Veiled, you have your head screwed on very well. Well done for your efforts and I have no doubt you will succeed past this quite quickly.

Kim, get the hell away from that doctor... as they are a dead set twit. From what has been mentioned above with medications, there is no secret to this, in that purely doctors familiarise themselves with certain medications, and they stick to those, whether kickbacks are offered or not. Yes, some doctors do dodgy stuff behind the scenes that are not within the best interests of their patients, yet not all do so. Generally with medications, once doctors have prescribed one type enough, if they have more success than failures in particular issues, they will stick with those type of medications, even if something is better suited, they stick with what they know. Any honest doctor will tell you this. Doctors will tell you, it is a huge guessing game for them, as each person reacts differently to each medication, and then each person reacts differently to each combination of medications. The more you add to the mix, the worse it gets.

Any doctor that can come up with all that in 15 - 20 minutes with no indepth detail of what the hell has gone on in your life, is full of shit. My doctor picked me for PTSD the moment he saw me, though I was in the worst of it, and he was an expert in PTSD, not just a shrink of general nature, but specialised PTSD and trauma. Some doctors think they know it all, and they are the one's you run far away from. Its like going to a GP for brain surgery, and actually believing them that they are capable of performing brain surgery on you in their office... I think not!

My recommendation for a good doctor is very simple, and pretty effective across the globe. The most central group for PTSD is military, not the largest, but the most central, so... find a military support service, make a phone call, and ask them which civilian doctors specialise in trauma and PTSD. They are the people who will be able to help you. It is one of the easiest ways to find a good doctor who specialises in PTSD. Whilst the military have their own doctors, there are still civilian doctors that treat ex veterans, outsource to military, etc etc, so any vietnam support group or peace keeper association should be able to give you a list of good shrinks within your area that are specialists in trauma. If they ask, tell them that your not military, but just need a true professional in trauma, got recommended to them for possible guidance, and they should help you out.