Posted by yxibow on August 5, 2008, at 2:09:54
In reply to Re: Some people don't want to believe., posted by dcruik518 on August 4, 2008, at 8:48:12
> It seems to me that most people here believe that meds can be helpful. That said, however, I think many people here have difficult or treatment resistant cases and they come here to seek advice above and beyond the easy first-year-resident kind of "ssri's work for everything" crap. If there's anger, it's anger at the large number of incompetent dopes who call themselves psychiatrists. We therefore have to educate ourselves and sometimes take matters into our own hands. More than any other of the medical specialities, psychiatry needs to be done democratically, not autocratically, and I think it's this need for dominance among the p-docs that leads to patient frustration as much as anything else. The top down model is bunk.
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> ~DRC
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First of all that's a vast generalization of psychiatrists. I'm sure there are good ones and bad ones. Most states have licensing boards where you can check up on the status of their license and any license restrictions.
Second of all, while I agree that its a democratic concept -- well its a consumer concept really... you are a consumer (as NAMI calls patients now) and you come to someone for help -- "taking matters into your own hands" I assume means making responsible choices about who you see for a psychiatrist and not buying medicine willy nilly off the cuff and the black market.
I also see this vitriol against medicine sometimes and against psychiatry right on the medicine board -- if you don't want to be treated, why go? Its like asking a dog to bark and then bark yourself. Now, this is distinctly different from sitting passive at a psychiatrist's session and saying uh-huh to everything and not bringing your own views -- I tell people if they're afraid of forgetting everything then why not bring a pad of paper and their views and also write down some notes at the session.Also nobody is shoving medication down your mouth -- you can refuse to take the medication suggested. Enough refusals of course and the psychiatrist may run out of ideas, but there's always a second opinion and yes, a second doctor.
Remember, retaining a psychiatrist is or should be a relationship -- if you dont both invest time into it, it wont nurture, and the converse is the "dump your doctor" threads I see when people don't necessarily know how many months someone has invested in someone. Its that many more months till you get somewhere else. Maybe its necessary -- maybe it isn't.
-- Jay
poster:yxibow
thread:844053
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20080727/msgs/844256.html