OK, how often does one get a chance to speak candidly, and this PUBLICLY, about their shrink?…read more
I've made calculations, and I'm pretty sure Dr. Ciganek has been my psychiatrist for just over 16 years. I wouldn't want to embarrass this truly gentle man, but I've not had a more caring, attentive and knowledgeable psychiatrist, or any one physician I've seen over any extended period of time. So .... forgive me if I seem a bit smitten, or like a know-it-all. I realize Dr. Ciganic has all kinds of people as patients, with a spectrum and variety of medical situations I would know little to nothing about.
As Darkling S. expresses well, and so succinctly, Dr. Ciganek treats the whole person, and considers all aspects of your mental, emotional and physical being in the world. I've only seen Ciganek for prescribing medication and its management; I know he also works with patients as a psychotherapist. I've been in group therapy, individual psychotherapy or counseling with psychologists or social workers I've chosen since I've been under Ciganek's care, and he has worked in tandem with them, when necessary.
I used to imagine that only when and if I had a grave, potentially terminal illness would I ever be seeing a top specialist in the Chicago Metro area. Even then, I'd want to interview several of them carefully, with a loved one beside me to help me decide. And though it's true you might feel, due to the personal nature of the specialty, that having a good rapport, and feeling understood by your psychiatrist would be more important than their standing among most peers and patients alike, I have had the good fortune to find both a top specialist in his field, and a psychiatrist who understands me as well as Ciganik does.
I've recently faced a complex family crisis, and Dr. Ciganek, right away, recommended I seek psychotherapy. I'm grateful, now, for the insight he had, then -- knowing I needed more than medication at this time, when I'd assumed otherwise. Along with his useful intuition, Ciganek is open-minded and flexible when it comes to considering my quirks and sometimes stubborn need or decision to do things my own way, though he requires we stay in close communication about such agreements, and he's this accessible and dependable in my life.
Dr. Ciganek has possibly been the most valuable source of my broader education on how to take the best care of myself I can. Along with being ahead of the curve in the most recent psycho-pharmacology research -- which he obviously considers and advises patients on, wherever applicable -- he is the same when it comes to research on human health likely to affect his patients. This has assured me for a long while that Ciganek's practice is not at all about being a pusher for the pharmaceutical industry. He's an independent professional, and respects my independence. That being said, he has finally gotten through to me on the things I've always been most disinclined towards, like the importance of keeping a regular schedule -- and how sleep is an especially critical aspect of this, affecting everything about a person's life.
ONE EXAMPLE: this doctor -- my psychiatrist -- not my internist, and not the nutritionist I saw for six months, told me about the lack of sleep affecting weight, and that was eight years ago, long before studies only recently in the news showing sleep loss can actually lead to gaining weight. Ciganek also knew long before I did that sleep apnea was probably one of the factors behind my problem with fatigue -- that it was not ALL due to my sleep disorder.
Then, about three years ago, I began waking up with horrible, horrible headaches most mornings, which it would take a few hours to shake off -- and I've never been one to suffer headaches. I was even more upset to learn, then, that these headaches were due to a nightly loss of oxygen! So FINALLY, after maybe twelve years or so of my insistent conviction that the use of a mask and loud noise of a C-PAP machine couldn't possibly be tolerable, it has more or less become so. (I should have listened to my doctor ....)
FINALLY: I recently read that many people don't realize patients suffering from chronic pain -- caused by all kinds of conditions -- and people in clinical pain management programs, are often treated with, and benefit from, the skilled use of medications -- such as anti-depressants, anti-seizures, and others -- involving the brain's chemistry. (You're not imagining it, but it IS in your brain!) Dr. Ciganek has continued to surprise and impress me with this and many other aspects involved in appreciating all that a great psychiatrist can do.