To ask why psychiatrists are viewed in this way

[busyweeks78]

I’ve only ever had positive experiences with them but as a general rule the stereotype seems to be a negative one. Aibu to ask why?

Agree with so many things on this thread but mainly Panama.

I always think the old Voltaire quote about Doctors whilst no longer that applicable to general medicine remains perfect for modern psychiatry.

Doctors are men who prescribe medicines of which they know little, to cure diseases of which they know less, in human beings of whom they know nothing

Substitute "Doctors are men who" for just "Psychiatrists" and its pretty perfect as an analogy

I’ve only met one once. Had stress at work and gp referred me. First and only meeting, the psychiatrist was running down a list of possible behaviours and past experiences. So he went thru ‘have you had any self harm issues, eating disorders, domestic violence, childhood trauma etc?’ Then he just went ‘any rapes?’ Something about that really turned my stomach. It was just such an offhand statement/question and the fact that he used rapes plurally just felt so glib and ‘off’. It was weird, offensive and sinister. I never saw him again.

Very few people will ever see a psychiatrist in the UK. Usually private, or a referral requiring many hoops to jump through first. Many will see a counsellor or a therapist or psychologist or psychotherapist. Very different, and provide talking therapy with different specialties usually. So it depends on which you are referring to really.

For me, my psychiatrist diagnosed my conditions, prescribes my meds & monitors in conjunction with my GP. We meet occasionally so she knows where i am mentally and what’s going on in my life but it’s very factual. I have had lots of psychologists and those appointments are not fact driven at all, they are driven by whatever I want to talk about. If I lie, that’s my prerogative and progress is marked & measured however I want. So I can put in as little or as much as myself as I want, which is reflected in the benefit I get.

I've been under the adult mental health team for the past 4 and half years. Seen 4 psychiatrists in that time and they were a very mixed bag. Number 1 (peri-natal) told me that as I was intelligent, articulate and middle class I'd be fine. Unfortunately I thought dc1 was a doll but that didn't seem to bother him. Number 2 (seen shortly after number 1 when things went a bit pear shaped) told me I had pstd, pnd and possibly attachment issues and that I'd never be fine. Number 3 thought drugs was the answer to everything. Number 4 thinks I have c-ptsd and attachment issues, happily prescribes sleeping pills for me and feels very strongily that I should go no contact with my "d"m. His obsession with the last point makes me question his mental health.

They've all been slightly odd in their own fashion.

This is scary. I have an appointment with one for DS soon. So they don't want to hear woes and back story just facts?

I've had some great experiences with them compared to less qualified mental health professionals. I have bpd so the stigma I face is huge and ridiculous because I'm so far from your stereotypical bpd patient. I find inpatient ones worse than community ones but again that's because theyre in a rush, you're very unwell, the stigma is bad and they don't know as much about me.

I do think it's a shame the medical model perseveres over the social model and that's where some psychiatrists "fail". They're do wrapped up in their training and medication and such and can overlook big key factors preventing people from recovery or overlook other methods of recovering like implementing better social support.

I hope your DS has a positive experience Emerald

*so, not do

I agree with ColdTattyWaitingForSummer. From knowing the patients point of view. The psychiatrist is the person who coerces you to take medicines that make you always tired, always fat, and worse. What good is 'being well' when you have no quality of life? And then you get ill again anyway whether or not you take the meds and the psychiatrists and nurses are the people who have you locked up in a horrible place. From acquaintances who've experienced both, mental hospitals can be worse than prisons.

Some psychiatrists are better than others, but overall I think they don't really know what they're doing. They have good intentions but there just aren't effective treatments for some mental health conditions.

I agree with the medical model issue. I once met a psychiatrist who'd be working in addictions for fifteen years. He said he'd just begun to realise that a lot of his patients' issues were down to traumatic past experiences. He said this as if he'd just discovered the holy grail!

Unfortunately as the psychiatrists lead a lot of the services for acute mental health issues they prioritise the aspects they're expert in - diagnosing mental illnesses and prescribing drugs (which are never a cure but rather control symptoms). This means that aspects that can address the core issues (past trauma, attachment issues, adverse childhood experiences etc) through talking therapy or treatments such as EMDR or rewind therapy are not prioritised. For instance, the psychiatrist I met worked in an addiction service that had no counsellors, five psychiatrists and had just employed one psychologist.

I think it's a serious flaw in mental health services. Not all people with mental health diagnoses are untreatable. Clearly at the severe end there are people with severe paranoid schizophrenia or bipolar but it is by no means all patients.

@EmeraldShamrock At a first consultation they will be checking things like diet, eating, sleeping, weight loss/gain, medication they're on - very medical things. They usually say fuck all in my experience but ask a myriad of questions. 'How would you rate your mood?' 'Is your mood lower in the mornings or the evenings?'. That kind of shite.
They write it all down, so don't expect much interaction.

@Alexandra80 Thank you.

One of the funny questions they ask is 'are you seeing things that are not there?'
Well fuck me doc, but if I'm seeing it, it's there!

