Does anyone else feel that modern psychiatry to a greater and greater extent has become plagued with rash pill pushing and the reckless use of drugs? Whatever happened to talking to the patient? I'm interested to know if anyone has had an experience with a psychiatrist in which you were medictaed, and if you feel you should have been.

Its because this is 2008 and no one has passion anymore and it's all about the money and nothing more.

Big pharmaceutical companies have to take parth of the blame for that.

Its a different situation in England. If you go to your GP, for instance, and tell them about your depressive feelings, they'll prescribe you prozac. If its out of their sphere of influence, they'll refer you to psych nurses, psychiatrists and the like, but this can take a very long time.

The average psych appointment waiting list was eight months here in the UK in 2007. Doctors have so many patients to see in their day that it has become the normal route to try meds first. Usually when one strikes up a rapport with their psychiatrist, the more time they have to listen. Some people see the same doc for years and years. Meds first > Talk therapy second.

(It's about trying to reduce the immediate problems before you're in a space to talk or explain yourself clearly)

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it depends on your doctor

my psychiatrist is more than concerned about everything going on with me

others would rather just give you a script and enjoy their 6 figure salary

Nope. You're the first person ever to notice this.

OK, seriously though, the psychiatry "profession" is plagued with problems. Not least of all are the conflicts of interest in the way the DSM is put together.

I can only speak from personal experience, but I find that talking to someone with the LEAST amount of education is the best. If you go to a psychiatrist it seems all they do is ask a bunch of questions based entirely on the DSM criteria (don't even bother to reword it half the fucking time). If you go to a psychologist they will try to apply a whole bunch of their favourite theories to you. If you go to a counsellor often they approach the situation with life experience only.

Life Experience > DSM criteria or Unproven Theories

IMHO.

That's why you have psychiatry, which is a medical practice, i.e. drugs to treat, not cure, mental disorders; and on the flip side you have my kind, psychologists, and I must say, I am disappointed by both camps.

It is more about joining a little social circle than it is about helping people. Which is sad when you consider how much faith, not to mention money, the average person puts into a psychologist. I am damn near disgusted at how sloppy, uncaring and downright ignorant, some of these so called "mental health professionals" act.

Becoming a psychologist has nothing to do with how good you are, or how therapeutic your interaction with your client is. Rather, it's an academic, and bureaucratic process, where you kiss ass until you're accepted into the social circle which is the APA, or BCBA or whatever other official organization is masquerading as a paragon of "sanity". As crooked as psychiatry is, at least it has some scruples for admission, good medical knowledge, chemistry, physiology, and the like, that way, you at least kind of sound like you know what the fuck you're talking about. Psychology only requires you to know basic statistics, and whatever crackpot theory your "higher learning" institution pushes you to accept.

I am a B.C.B.A. and a licensed by the A.P.A. to perform clinical psychology in the state of Florida, and these are my professional OPINIONS. I came to these opinions after several Ph.D's sent their clients over to me, with my lowly M.S. These "doctors" couldn't help them but they sure could charge their respective insurance companies $235/h. I proved more helpful to these clients in 3 sessions than 3 weeks with said Ph.D's. However, since I ONLY have a Masters degree, I'm not part of any research team, and openly dislike most psychologists, I can only charge $40/h. Politics and papers, not performance, keep me at my income level, the only reason I keep my career is because I genuine have a passion for psychology, and I haven't broken any laws. I've been under review for the last year, because I don't like the cunts that run things in my field and they know it.

If it wasn't for my professor, who is also the director of the psychology program at my Alma Mater, vouching for me, I would have never had my Thesis accepted, and I would never have even been considered for my licensing.

Lol, you're so right. I had to go to counseling for a DUI I got a few years back. The psychologist told me it was her theory that all people who smoke pot have ADD. I guess my ADD got the best of me when I refused to take her stupid UA's and got booted from the program.

...use a proxy?

I think you should consider it.

A psychiatrist is not a psychologist. I psychiatrist is an actual medical doctor and talks to you like a GP does but regarding psychiatric symptoms, then prescribes psychoactives, their specialty. If you want "talk therapy" you obviously shouldn't go to a psychiatrist, that is not their job. A psychologist can't even prescribe you anything because they are not medical doctors.

Being medical doctors, psychiatrists have protocol (taper on/off recommended doses etc.) to follow with some of their own discretion. There is an untold amount of bullshit and greed involved, of course, along with rediculous prescriptions from some. Plus there's a general lack of knowledge about the psyche in general, despite endless billions of wasted dollars for research.

You don't know the history of psychiatry. It's not just modern psychiatry, but most of the mental health "professions." They are essentially an extension of the pharmaceutical companies, always have been.

I have a friend at medical school and last night we were talking and he thinks psychiatry is bullshit. Eg, they don't know how the meds work, they just know they do, they aren't entirely sure of the causes of the illnesses, and why some people can be diagnosed with something and never respond to medication, a lot of their treatments are not understood in their action of mechanism etc, there is no actual scientific test for the illnesses, it is just reported feelings that have to meet criteria.

