Alexandra Whiddon
Hi Thomas,
I saw Alex Whiddon longer than any other "shrink nurse" or psychiatrist -- I'm guessing for at least eight years. And as I remember, she was one of the smartest, getting her main degree at Vanderbilt U., and marrying VERY well, although I think Whiddon is her maiden name and I think she switched back to it after a divorce, but I'm not sure. Either she has lots of money so works little, or works associated with another practice besides PACT Atlanta as well. In any case, she's the only one there who lists NO email address on their page (last I looked this was still true, about 9 months ago), so if you have an emergency and don't know it, she doesn't care to get your email, and I had no emergency number to call ANYONE at PACT Atlanta.
That said, us "nut cases" are known to suffer "Hypergraphia" (he writes too much), which was an ACTUAL listed symptom of mania in the 1970s, and one used to prove I was bipolar. I prefer the simpler term "Writer."
I think Alex might be OK outside of PACT, because of her smarts and she really did listen to me, although her bringing up the fact that no one should be on Lithium long term because of what it can do to internal organs (it DID cause nearly all my near-perfect teeth to go bad, and possibly gave me super-slow circulation in my lower legs and feet), but not bringing it up until I'd been on the drug for 30 years, was at best NEGLIGENT.
We first tried me off it entirely, but she wasn't sure what to think because no one recovers, really, from Bipolar, according to current psychiatric belief, so with my long history, any pill-prescriber or assistant, will prescribe pills just to keep from professional and possibly legal criticism. I had this problem in North Carolina, too, in 2011, when I got completely different mental health evaluations from those who had been told of my diagnosis (by me, the Courts, or my mother), and those I did not tell but answered all their questions honestly.
Todd Antin, MD
Dr. Todd Antin, who owns the company and must sign all Alex's prescriptions, never even MET me the first six or seven years, and while I knew that in Georgia, the prescribing physician MUST meet all patients and then continue occasionally to do so, I did not worry about the Law being broken since I was so stable, I had after a couple of years at Dekalb Community Service Board (the new-speak name for Dekalb Mental Health Services -- after they changed the name about 1995, and where I began in 1990), I was only going in ONCE per year and not all years included getting a Serum Lithium test. My appointments were for ten minutes after the first few, a tradition Alex continued after I followed her to PACT, although a new Georgia Law required that everyone be seen at least TWICE per year, so I had to see her more often.
Dubose Porter
And I had better tell you too, that one of the ODDEST things to happen to me in Atlanta involved Alex. I'm pretty sure it was in early spring 2010, that I somehow got onto then Liberal radio host Tom Houck's invite list to his monthly political parties, and I went to one in March or April, meeting two people who were running then in the Georgia primary for Governor as Democrats -- one named Dubose Porter (Dubose is a family I later learned is allied to some distant Kenan relatives, and he was particularly interesting -- but he lost the primary -- today, he is the Chairman of the Democratic Party of Georgia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DuBose_Porter), but Tom himself gave me the cold shoulder. Some drunk woman at the bar asked me to come in REAL CLOSE because I had the sweetest breath -- LOL!!!
But after about 1.5 hours, Alex Widdon showed up with a friend (although Tom's party took up the whole Highland Tap Martini bar and grill, downstairs at Highland and Virginia Avenues, a few regular customers stopped in too), and while they ate dinner, she tried to convince me to come back to get on medication. I have no idea if Tom had called her in or it was a coincidence. But Tom Houck had been Martin Luther King, Jr.'s WHITE BOY DRIVER, and after looking at much circumstantial evidence I became convinced that he was actually J. Edgar Hoover's mole, facilitating King's assassination. I see his book, DRIVING DR. KING: CHASING A DREAM, which Houck claimed then would soon be published never WAS published, his website, http://tomhouck.com/ has had no updates since 2009, and perhaps Tom has even lost his radio show.
In answer to a question at Puerto Vallarta Writers Group today after I read this same essay, YES, mental illness diagnoses are often for POLITICAL PURPOSES -- but not all of them, I don't think.
On his site, Tom Houck pictures (besides the obligatory Obama shot), three of the GREATEST DEMOCRATIC PARTY CRIMINALS, Hillary Clinton, Rahm Emanuel, and the Republican Secretary of Defense left over from the Bush years, Robert Gates.
And even stranger (to me personally), is that that exact restaurant space is the space where in 1983 when I moved to Georgia, was Texas Drilling Company, a popular gay leather, western, and "whips & chains" bar -- with Gary Tucker spinning the disks!!!
Gary and his boyfriend Skye Wyatt were the two key people who were then living high on the hog in a mansion on Peachtree Street near the High Museum, all expenses paid for by a key legislator (Republican), in the Tennessee State legislature -- because they helped Sewanee and the Episcopal Church murder Tennessee Williams, then swore he was incompetent when he changed his will, also helping to steal the Williams estate from Harvard.
And another strange coincidence is that this site where I got some info, http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/
So given ALL OF THAT, you should make your own conclusion, but I will tell you I have no animosity toward Alex Whiddon (unlike Todd Antin, who ought to be convicted and hung for running the mental health version of an abortion mill), but when I sue some others in the Atlanta area, I'm sure I will have to subpoena Alex, Todd, and probably Tom Houck too!!!
Scott
PS: I just discovered Alex is now also in private practice: http://atlpsych.com/
On Sat, Aug 16, 2014 at 7:00 PM, Thomas wrote:
You write well!
You mentioned you saw Alex Whiddon. Was she a good Psych?
I, like you, have not had good luck with psychs.
Hope you are well.
Thomas
* * *
Hey North Atlantan -- thanks for the email.
Nothing makes me happier than to hear I get people to THINK (far better than that they just agree with me), and better that I somehow caused you RELIEF!!!
I've been getting a lot more appreciation, lately, and when I read this essay today in writers group, it inspired a long discussion -- and some serious applause!!!
Thank you.
I also hope to soon blog about my experience with having "visions" in only 1983 and 2009, for brief times only. That is the closest thing to something "commitable" that ever happened, but I handled it all with aplomb -- and never confused what was CLEARLY not from physical reality WITH "reality". Nevertheless they were instructive and most interesting (and I think my Catholic upbringing helped keep me cool, calm, and collected -- throughout!!!).
Scott
On Sat, Aug 16, 2014 at 11:48 AM, A North Atlantan wrote:
Scott, you are a man of extraordinary wit, intelligence, and insight..
I cannot describe how or why but I find a measure of 'inner release' in reading your columns, especially the current one on MENTAL HEALTH. On another matter, I do believe President Obama has done an outstanding job so far with the many internal and external problems the USA is experiencing. He is light years ahead of the backward dumbass Republicans who keep on pimping and pumping their fear and hatred.
Well now, Peace and Plenty of good m/m oral activity,
North Atlantan
Scott
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