I agree with Safaribot about meds. Nothing works for my condition but therapy yet it took 8 med changes and 3 hospitalisations over 10 years for them to diagnose me then a further 4yrs and 3 meds to realise by myself that meds will never help me besides helping with sleep at my worst.

That's 14yrs of withdrawal effects, side effects and severe weight gain. Bit annoying but it's a common experience. I do wish someone in mental health had suggested I just stop trying every med available and that maybe my issues were too deap seated for that.

Number 4 thinks I have c-ptsd and attachment issues, happily prescribes sleeping pills for me and feels very strongily that I should go no contact with my "d"m. His obsession with the last point makes me question his mental health.

Think I’ve had the counter experience to this with my teenage daughter. A few years on and we now have a great relationship, but the psychiatrist seemed to work on a model where he helped my daughter to hate me, rather than any more subtle model of unpicking problems and helping her work out how to move forward.

EmeraldShamrock we saw one through CAHMs with DD who was having a hard time after someone died. She told her counsellor that when she was writing stories it was as if someone was holding her arm and making her write, the moment she said I knew what was coming next and a few weeks later we saw the psychiatrist.

DD was a highly imaginative child and I was very confident she had made that up . The Psychiatrist was very good and got her measure quickly and we were discharged. I am confident if DD had had a problem he would have helped.

The Psychiatrist we saw when my Mother was diagnosed with Dementia was good as well. There was one ropey one who suggested putting boxing gloves on her to stop her scratching but the brief encounters I have had with the ones I have seen have been pretty positive and constructive.

I don’t know, I’ve never seen one, but I’m about to... GP has more than reached her limit of what she can do for me and has sent an urgent referral as well as spoken to them on the phone; she’s unusual as she did Neuroscience/Neuropsychophaemacology then Graduate Entry Medicine so I imagine she’s a little more knowledgeable than average GP. The psych will be assessing me for ADHD and CPTSD (which I scored very highly on the screening tests for).

I have no idea what to expect. I’m already on a truck load of meds. The MH therapy team deemed me too complex for them and said I needed a psychiatrist too so..,,

Hilarious the number of people on here mixing up psychiatrists, psychotherapists and psychologists. They are completely different professions.

Hilarious that I haven't seen one person mix up the different professions...

It's not hilarious the mix up - it's a sad state of affairs. Here's some clarification though.

Psychiatrists are medical doctors trained through the NHS. They studied medicine and instead of specialising in oncology, or internal medicine or ob/gyn they specialised in psychiatry. You cannot call yourself a psychiatrist without medical specialisation training. There is no requirement to have personal therapy as part of training.

Psychology. A clinical psychologist (or counselling psychologist) is post graduate training to doctorate level. They have the Dr title which comes from clinical and often research training, but they are not medical doctors. There are other titles like Assistant Psychologist. They are also qualified through NHS training and/or in NHS training. You cannot call yourself these titles without certain qualifications. Psychologists work differently depending on their level and setting, but in general they do talking therapies. There is no requirement to undertake any personal therapy as part of qualification.

Psychotherapy: this is only talking therapies. The title is not protected in the U.K. though so anyone can call themselves a psychotherapist. Usually they have done a private post graduate training (masters) in one of more modality - the training isn't through the NHS. These trainings usually require them to undergo personal therapy themselves. Can be a member of the BACP if accredited training has been completed.

Counsellors People calling themselves this (in the U.K.) may be psychotherapists and have done similar masters level training. Again it's not a protected title though so they could also have done no training, or a course over a few weekends. Good courses will require personal therapy. No NHS training to be a counsellor. Can be a member of the BACP if accredited training has been completed. NB a counselling psychologist is highly trained and is the same level as a clinical psychologist. Not to be confused with someone who calls themselves a counsellor.

The difficult thing is that the type of qualification does not mean someone is better at actually helping people. There are some amazing counsellors and awful psychiatrists or clinical psychologists. Furthermore, certain clinics have frameworks of best practices, that themselves may be quite restrictive (ie only offering CBT), so the professional has to work within that framework. They may be different in their private clinic where they can offer other modalities. However, especially for the last two categories, membership of a professional organisation like BACP means they've done more extensive training than the short courses.

There's more that can be said, but this is just a (sort of) short overview.

Oh and all this only applies to the U.K. online you can find more info but if you're reading an American page, the job titles can be applied differently. A psychiatrist is always a medical doctor though.

For me, the main problem was that I saw 3 different ones over 3 appts over the course of a few months. Had to go over the same old shit each time, thus wasting appt time. One appt I hadn't been told it was a new one and I totally fell apart having geared myself up to speak to the lovely one I'd seen the time before.
That's obv a problem with the system rather than the doc.
Once it was explained to me that they really focus on meds and getting things stable enough to benefit from talking therapies I felt better able to engage.

Where I work, we meet with Psychiatrists quit regularly, to make sure we're coping ok, and I've noticed it's the older members of our team who are really negative about the meetings; maybe it's a reluctance to be really honest about and with themselves and discuss mental health 🤷🏼‍♀️

*quite

Peddlers of snake oil? how ignorant can people be.

They’re there to medicate, because they don’t have a clue what else to do with you other than dope you up with pills. Most have never been there & have only ever read the books.