Dr. Paul Vincent Kennedy, MD

I met Dr. Kennedy when I was 16 and experiencing severe psychiatric problems. He immediately diagnosed me with bipolar disorder and put me on a metric ton of lithium. Whenever they took my blood, my lithium levels were low, so he just kept prescribing more and more. When I complained about the weight gain (over 60lbs), he prescribed me a diet pill on top of it and told me to get used to it because I would have to be on lithium "for the rest of my life." I went around the facility and asked the other inpatients who their doctor was, and if they had been assigned Dr. Kennedy I asked them if they were on lithium; ALL OF THEM, some of them AS YOUNG AS 12, said yes! He didn't even try any other mood stabilizers on me first, he hopped straight to one of the most dangerous ones. Well, it turns out I don't even have bipolar disorder. The first doctor I saw after I stopped going to the inpatient facility Dr. Kennedy used to work at took one look at my chart and said he doesn't understand why I… was ever on lithium to begin with because I have never had a manic or hypomanic episode. I have a condition that is NOT treatable with medication; I needed a specific form of therapy, and once I went through that program I was able to stop taking mood stabilizers. No lithium in sight, haven't been prescribed any for almost 10 years. So much for needing lithium for the rest of my life! He also once refused to let me leave his office once until I admitted I was goth. That was really strange, had absolutely no bearing on my mental health or treatment trajectory, and struck me as weirdly unprofessional.