It's really scary when they're playing with people's brains and the way they work.

Hmmm. I don't think any of that made sense. It's really erratically written. Oh well.

i don't know how true this is, but someone told me that psychiatrists kill themselves more than any other profession.

http://www.antipsychiatry.org/index.htm

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My father is a psychiatrist and he does none of the such. He prefers to first resolve the problem through deferment to psychologists and group-therapists, it is only after the patient has provided evidence documenting the gravity of the problem and the failure of the therapy team to reach a solution that he introduces pharmacotherapy into the patient's treatment plan.

Of course, it's not like patient non-compliance isn't a big issue these days too ya know. You can only help so much those that truly do not want to be helped (not referring to bipolar patients in their manic phase; they tend to be irrational at best when in this state).

Having first practiced as an anesthesiologist, he made the move to psychiatry after seeing how unfairly those deemed "demented" in their asylums were treated. Yes, people; prior to the advent of psychiatry if you were crazy you were put away in an asylum, forgotten about, and never talked about again and forever a stain upon your family and kin, and your name a taboo subject. The system may not be perfect now, but for fucks sake it's A LOT better than it was before so fucking take your heads out of your asses and open your eyes, sunshine.

He is now undergoing another specialization (after first sub-specializing in geriatrics and Alzheimer's care) in opioid addiction and withdrawal symptom management.


The bottom line:
It's easy about to bitch about the big picture and forget about the details. There still are those that wish to help, but it sure is easy to forget how things were and complain about how things are right now.

Even now he is in Jacksonville, practicing in a state penitentiary to help even those behind bars. Just because of where they are doesn't mean they cease to be human; in an inhuman environment where inmate numbers are favored over names, it's easy to start seeing them as nothing more than livestock awaiting slaughter.

And trust me, it's not like working for the state pays well. He does this as a side job while most his income comes from his private practice and addiction clinic.

So, just because doctors were ignorant fucking quacks back then, we should be happy and shut up that they aren't AS ignorant, or AS quacky?


No, shit is STILL fucked up to this very day. Your father may be a decent doctor, but his existence does not negate the hundreds of thousands of assholes out there doling out SSRI/SNRI etc type drugs like fucking candy.

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I was at a medicine convention in June, and was told that Anesthesiologists have the highest divorce rate, highest suicide rate, and have the highest rate of malpractice. Not that I care, though, really, about who is right. Both are plausible. Also, to the psychologist in this thread: It is my understanding that in order to apply for med school, the least you need is a bachelors. If one were to be accepted, go through med school, etc, and get their specialty in Psychiatry, would they still have to take the relevant classes to become licensed counselors? Like would they be able to prescribe, but not treat?

A bachelors is required to get into med school, med school is a sort of graduate school. I don't know I didn't go to med school I have a M.S. in Clinical Psychology with an emphasis on Behavior Analysis, to get your license to practice in the state of Florida as a Psychologist, you need a minimum an M.S. and 1200 hrs of either supervised training or unsupervised traning under the direction of a practicing board member. It's the same for both the mental health counselor and board certified behavior analyst. The ethics involved are practically the same for both, but you also need to be up to date with all the current research in either field if you want to pass the examination, as well as knowing the jargon each uses.

If you get through med school I wouldn't suggest becoming a counselor, first off you make more money as a Psychiatrist than a Psychologist, and you do have to take a few psychology courses if you head down that route anyway. Most laymen often get psychiatry and psychology confused so to people it doesn't really matter. There are psychiatrists that are excellent counselors and there are psychologists (a lot of them) that are horrible counselors it really depends on the type of person you are. Do you actually have a desire to learn, or are you just mindlessly picking a career because it seems easy or something?

Psychiatrists, along with doctors, get BIG bucks from pharmaceutical companies. Ostensibly for being "good doctors," but it is obvious that the bonuses, paid vacations, free products, etc, are all incentives for the doctors to prescribe pills. Ever wonder why they always have "Levitra 110mg" pens and "Zoloft 200mg" pads at doctors' offices?

Well, I'm intelligent, I want to help people, and I find aspects of how the mind operates interesting, leading me to something like psychology or neurology. So to clarify, psychiatrists can counsel without being licensed counselors? Or no? Sorry; I was probably vague in asking my question.

This is an overstatement. Yes, my dad gets free pens/pads/stationery, but as far as the pharmaceutical dinners hosted by the pharm companies, in the state of florida family members are generally barred from attending.

Vacations aren't paid, they don't get bonuses as far as I know. I can only speak on behalf of my father and the doctors in Florida I know.

I just think that he had seen "John Q" one too many times, is all.

Yeah, they have a thing with giving young children anti-depressants and amphetamines for their behavioral issues. I've noticed that Prozac won't make a person happier so much as it wipes out the deep lows of human emotion (Depression, anger, etc) at the sacrifice of the highs (Joy and the like).

Things like prozac and zoloft, in the people I've seen take them have seemed to be in a neutral state of emotion at all times, just in the middle, No sad, No happy, just content.

It's because people wanna get high man.