Do psychiatrists care?

[hthr007]

I need to see a shrink. My depression and anxiety have gotten out of control. However I'm holding mysel back because I feel like they won't care. All they'd do is right me a script and send me home. Can anyone provide any insight on what really happens at visits to the psychiatrist?

 

[Transcendence]

It's important not to get discouraged if you don't like your first psychiatrist/psychologist - which is extra hard when you have depression and it's a struggle to even make the choice to see one in the first place. Many people have to try multiple doctors before they find one they connect with.

I've often been surprised how understanding and caring the doctors I've seen for depression/anxiety were. They don't just send you home with a script usually, they'd often call me periodically to check up and see how I was doing, and work with me if the medication wasn't cutting it.

 

[RobotRipping]

see a psychiatrist for meds and psychologist/counselor for therapy. It depends on the person you see but generally someone who works in such a field is interested in helping people.

 

[spork]

I used to think my psychiatrist didn't really care and was just pushing meds on me, but after we've grown to know each other more I have a good relationship with him now. I use my psychologist for therapy but tend to talk to my psychiatrist more about school/career related stuff because he is younger and has more recently been in the same sort of situations that I am in regarding that.

On a typical visit, he asks how I've been feeling lately, how my meds are going, and gives me advice on things I might ask about. Visits with him usually last about a half hour or so whereas visits with my psychologist are 50 minutes (why not a full hour, I have no clue). First visits are more of a getting to know you thing with questions about your symptoms, family history, medical history, etc.

I'd definitely advise to seek a psychologist/therapist along with a psychiatrist as others have said and keep reaching out for help. Things will get better.

 

[panic in paradise]

I need to see a shrink. My depression and anxiety have gotten out of control. However I'm holding mysel back because I feel like they won't care. All they'd do is right me a script and send me home. Can anyone provide any insight on what really happens at visits to the psychiatrist?

what you have described is essentially the job of a psychiatrist, to prescribe and maintain their patients prescription through periodic visits, which can be separated by 3-6 months often.

a counselor, therapist, or psychologist has the job they do because they care about people, but, they can not care too much for their own psychological safety. usually they are cool people in general, but need to remain as neutral with their patient as possible.

 

[It's a baby!]

I need to see a shrink. My depression and anxiety have gotten out of control. However I'm holding mysel back because I feel like they won't care. All they'd do is right me a script and send me home. Can anyone provide any insight on what really happens at visits to the psychiatrist?

They DO care but they are so used to having patients come in and just say "give me a pill, I refuse to go to therapy" that they can get wrapped up in prescribing.

The best outcome for depression and anxiety is a combination of SSRIs and therapy. A caring doctor will probably not give you benzodiazepines. Also the SSRIs may or may not help, they have a 12% advantage over placebo treatments. The placebo treatments are usually around 50% effective. But if you take them and believe in them and trust your psychiatrist they can do wonders (partly because you'll have a positive expectation of treatment).

Take your time finding a psychiatrist you like. He may or may not have time to see you every week. You may need to see a psychotherapist for that aspect of your treatment.

When I found a psychiatrist for managing my antipsychotic medication, I only saw him twice in the period of a month and a half. This is because his schedule was just full. But starting July 18th I'll be seeing him much more frequently and I'm really looking forward to getting to know him better.

I'm terrified of the idea of psychiatry myself because I've been institutionalzed before. But my current psychiatrist is a good guy, and I can trust that he knows a lot about mental illness, and the prescription for cogentin he gave me significantly improved my quality of life. He also said "I can prescribe you sleeping pills if you want" but I turned him down because I want to sleep naturally (which I have been managing to do, despite the stimulating effect of the atypical antipsychotic I'm taking).