Your thoughts and opinions on pyschiatrists, mental doctors, psychologists, etc

[wasd44]

So he went to school, has a thorough understanding of what occurs in the synapse between two neurons.  He can read brain scans like comic books.  When it comes to medical terminology, it's hard to even understand him speak.  And when it comes to defining diagnoses, he's as trust-worthy as the DSM book.

But so what?  Does he know the first thing about how you should "cope" with your life?  How can he understand what it's like to lose the love of your life, to hate your family, to never succeed?  He drives a Bentley, and he's supposed to understand why you feel like killing yourself and everyone around you in the slums?  He's read a lot of papers, but can he read you? 

Take a mental hospital.  You have the patients who come and are treated.  You have the doctors, nurses, techs and counslers who are doing the treating.  But don't they get mental and purposeful satisfaction from being at the hospital?  Aren't they fufilling some role they need to play in their life as being the Dr?

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What are your opinions on psychiatrists?

Would you go to one, and would you take their advice?

Can they really understand you?

Thoughts?

[PsychVegas]

Psychiatrists have a purpose. Yes, if I believed I was in a place in my life that could benefit from a psychiatrist I would go, listen, and reflect on the advice they gave me. The key question you asked is "Can they really understand you?"

They don't have to understand you as an individual. They give advice based on what you tell them (similar to symptoms) and then compare that against the 1000's of conversations they have hade with other clients and from the case studies they have read. I don't want to make it sound as simple as just diagnosis through pattern recognition, but to some extent that is what it is...they have tons of background knowledge on cases similar to your individual case and give advice based on what was found to work for previous cases.

[Enigma]

They are victims of a very misunderstood science.  There is no such thing as "mental illness".  So-called "mental illnesses" are not caught like a fever and cannot be cured by pills like other bodily illnesses.  There is only different people, different minds.  Yes, some of these minds display negative thought patterns which results in negative behavior or vice versa.  Certain collections of these negative thought patterns/behaviors can be grouped together to become what the DSM defines as schizophrenia or depression, or other mental illnesses.  But before we understand these causes of these disorders, we must understand how the mind itself works and how the mind arises from the body.  

I highly object to the hijacking of psychology by pharmaceutical industries whose main interest is to make a profit and unscrupulous practitioners of psychology who aid in this exploitation of our science.  Pills are a temporary fix, never a solution.  


No one can truly understand you but you.  A psychologist can give you insight into your own mental processes, but only you can truly understand the events that shaped you.  A psychologist can only offer advice, an educated opinion, but nothing more. 

I'd go to a psychologist, yes.  I'd consider their opinion, maybe I'd take their advice, maybe I wouldn't.  But there are certain parts of my mind that will never be revealed to anyone.  The mind is the last sanctum, the only place where one can truly be free, the one place of absolute privacy.  I will never surrender that freedom. 

[SWM]

this is such a vast topic. one that i have many thoughts about, but i have no definite conclusions.

there is such a conflict of opinions with in this field. my own experience is as both a patient and a professional.

some of the key things for me.

biomedical model of mental illness, medication for psychological problems. drug companies udertaking research and providing the evidence for the treatment of mental illness.  the lack of psychological treatment for mental illness (psychological problems).

What are your opinions on psychiatrists?

i work with a very good one, i have encountered many not so good. i have been a patient to some terrible. they are trained to work in a way which is not optimally beneficial to patients.

Would you go to one, and would you take their advice?

i was once ill, and the treatment i received made me more ill, i stopped engagement with psychiatric services and i managed my own illness much better. if i ever became ill again such that i needed further intervention, i would take consultation but i understand enough about mental illness to know whether i could trust that consultant.

Can they really understand you?

sweeping generalisation. i think the training to become a psychiatrist removes the doctor from the patient as a living human being. the doctor is trained to think of symptoms and diagnosese and evidence based treatments (drugs). the individual is lost beneath a label and the label is hijacked by drug copmpanies.

i have to concede that i have expereinced medication helping people, and as a mental health professional i have duty not to discourage compliance. this is a difficult postion for me as medication really inhibited my own recovery from mental illness.

