What is your opinion on psychiatry?
I strongly support cognitive behavioral therapy, psychology, clinical psychology, but, when it comes to psychiatry, I have my doubts. As we know, psychiatry is revolved around diagnosing medical conditions and treating them with medications, it is sometimes used in combination with cognitive behavioral therapy, but not exclusively, and psychiatry is just that on its own, diagnosis and medication.
There are three key players, stimulants with potential for abuse, antidepressants, which work by increasing serotonin in the brain, and the most controversial class of medications in psychiatry, and the most profitable to pharmaceutical industries, which are the atypical and typical antipsychotics.
Now these antipsychotic drugs work primarily by blocking dopamine, the key chemical in the brain responsible for pleasure (stimulants release dopamine and gives them their abuse for potential), movement, regulates hormones, and — in abundance — has been known to cause psychosis in a certain area of the brain.
Just to clarify, antidepressants and antipsychotics don’t work for everyone, some people get no relief from their psychotic symptoms, anxiety or depression on these medications, which leaves the door open to a whole host of possible causes. When it does work for people, it rarely resolves the problem altogether, but brings it under control with a whole host of side effects.
The problem is, for some people, even if low levels of serotonin in certain areas of the brain does cause depression and anxiety, and high levels of dopamine in certain areas of the brain do cause psychosis, the antidepressants and antipsychotics lack any selectiveness in the brain, and block dopamine, and increase serotonin — in abundance — which causes a chemical imbalance in the brain, which why people do tend to get sexual side effects on antidepressants, why they do tend to gain weight, lose the ability too feel pleasure, have movement disorders which can be irreversible, and lose their period, grow breasts or lactate on antipsychotics — these are symptoms of chemical imbalances, they’re not correcting them, as psychiatry so eloquently puts it.
My opinion on psychiatry is we don’t know enough about the brain and the causes of these disorders, to be messing around with its chemicals, simple as that. I don’t believe the diagnoses or "labels", are always accurate, have the same symptoms or have the same causes in people. I think we only know enough to treat people with cognitive behavioral therapy, not drugs.
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August 24th, 2010 at 7:00 am
I agree with you that we don’t know enough about these drugs or how they work. As you mentioned they aren’t very selective and therefore cause a wide range of side effects. Many people end up taking even more chemicals in order to alleviate the side effects, and no one knows what the long term effects may be, as many of the most commonly prescribed drugs are relatively new. However personally despite all the evidence against drugs, for the time being i find my medication helps me in the here and now. I am engaging in therapy, however without medication i believe i would not have been able to do so, and whilst the medication may have a long term damaging effect and cause me side effects, life is slightly more bearable with it than without.
August 24th, 2010 at 7:00 am
Yes.. I saw a video some time ago where psychiatrists in NYC were asked how many patients they had cured, and each answered laughing: "None!" :(( I am planning on going to a psychiatrist though some time soon just to talk —- because i have totally no one to talk with. I am alone!!!!!!!
August 24th, 2010 at 7:00 am
You seem to already have an opinion. Why do you want the opinions of others?
I would say you are very well informed. But you have left out a crucial factor and that is the degree to which a person is suffering from their mental illness. I think psychiatry is important for people who a suffering terribly. You seem to be doing okay, but many people are desperate and have already tried everything else to no avail. In physical medicine the analogous situation would be someone with terminal cancer who wants to feel that the doctors are trying to help them. Some new fangled experimental drug may be tried and some people will want to try it no matter what. We may not know much about the brain, but neither do we know much about all sort of physical illnesses but people want the help even if it will probably prove futile. That said, I have seen people helped greatly with psychiatric drugs although others outside the patients themselves won’t see any improvement. I’ve seen people get better when they become Pentecostalists. To each his own. Your opinion is your opinion and you are welcome to it, but your opinion is not a general truth.
August 24th, 2010 at 7:00 am
I’m planning on becoming a psychiatrist. I have suffered with depression, eating disorders, borderline personality disorder, anxiety, and mania, and at first I simply went to therapy. Actually, I went to multiple therapists, therapist after therapist, and nothing helped. Even meditation did not help (I’m Buddhist). I eventually got hospitalized (five times), and there, they assigned me a psychiatrist who prescribed me medication (which I did research on, and debated with the doctor about until finally she convinced me)…if I hadn’t been on medication for these past few years, I would’ve killed myself…Medication saved my life, and it keeps me sane everyday, along with therapy. I think therapy and medication go hand in hand for a lot of people (not all people, but a lot). I’m not in college yet, but I do plan to study psychology as my major with a pre-med option, and then continue to work towards psychiatry, so I plan to study all sides of the spectrum….I don’t think you can shut psychiatry out altogether