What are some common misperceptions of psychiatry you'd like to correct?

[edumacator]

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I was offered a teaching job in my field of special education this past week and prepping for it has gotten me thinking about the many ways in which teachers, and other laypeople, perceive the mental health field. I like to think that special ed teachers are a bit more sensitive than the average person to the needs of children with psychiatric disorders but I'm sure that we still fall prey to all sorts of misconceptions about them.

In that spirit, I'd like to ask: what common misperceptions about psychiatry, mental health, psychiatric illnesses, and psychiatric meds would you like to correct? And, from a teacher's perspective, what in your experience should we be most aware of when working with mentally ill children in our classrooms?

I realize that these questions are broad bordering on sumo but I'd love to hear any insights or perspectives you wish to share.

 

[nitemagi]

Psychiatrists can't read minds, don't have an interest in controlling others or taking away people's rights, and don't necessarily prefer to push a pill for every problem.

 

[OldPsychDoc]

NO COUCHES!!! 🙄

 

[billypilgrim37]

We are doctors. We graduated medical school. We have the student loan debt to prove it.

 

[xthine]

I had a child in the ER tell me she didnt want to see a psychiatrist because her mother told her that "they use strait-jackets", also, that when someone takes any psychotropic medication they will be labeled "crazy".

 

[peppy]

1) Antidepressants won't make someone "happy" if the person isn't clinically depressed in the first place.

2) ECT isn't like that anymore, and it can actually be a good treatment for people who are severely depressed.

3) You really should talk to your psychiatrist before you make the decision to stop your psychiatric medication cold turkey

 

[nitemagi]

2) ECT isn't like that anymore, and it can actually be a good treatment for people who are severely depressed.

Royal Pains just did a very humane portrayal of ECT in their last episode.

 

[Doctor Bagel]

NO COUCHES!!! 🙄

Dude, I am so getting a couch when I have my own office. Actually the office I'm working out of right now has a couch, too, which my one patient (sad, isn't it) loves.

My big one based on calls I get from the ED -- we're not social workers. I can't dispo patients to other facilities, and it's not my job to arrange follow up for some patient I have no relationship with. And it's seriously wrong to call me and ask me to help out because your "social worker is too busy." Yep, that happened once.

On the mind reading note, I don't have any magical powers of detection. If a patient is telling you something, why do you think they'd tell me something more. All I do is take the time to listen, something you can do, too.

 

[edumacator]

Here are a couple I've heard in the course of teaching:

"I don't have to give him his pills over the weekend because he won't be at school and I can deal with him fine at home."

"I give him his pills before school and after he gets home so how is it any of the school nurse's business what he's taking?"

"His doctor said that the suppositories were kid-sized but they were still way too big for him to swallow so I cut them in half." (This, admittedly, was not a psych med but rather something that came up in conversation when a student who'd missed a few days returned. It was a Tylenol suppository, IIRC. And all I could muster with a straight face was "...okay.")

 

[kugel]

Dude, I am so getting a cough when I have my own office.

That's quite a goal.😉

 

[Doctor Bagel]

That's quite a goal.😉

That's what I get for typing and eating at the same time. Silly spell check.

 

[Doc Samson]

NO COUCHES!!! 🙄

Speak for yourself. I like the power-nap option my couch provides.

 

[sunlioness]

Psychiatrists can't read minds, don't have an interest in controlling others or taking away people's rights, and don't necessarily prefer to push a pill for every problem.

👍

+1

 

[OldPsychDoc]

Psychiatrists can't read minds, don't have an interest in controlling others or taking away people's rights, and don't necessarily prefer to push a pill for every problem.

Speak for yourself, magi!
😉

 

[DD214_DOC]

I want the couch, the tweed jacket, and the bowtie.

I would like to change the perception that we're the only ones who can handle ANY mental health issue. Other docs learned some psych too. Not every depressed person needs a psych consult. Maybe I'm just jaded and don't realize how often we're not consulted?

 

[whopper]

I'm reiterating the above.

Medications aren't the solution for every single psychiatric problem. Sometimes they are needed, sometimes they help, but the patient really needs to try to master their own lives as much as they can whether or not a medication is used.

A doctor's knowledge of the patient is largely controlled by the patient. They could tell us wrong information, and as a result, we diagnose them wrong, and give the wrong treatment. We cannot read minds. Sometimes, after several meetings with the patient, then we may obtain deep insight into matters that tend to meet the public's expectation of us but this is usually only after seeing the patient for a long duration, and that patient opened up enough.

