The whole country's having a mental health crisis over political unrest, foreign wars and climate disasters, all while your therapist — like most in the profession — is away for the month of August. For an urban shrinkaholic like me, being forced off the couch for four weeks can be a scary proposition. If you're anxious about your head doctor's vacation or haven't been making progress, is it wrong to soothe your psyche with someone new who is in town?

"When I go away, I make sure another doctor is covering for me and share their contact info on my phone message and out of office email," Manhattan psychiatrist Carlos Saavedra told me. "A patient's treatment plan may include medication, seeing a trauma specialist or getting more support from Twelve Step meetings, depending on an individual’s needs." But he prefers they discuss it with him first.

My addiction specialist, Dr. W, promoted this type of open relationship, as long as he was "the primary" (as polyamorists and detectives on "Law & Order: SVU" called it). Because I was having a hard time giving up cigarettes, alcohol and pot, he recommended a psychopharmacologist colleague of his, hoping antidepressant medication would ease my extreme withdrawal. It didn't.

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Wellbutrin, touted as a stop-smoking aid, almost gave me seizures. The Adderall the doctor prescribed for my potential ADD turned me into a speed freak for 24 hours,........

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