressed out and (going by the ambien scrip) haven't been sleeping but are to some degree liking it and not wanting to change anything. This is one reason more frequent visits are good (although obvs not at the expense if not getting meds at all): you want to give a doctor a chance to notice you pulling away from treatment, even if you don't notice it yourself.

I know, you're asking for specific p-doc recommendations, that was kind of a crummy thing to say. But please, in the future, take your health as seriously as you take your job. You don't have to tell your co-workers what kind of medical treatment you're getting once a month. Which is really really not very often.