[liza123]

i would say that it is important for these sort of medical professionals(and others like GPs etc) to feel "empathy" rather than "sympathy" for patients. to read diagnosis, etc from the book is simply not sufficient as a doctor(mental or otherwise!). But, they are some individual doctors and the like who do practise "empathy"...some of them are aware that the textbook material is not sufficient and learn more to improve and reach out to people.

so, how does one make doctors aware of the importance of "emphathy"?should the current curriculum for doctors be revised?

[anaklio]

>so, how does one make doctors aware of the importance of "emphathy"?should the current curriculum for doctors be revised?

It is heavily stressed in training. The problem comes from repetition and frustration.

You can empathize with that as how many friends can you really be there for?
And when you try to help friends who don't listen, are you motivated to continue?

These are not excuses, EVERYONE should have more empathy.
Not only would it make better professionals, it would make a better world.
Just please understand the environment professionals work in.

[liza123]

>so, how does one make doctors aware of the importance of "emphathy"?should the current curriculum for doctors be revised?

It is heavily stressed in training. The problem comes from repetition and frustration.

You can empathize with that as how many friends can you really be there for?
And when you try to help friends who don't listen, are you motivated to continue?

These are not excuses, EVERYONE should have more empathy.
Not only would it make better professionals, it would make a better world.
Just please understand the environment professionals work in.

But, anaklio, I do understand the stress involved. Empathy can be stressed during the training but, it is hard to practise. There are a number of people who take up the medical profession due to money. When you take the Hippocrates Oath(do they still do that?), it is meant to make you understand the importance of your profession

[liza123]

anaklio, medical profession is like a 'sacred' position in some ways. as a practitioner, it is the person 's duty to do the utmost best with regards to the health of the patient. how many medical professionals realise the impact of their profession on the lives of others?how many take time to talk and listen to patients?connecting with a patient is important. that is the step you take to feel empathy.

[ozziemate]

"I am called to give answers , sadly I have none
I am told to try and help , yet I know most of the time I can't really offer anything.
I am held with great respect yet feel so undeserving,
I see a psychiatrist myself and know how you feel,
I try to live a life with family and friends yet my failures haunt me,
25 % of my patients die from their own hands, and I know I could have done more.
I do the best I can but that is never enough.
Who am I?" ~anon

The point being is that the whole world is ill in so many ways and some people amongst us try their very best to find a way to not only survive on such a disturbed planet but in litle ways lift the quality of life just as much as the system we work in allows us too.

Years ago before their were any medication options doctors simply find a lockable room and throw their patients in there to fend for them selves. Society has taken leaps and bounds in treating and comforting where possible the tragedy of mental/ social dysfunction unfortunately when a person is so much pain there is naught a doctor can do but throw suplitudes and "tisk tisks" and "what a pity", at the problem knowing full well that statistically they are unlikely to see the patient living every again.

The desperation for solutions drives most complaints against psychiatrist and doctors generally and whilst the desperation is understandable the lack of gratitude towards someone who could just as easily refer the patient to a Veterinary surgeon is one of the greatest frustrations I would imagine a psychiatrist faces.

They, the psychiatrists are human afterall and after years of being abused by desperate patients they too become insular and indifferent as a matter of their own survival.
It is a tragic indistry full of tragic experiences and that is all there is to it.....
Be grateful for any help you get as there is no obligation upon any one to offer help to begin with.
Just my opinion and no I am not happy about the medical response to psychiatric issue either ...far from it....but there is a need if at all possible to keep it in perspective in these often life and death situations. [ btw I have done some advocacy work in mental health institutions so I have experienced first hand what has helped form my opinion]

[DarkPoet]

I don't think I would go to a psychiatrist, I find that my friends and people that I know and trust are more than willing to hear me out and give suggestions about my problems.

[Joe L. Ogan]

Why could the professional people in the field of psychology not interpret and intervene before a person like the major in the army, who was a psychiatrist himself,  goes on a rampage and kills 13 people and wounds many more?  That is a disappointment to me that they always appear to know after the fact.

[Enigma]

Hindsight is 20/20.