Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr Psychiatrists

[BooooHiss]

Just grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

And why t actual f do they get paid so much?

They r useless (not all, but a large majority)

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Sorry my phone screen is cracked hence the spelling mistakes.

I have seen numerous counsellors and psychotherapists. All lovely. The one psychiatrist I saw accused me of making up the experience I was in with potential PTSD for because I 'wasn't emotional enough'

The one psychiatrist I saw in the dreaded CAMHS made some vile pronouncement about my parenting. This vile pronouncement hung about my neck for years, I couldn't get rid of it - and DD didn't get the help she needed. It was a very lazy time at CAMHS: blame the mother. Projection if you ask me.

The next time I saw this psychiatrist, years later, I was ready and shot a withering "Oh are you still here? You were pretty jaded the last time I saw you". Within a very short time I heard he'd gone/left/retired.

I like to think I saved a lot of people a lot of heartache.

Have had excellent ones over the years, and shocking ones. Have bipolar. Biggest issue is you just can't see them often enough for medication reviews, and by then it's too bloody late. Their HCPs are run ragged too so therapy waiting lists are just as frustrating. See my post on the John McDonald thread. No middle ground. I sympathise OP, there's a lot of ivory towers out there.

Yes psychiatrists are medical doctors with long periods of training so they come at things from a medicalized perspective, also I think they are often under immense pressure to make decisions when only meeting patients for a 20 minute appointment. I am not pro or con, just describing their job.

Sorry, *John McDonnell MP, re my post above.

Completely agree OP

I remember seeing a psychiatrist years ago in the adolescent services.

Honestly, he was the most patronising piece of shit I've ever met. Accused me of making up my severe depression for attention, said I was trying to send him a message through a t shirt I was wearing that my mum had picked for me to wear as she picked me up from school to take me to my appointment and barely even looked up from his notebook.

I've spent years on and off seeing psychologists, counsellors, nurses and doctors etc who have been wonderful, but that particular man always sticks in my mind 14 years later for the damage he did to my recovery.

Not bashing psychiatrists in general, but the attitude you say this one has really relates with me.

Psychiatrists are there to diagnose and prescribe medication.
Hence the salary.
They have a different job to psychologists and councillors.

I was lucky enough to have crisis (not sure if that's the right spelling) come out to me after I had my baby and spent time in hospital with aspirational pneumonia I got home had a breakdown and crisis were amazing talking to me calming me I saw a psychiatrist once and they just said your on the mend lol I found the normal trained crisis team so much better as it was easier talking to them

Well Psychiatrists are doctors, and have responsibility for diagnosing and prescribing.

I’m sorry OP, but your diagnostic opinion isn’t worth abythinng, you aren’t a doctor. You should have gone to medical school if you wanted to diagnose, and have the pay and prestige of a psychiatrist.

For what it’s worth, I’ve found psychiatric workers who aren’t psychiatrists are a very mixed bag, some go way over the mark in terms of bouhndaries, over identify with everyone, over promise things and clearly have mental health issues of their own that affect their ability to carry out their job.

I have a friend who is a Psychiatrist. Out of all the branches of medicine I can't understand why he choose this one. His job is awful. He works in the prison service. He's always under severe pressure and has to be very careful with his own mental health.

"I've always thought MH was fundamentally flawed because most of the time it's just that you need someone to help out in a practical sense, just do the washing or something, and that's not what they're there for"
Yeah, sure. That's what people with mental health problems need-someone to pop in and do the washing.

There are some truly dreadful ones. One has left ds1 with permanent (physical) damage because he didn’t believe me when I said the drugs were causing a particular side effect. 3 years later it appears I was right.

But ds1’s current psychiatrist is very good (largely because he doesn’t seem to like most psychiatric drugs & is pretty holistic in his thinking - can be unusual in a psychiatrist).

Also - in any health service there is a hierarchy so the team/service can function - someone has to take ultimate responsibility, someone has to make the tea etc.

In Mental health the hierarchy is a bit more ‘broken down’ - which is good in some ways as it leads to more openness in communication, but also means you get low level employees thinking hey can do better than a consulant psychiatrist.

Some people do have BPD as their underlying diagnosis, and need support for this. Sounds like YOU are prejudiced against it, and don’t really understand the condition, hence thinking all your clients have alternate diagnoses

I feel you OP. Working in mental health for 10 years and I'd say in that time I've encountered two psychiatrists that were workable with. I've actually recently left a post due to the scenarios you describe in your third post. This person was just completely off-the-scale and I realised I couldn't physically work with them in the team as they continued to block me from doing my job. So utterly frustrating.

My GP "You've been on this medication for a while, it needs to be reviewed. It's an old drug we don't prescribe any more. As you know it can have irreversible effects . . . Specialist,. . . Hmm. I'm afraid I'll have to refer you to a psychiatrist for a decision on this. It will just be for the one assessment, don't like to send my patients to them, they're all mad".

And for what it's worth (having just seen DorasBobs post) without being too outing I also hold a Dr title and have the professional ability to diagnose, yet completely agree with everything you've said. All their post serves to do is reiterate the attitude that's the problem- "well the psychiatrist is obviously the only one in your team who has knowledge and power so your opinion is worthless". Utter rubbish!!

mammabubs - so you agree that Psychiatrists are overpaid and useless? And you’re a doctor?

If a nurse was referring people to you with diagnoses she thought they had and you disagreed, does that make you incompetent?

It sounds like it's you doing the splitting OP.

5bobaweek - completley agree

OP you may have difficulty accepting this, but psychiatrists are medical experts in mental illness. They have trained for many years To work in their role, medical school, foundation training, core/ basic specialist training for 3 years ( minimum) in junior doctor roles, higher specialist training. Diagnosis and treatment medically are essential in helping those with severe mental illness. Unless you agree with the earlier poster who think people just need help with the washing, in which case you should not work in mental health.
Will you undertake MHA assessments then, act as Approved clinician for patients detained the Mental hEalth Act or CTO? do you want to? Would you like to partake in out of hours totals for the rest of your career to cover the service when the rest of the team has clicked off. Take responsibility legally when the worst happens? The team has to be clinically led. Your post is actually quite depressing . Can you sit in with a psychiatrist for the day to see what they actually do, then you will not make such ignorant statements. As for saying they are on a power trip- I have no words for such generalised nonsense. Awful, untrue thing to say, they are highly trained medical professionals working hard to manage those with severe mental illness.

Psychiatrists can have a lot of power though - and I have experienced some dreadful ones.

As I said before current one is very good, but he does seem unusual.

I think psychiatry is a particular problem because the medical model is maybe not the best for treating mental illness & so many of the drugs are awful (& their side effects underestimated except by those that have to take the the bastard things.) They’re also often over prescribed for conditions they really should not be used for.

Take a look at STOMP for example.

www.england.nhs.uk/learning-disabilities/improving-health/stomp/

And MHA assessments (in the LD field anyway) are also about resourcing. I wasn’t impressed with my observation of one.

Sorry you think a good psychiatrist is ‘unusual’. I don’t agree with this . Not sure about LD field, but in other fields resourcing does not impact the very clear requirements to be detained and treat3d under MHA. Certainly in the case of personality disorders, a purely medical model will not fit- as explained by a previous poster. But for severe mental illness such as schizophrenia, I’m not sure who you suggests treat these people, if there were no psychiatrists. Genuine question, if there were no medical experts in mental illness, how would such patients be treated? Question to the OP too.