Note: This woman is highly retaliatory. I was terrified to write a review while I still lived in…read morethe Boston area. However, i am safely relocated and free of everything that happened, so in that light I am writing this to warn others.....
It's funny how "nice" these people seem at first. After convening with others who knew Dr. P (which I called her rather affectionately for years, oddly enough) I know now I am not alone. When I first met her I found her way too abrupt, but otherwise she seemed nice enough. I noted her clipped manner on the phone (I timed her calls at 15 seconds average), which was super annoying but I put up with that, too. She invariably told me to "take a PRN" and hung up.
Care, if you could call it that, got notably worse after Pearson left McLean and I saw her at the Wang 815 clinic (oh, the memories of that place!). She took fastidious notes, even quoting what I said. Then maybe six months later, or so, she'd take those notes out and quote me completely out of context to prove her point, or hold something against me.
I could have sued for irresponsible drugging over the years. The list is so lengthy I don't want to bore you all with the technicalities too much.
She stood by and did nothing when I gained 110 pounds from Seroquel, 600, then 900 mgs. She urged me to "diet and exercise." I went to the gym as she told me but due to rapid weight gain my knee gave out and I ended up in a wheelchair. I kept gaining till I got off the stuff.
I have never been psychotic and I have never been manic. "Happy" is not manic. Being excited about life isn't mania. Pacing, which is a side effect of drugs, is not mania. I was never bipolar. Actually, what happened was that my normal mood were pathologized over a period of decades. I was given three antipsychotics, all at the highest possible dose, plus three mood stabilizers, plus more. This was questioned by other professionals, too, but like a good patient I was I worshipped Dr. P. In my eyes must have been right.
I had some serious side effects from the drugs which were commonly known adverse effects. Of course, the weight gain (she denied this). Another side effect I had was double vision. She had me on an unheard-of dose of Lamictal, 600 a day, and, I must say, very dangerous. She insisted if I didn't take it I'd become "unstable." Here's what happened....She denied that that the double vision was even possible! Then, one day, finally, my body couldn't take it anymore. I guess the stuff got toxic in my system. I literally collapsed and couldn't get off the floor! I lay there, knowing I'd only get told I was faking it should I call 911. I waited it out, then thankfully I was able to identify Lamictal as the problem, and stopped it.
The funniest thing was in 2011 I was given Trileptal, which caused the very common side effect of "swaying" on my feet. This is from ataxia, which is one of the most common adverse effects. Also, I was mentally confused from the drug. I was stupid enough to think the confusion was "illness." Oh, hindsight..... I was shocked that again, Pearson denied that it was even possible that ataxia was a side effect! When I told her I wanted to stop the drug or lower it....(please laugh)....she told me "You can't do that! You'll become unstable!" I stopped the Trileptal and was far more stable on my feet. Thanks, psychiatry!!!!
In 2008 I had to fire a psychotherapist I was seeing in Cambridge for multiple ethical violations. After much consideration, I realized I had to end it. However, when this got back to Dr. P, she was furious at me for firing the therapist. One evening, during all this ridiculousness, the crisis team was at my house and Pearson called me and yelled at me over the phone so loudly and with such venom that the crisis team heard the whole thing through my landline. They were shocked. I recall one person said, "Oh my god, that's your psychiatrist?"
Why was I so stupid to keep seeing her? Probably because I just didn't know any better. Or couldn't think of anything else to do. In 2010 i ended up with a narcissistic therapist and went through hell with her.
I was put into Massachusetts General Hospital where, for the first time in my life, I was so badly abused that I had a trauma reaction. They had deprived me of water. I have DI (diabetes insipidus) from lithium. If you deny fluids to a person with DI they can die of dehydration!!!! They treated me like an animal.
She called me psychotic and delusional when all I was trying to do was tell her I had been abused. I believe Dr. Pearson was required by mandatory reporting laws to DO SOMETHING and not assume her patients are delusional. I wish I had sued. I've been told I could have phoned the police on her and the others who claimed I was a nutcase.
By the way, I relocated, ditched the diagnoses, totally recovered from ED and have a great life now.