Dr. Thomas Carey Merritt, MD

What I look for in a doctor is that he will listen to what I have to say and explain to me his ideas for treatment. I was very happy

Best psychiatrist on the planet.

He is very sociable, friendly. Loves to talk. Loves to "visit". 90% of the visits are general conversation about fishing, politics, hobbies, etc. It's like he likes to hear himself talk and has a captive audience. He's lonely! Very. Highly educated, but almost clueless as to how to practice, sadly. Always late. Find someone else. You need more than a "friend". You need a GOOD doctor. Keep looking.

After nearly half a lifetime of being treated for various psychotic and mood disorders, I don't know that I would be functioning as well as I am now and it all happened because I met this psychiatrist in Jacksonville. My overly-medicated journey ended only a few short years after I met Dr. Merritt when my body became so neurologically dysfunctional that my future psychiatrists began to recommend that I find an alternative way to cope with my symptoms. He takes pride as a doctor with a background in neurology, but was too poorly versed in the subject as a psychiatrist that he missed obvious symptoms of my neurological reactions associated with the medications he prescribed: bed-wetting, slurring, dizziness, muscle tension and contractions, an inability to recognize my spoken words as English, uncontrollable movement, agitation and hyperactivity as well a large variety of other obvious neurological symptoms that several doctors around the country were ultimately all unable to… identify. Luckily for me however, several other psychiatrists and doctors from that point forward were concerned and immediately saw the relationship between my medication and the effect it was having on my nervous system as well as my behavior. After several years in the mental health system and after a couple of negligent medical experiences (including this one), I have accepted that all of them were necessary. In the end, I didn't have a serious mental health issue, and had been misdiagnosed by my psychiatrists starting at the age of thirteen. Since discontinuing my medications about a year and a half ago, I now consider myself to be a highly contributing member of society with a good memory and ability to stay well-focused. If it weren't for him making things so terrible and so quickly, I would probably be sitting in another hospital right now walking back and forth wondering why I can never sleep. Generally, the sanity of a psychiatrists waiting room is usually a good indication of the ability of the psychiatrist himself. When a doctor tells his patients that he chose to become a psychiatrist because of how much he understands neurology while also giving his patients over an hour for medication management and "therapy," he has clearly lost sight of his own practice and the regulations that have been set for him by his overseeing organization and committees. This physician is an example of what psychiatry was never meant to be.