Dr. Sharon Ann Alger Mayer, MD

Sharon Algers should be ashamed of herself and should turn in her medical license immediately. Her work--and her irresponsible prescribing of psychiatric drugs--were a form of child abuse. As a teenager, my eating disorder was a cry for help. I needed a safe adult to call CPS. Instead, Algers assigned me personal responsibility for having an eating disorder and prescribed me drugs that increased my risk of suicide. :: When I was 14, I was coached into developing an eating disorder. My abusive female parent (I am no contact today, with great relief) had initiated a crash dieting competition and bought me a dress that was three sizes too small, and told me I could keep the dress if I lost enough weight to wear it to the middle school dance in three weeks. The dress hung in my closet as I starved myself and did sit-ups in the middle of the night. I, obviously, could not lose 25 pounds in 3 weeks, but I kept dieting because having the dress taken away was traumatic and it was clear… this was how I was going to earn my mother's love. :: Fast forward eight months, I had lost 40 pounds and was pitch-black depressed, and the school called. My mother didn't want me to be well-- she wanted me to be thin and she didn't want me red flagging to our small community that there was something really wrong in our house. :: My female parent wagged her finger in my face, telling me I had to "admit I had a problem" and "take responsibility for my eating disorder." I was dragged to Sharon Alger's office. Algers did not ask me ANY questions about my home life, what messages I got about my body, what messages I got about women's roles (my female parent was extremely submissive and my abusive step-father LOATHED women. The conditions of our Voorheesville home were like 1960s Alabama). :: Instead of asking me ANY questions about my home life or environmental factors, Algers prescribed me (a child!) Luvox and told me to tell an adult if I started having suicidal thoughts. Again, this is child abuse. :: Algers was weirdly obsessed with reminding me, at every appointment, that Bruegger's bagels have 340 calories, and not 300 calories like most other bagels, which would seem to indicate that she has food issues of her own. Why tell an anorexic kid that their safe food has 40 unexpected calories? She mentioned this at every-single-appointment. :: Algers also referred to Susan Klim, an equally reprehensible woman who once made me stand in a mirror and describe what I didn't like about my body. I have literal trauma from this exercise; I never had a problem with my body, my mother did. :: Today I am no contact with my family, and I'm very involved with the psychiatric abolition movement. Psychiatry is a profession that attracts health care workers with an appetite for dominance; it has not evolved, it has only gotten cleverer in its violence. My work has resulted in dozens of articles in mainstream publications about the trauma of psychiatry and carceral crisis "care." I'm so glad I escaped the for-profit sick care industrial complex. (And I'm so glad I escaped my family!) It was fascinating to learn that Albany Med's ER and psychiatry department both have a reputation for institutional abuse (unusually liberal with sedative injections, restraints, and seclusion including a patient murder by chemical restraint in 2018-- Sean Purvis. Say his name.) AMC's parent company, HCA, strategically under-resources their facilities to deliver value to shareholders. HCA residency programs are stigmatized, so when you're dealing with AMC residents, you're dealing with the bottom of the barrel. You're probably also dealing with nurses who couldn't get a job at St. Peter's or a facility with better wages and more comfortable working conditions. :: All of which is to say, Algers should feel deep shame in her career and the choices she has made with her life. I needed a safe adult to call CPS. Algers, instead, prescribed me drugs that increased my suicide

I went to see her when I knew I was falling into a bad spot with my eating disorder. She didn't give a hoot about it. She sat there at her computer didnt give me the time of day to explain what I was struggling with. She didn't care that due to the recent events with coronaviris that treatment was very limited. I will never see her again. It's hard enough to ask for help and then to be treated like your making it up is ridiculous.

I went to her for help with my binge eating disorder, she prescribed a ssri, after considering the risks vs benefits I decided I need something that's going to start working immediately so I call her to ask for the only medication the fda has thus far approved for treatment of binge eating disorder and she offers me prozac, saying it's the only other medication approved for bulimia. I am 100% sure I expressed to her I do not purge after binges, as much as I would like to be able to, I cannot, so where is this "bulimia" b.s. coming from? Total waste of time. I went to her desperate for help and nothing came of it. Thanks Dr Alger for listening so well.

I'm very thankful for Dr Alger. She is one of the few Doctors in the Albany / Capital district who specialize in eating disorders, and is excellent at what she does. She was the first Dr I took my daughter to when she was very sick, and we also got in the same day I called. Two hours after I made the call to her office ! I'm very thankful that we got in that day. She spent a great deal of time with my daughter. All of her recommendations as far as treatment facilities, Doctors, and therapists are top notch. She always calls back when I have a question, and I never feel rushed. I have talked to her office staff as well, and they have all been understanding and helpful. Considering that my emotions at times have been a combination of nervous, worried, and desperate for help it's nice to know that my daughter is in the best hands. Dr Alger helped save my daughter's life ! Many thanks to Dr Alger, The Renfrew Center P.A. Dr Klim and the rest of her team.

It has been years since I've seen Dr. Alger, but I did not find her particularly caring. In fact, her lack of caring made a bigger impression. She never called either with test results that showed a problem. I found out 4 months later in a follow-up appt. Never went back after that.

Dr. Alger-Mayer has been my nutritionist since 1999. Through the years, she has coached me and has always been a very caring, understanding, and patient physician.

100% most excellent doctor.she is very caring and follows through on any problem you have.i would recomend her to everyone who needs a doctor in this field.thanks for such excellent care all these years.

Appointments are hard to get, right away. This is a testimony of how good a doctor she is. She in high demand and worth the wait.