I'm going to add, and this is in regards to all doctors, not just psychiatrists, there are good ones and bad ones out there. I've seen plenty of bad doctors. Just because a doctor tells you something doesn't mean it's true. Be open to getting a second opinion.

 

[ghost dog]

I had a child in the ER tell me she didnt want to see a psychiatrist because her mother told her that "they use strait-jackets", also, that when someone takes any psychotropic medication they will be labeled "crazy".

I've always wondered: does a patient's intelligence have an impact on their prognosis in regards to MDE?

Despite appropriate counseling some people have this belief that anti-depressants are for "crazy people". In my experience, these are always patients of low intelligence and low socioeconomic background ( it's true ).

 

[Fai]

I unfortunately know a few people who are really anti-psychiatry in my school that they bash others who use SSRIs/Anti-psychotics etc. Saying that they were "being controlled by the evil doctor"

The one thing I want every anti-psychiatry person to know is: Psychiatry, like every other field, isn't perfect and it is no where NEAR like One Flew Over the ****oo's Nest anymore. The treatments are much more humane. I say that novel specifically because I've heard it used in an argument.

That, and just because one anti-depressant/benzo did not work for them doesn't mean that it does not work for someone else or that psychiatry is quack.

 

[LupaCupcake]

I am still undergrad...very far away from my psychiatry residency so I am not full of the vast knowledge some of you possess 😛😛

One thing that I had an actual debate over with a professor recently was in regards to psychiatry being scientific and a true medical profession because according to him, it was not a science, instead it was lots of theories and guessing games without proof.

I know a psychiatrist here that wears a corduroy jacket 99% of the time. I don't know why I thought about that, but everytime he comes up in conversation I think about his damn corduroy jackets!

 

[LupaCupcake]

I unfortunately know a few people who are really anti-psychiatry in my school that they bash others who use SSRIs/Anti-psychotics etc. Saying that they were "being controlled by the evil doctor"

The one thing I want every anti-psychiatry person to know is: Psychiatry, like every other field, isn't perfect and it is no where NEAR like One Flew Over the ****oo's Nest anymore. The treatments are much more humane. I say that novel specifically because I've heard it used in an argument.

That, and just because one anti-depressant/benzo did not work for them doesn't mean that it does not work for someone else or that psychiatry is quack.

I agree with you. Sometimes people react badly to prescriptions...that happens and not just on SSRIs. Yet when it is something related to mental health some people jump up and down shouting "evil psychiatrists!".

 

[fiatslug]

The idea that we don't do psychotherapy or have any training in psychotherapy. Where is the head-banging-against-the-wall smiley?

Freud? Psychiatrist.
Jung? Psychiatrist.
Beck? Psychiatrist.

We "do" psychotherapy. Some might say we invented it 😛

 

[nitemagi]

The idea that we don't do psychotherapy or have any training in psychotherapy. Where is the head-banging-against-the-wall smiley?

Freud? Psychiatrist.
Jung? Psychiatrist.
Beck? Psychiatrist.

We "do" psychotherapy. Some might say we invented it 😛

Indeed. I'd also add-
Fritz Perls
Milton Erickson
Harry Stack Sullivan
John Bowlby
JL Moreno
Viktor Frankl
Irvin Yalom

Psychiatrists invented most of it. I have to admit many of us do less of it than previous generations. The pendulum is swinging back, though.

 

[whopper]

One thing that I had an actual debate over with a professor recently was in regards to psychiatry being scientific and a true medical profession because according to him, it was not a science, instead it was lots of theories and guessing games without proof.

An IM doctor, while I was in medschool, told me that psychiatry was bull**** and that there existed a cure for all mental illnesses that was going to be released in a few years.

Just goes to show you how misunderstood the field is by those who bash it, and when the basher is another M.D. that just makes it worse because the idiot actually was supposed to have some training in this field.

Hey, like I always say though I can't enforce it, if you think psychiatry is BS, and you order a psychiatry consult, I should have the right to drop-kick you in the nuts. Don't order one if you think the field is BS.

In clinical practice, psychiatry certainly is more about observation and clinical identification of signs and symptoms. Our field, for better or worse, is in a state that other forms of medicine were at decades ago because while there is lots of empirical data showing that mental illness truly exists, that data, such as the use of a PET scan, serial MRIs done on the order of every month, in-depth psychological testing that can take hours, are not clinically available to us or are not practical in their application.

And why are we at this state? Because the brain is a heck of a lot more complex in it's function and how it operates than another organ such as the heart, lungs, or liver.

The statement that there's no proof is false. There's plenty of it. This person shouldn't have the title of being an educator spreading around that type of bogus information, but then again, lots of people unfortunately have this problem.