Psychology vs. psychiatry?
Hi, I know that I want to go into psychology for my future career, but I’m a little unsure about specifics.
I want to help teenagers with problems- like cutting, drug abuse, eating disorders, and maybe work at a rehab center for teens like this.
Would this be a clinical psychologist, or would I need to graduate from medical school so I could get a degree in psychiatry?
Thanks!
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June 16th, 2010 at 12:08 am
Clinical Psychologist gives therapy, and Psychiatrist is able to prescribe drugs that might help control disorders better. So basically Clinical Psychologist listens, and Psychiatrist gives out medicine.
June 16th, 2010 at 12:08 am
Psychiatry sounds more of what you are looking for.
June 16th, 2010 at 12:08 am
psychology.
the reason is, the three problems you described were all emotional/behavioral problems,
psychiatrists’ line of work involved mental illnesses which needs drug therapies. those are usually psycho-biological.
I could be wrong, you should look it up on google or something.
June 16th, 2010 at 12:08 am
I currently work in an outpatient substance abuse agency for teenagers. We do individual, group and family therapy. I have a Masters degree in Counseling Psychology. there are also interns and employees here that have just their Bachelors in psychology or even social work.
Psychiatrists - a doctorate, can prescribe medication. if you want to do actual counseling with teens then don’t become a psychiatrist.
Psychologist - This is also a doctorate w/o the ability to give meds, something you will not need to work in an agency like mine.
Masters degree- this will put you in a very good position to get a job in this field, and it’s much better than a bachelor’s.
Bachelor’s - This should suffice for many places although the majority of counselors needed are Masters level positions. If you want to work in a residential home and be front-line staff you only need a bachelor’s. This would mean that you watch over the kids, make sure they’re safe, structure their day, but not really individual and family therapy.
there’s also substance abuse degrees which stand alone. in California, we call it a CAADAC (sp?). These people take a couple years worth of classes purely to work with substance abuse clients.
June 16th, 2010 at 12:08 am
Sorry to say that neither psychiatry nor psychology are helpful. If you wish to help people as you say there are other options that could totally put you on to doing as you describe though. Psychiatry is a branch of medicine that supposedly deals with "mental illness," however the first thing you need to understand is that mental difficulties do not originate from the body but from the mind. Even psychiatrists should know this by now after all of their hacking into brains with pre-frontal lobotomies and electro shock to burn out portions of the brain. The drugs they prescribe are inevitably worse than the street drugs the person may have been taking in the first place. I recommend you research by going to the website below for more data. Psychology is likewise harmful as they also get into prescribing mind-numbing drugs that every high school massacre gunman has taken just prior to his crime. I suggest you could look at training at a "Narconon" drug rehabilitation center.