Neuropsychiatrist: No TBI Diagnosis Until Referral

Neuropsychiatrist: Part Nine of Angela’s Story

Despite the struggles she was  having at work no neuropsychiatrist made the connection that she had problems related to a brain injury.  Despite a  four day hospitalization, she was sent back out into the community with no brain injury rehabilitation, no information on what to expect.

“Went back to family doctor a few times, expressing my concerns for being depressed. It was more that I cried a lot. I felt so overwhelmed. I knew I knew what I needed to do. And I knew I knew how to do it.  Somehow I didn’t know how to get it done.  The phone would ring while I was trying to figure out what to do that was very upsetting to me  and so then I would cry. I didn’t really understand why I would cry because I wasn’t really depressed, I was more scared.”

Angela finally got lucky. The psychiatrist she picked off her health insurance companies provider list, was a neuropsychiatrist. “Miraculously the neuropsychiatrist knew what was wrong with me.”  While she resisted being taken off work, with his guidance, she realized that her brain wasn’t capable of doing the job  she had always done before.

“He had suggested (a medical leave) that day. I can’t do that, I have a job, I need to do my job, I am a single girl, and I can’t afford to not have a job.  .  He said I think  you should go back to work, and talk to  your family about the possibility that you may need to take some time from your job. By that time, I did go back to work, for two weeks, in that two weeks, work had started out with a couple of loans, a couple of loans I could handle,  it was just compounding, as I got six 8 10 12 20, I had no idea.”

For Part Ten of Angela’s Story, click here.