Reading reviews about Dr. Washington being a "holistic" doctor is actually comical given that on the one occasion I saw him he tried so very hard to push antidepressants on me by claiming I might be bipolar. This happened in 2000. It's been one of my go-to party anecdotes ever since.
This is what happened: my mom was diagnosed with esophageal cancer. Her gastroenteroligist had asked me if I also had GERD and when I said "yes" he suggested I get an endoscopy. At the time I was on HMO insurance. I was 30 and healthy. So I needed a referral for the endoscopy. My regular doc, Dr. Washington's partner at the time, was unavailable so I just made an appointment with Washington since I was only seeking a referral. The appointment started with me explaning all of this. Then Dr. Washington proceded down the weirdest path. "Do you feel depressed sometimes?" "Well, yeah, my mom was just diagnosed with cancer." "Do you have mood swings? Feeling really sad and then really happy?" "Well, I don't know. I have a new boyfriend (who's now my husband of 16 years) so that makes me happy." I was confused about the line of questions. I just needed a referral for an endoscopy. What does this have to do with anything? But he was building his case. Next he says something like: "You might be bipolar" or some string of words suggesting I may be bipolar. (For the record, no doctor before or since has ever suggested this. And in fact, when I have shared this story with doctors whom I have come to trust over the years, well, they laugh. Anyway, so, aggravated, I asked: "so how do you differentiate what you're talking about with just the normal reaction to everyday life? I have a new boyfirend:Yay! My mom is dying, sad...." His answer was to start asking about my moodiness with menstruation. "Do you get PMS?" After that I tuned him out. I concluded he was a quack who had an agenda and I just needed to let him flap his gums so I could walk out of there with the referral I needed. Oh, and of course, I left with a script and samples for Zoloft. I came home and regaled my boyfriend with this crazy story and we had a good laugh at how bizarre the whole thing was. BUT SERIOUSLY...WTF??? So, back then there was no Yelp. No way for me to share this experience beyond the my usual cocktail party banter. I never went back to Dr. Washington's partner, by the way, because I never wanted to bump into Dr. Washington again. The memory was triggered tonight because I was watching the movie "Love and Other Drugs" with Anne Hathway and Jake Gylenhall about how unethical the pharma industry is in how they influence doctors to write prescriptions. When the movie came out in 2010 I told everyone to watch it because it's true....the whole pushing samples on patients that's portrayed in the movie. I still can't believe I went in to Dr. Washington for an endoscopy referral and came out with script for Zoloft. By the way, my endoscopy came up clean. My mom lived six more years and died of a different type of cancer. I had three miscarriages and my brother died at 53 of a horrible neurodegenerative disorder that left him unable to walk, talk or swallow and I was one of his primary caregivers. I have never taken an antidepressant to this day. I have seen the same primary doc for about 15 years through all that crap and she has never pushed antidepressants on me (tho she's offered them during some of those trying times) and she's NEVER suggested I was bipolar. She literally laughed when I told her the story. Be careful when a doctor doesn't listen to you or seems to have an agenda. I know it's hard to make money in the medical field these days but imposing medicine or treatments a patient doesn't need is not the answer. read more