Where to Begin: First Steps and Screening Before Treatment

When someone faces heavy inner experiences, the temptation is to immediately reach for a pill or jump straight into talking therapy. But the doctor proposes a different order: first understand what actually lies beneath the state, and only then choose the path of help. This same sensible algorithm works as a starting point for understanding yourself and your experiences.

Don't start with medication

The first thing the doctor stresses: don't grab for drugs straight away. Sometimes you can restore the brain's work and your rhythm without them — but to know that, you need a clear picture.

"The main thing — don't start straight away with medication; maybe you can restore the brain's work and rhythm."

Rushing to pills without understanding the cause is moving blindly.

Separate the psychiatric register

The doctor underlines: the same words mean different things to ordinary people and to specialists. What everyday speech calls "tiredness" or "low mood," and what a psychiatrist calls a disorder under the international classification, are different things. So the first step is to determine whether a psychiatric register lies behind the experiences — endogenous, genetically determined disorders, which are treated quite differently.

"First — we rule out the psychiatric register; second — we rule out somatic pathology."

Rule out the physical

The second step is to check the body. The doctor reminds us: the thyroid, liver, pancreas and other organs can, on their own, secondarily produce heavy experiences. Until this is excluded, you cannot accurately understand what is happening.

Which tests make sense

The doctor names a concrete minimum: simple blood tests, urine analysis, biochemistry — especially liver panels (ALT, AST and others). Additionally — an electroencephalogram. If you want a deeper look at the brain, only magnetic resonance on a 3 Tesla machine makes sense; the rest, he says, carries no informative basis.

Why screening first, specialist second

The doctor warns honestly: if you go to a specialist without data in hand, you can waste dozens of visits, money and time.

"When you already have this in hand — then it makes sense to go to a specialist."

With results in hand, both you and the doctor will see more clearly what to work with.

Practice: a first-steps checklist

1. Don't rush to medication — gather the picture first.
2. Get simple blood tests, urine analysis and biochemistry, especially liver panels.
3. Have an electroencephalogram done.
4. If a deeper brain picture is needed — only MRI on a 3 Tesla machine.
5. With results ready, go to a specialist — separate the psychiatric register from the somatic.