Doctors hate us because we make them feel incompetent for not being able to cure our sickness. I was 56 when I came to understand the event that made me overtly mentally ill. I had suffered
for 40 years in ignorance and fear over the horrible event that changed my life. I had seen more than a half dozen mental health experts, a neurologist and several psychiatrists, and none could give me insight into
the etiology of my illness. Through my own research I learned that it began with an epigastric/abdominal aura and ceased only after more than 2 dozen epileptic discharges that left me with acute and chronic
deficits. It was a eureka moment when I read of the events I experienced at age 17, in a neurological research paper. I was so excited at the possibilities. I saw my psychiatrist and told him I wanted to
get an EEG. His remarks? "Go ahead and get one, I don't care." That pretty much sums up mental health treatment. I was seen by a top epileptologist at a medical center who told me the EEG showed significant pathology in my
temporal lobe consistent with someone with a history of epileptic seizure, and that I was disabled. That explained a lot and put 40 years of my life in focus. I had already taken an early retirement from my job. I think she did this as a form of apology for the incompetence I had
experienced in seeking help numerous times over those 40 years and coming up empty. It helped me financially as I began to collect SSDI and also gave my daughter $1k a month until she was out of high school. I didn't ask for any of it but
I am thankful for it. I never saw my psychiatrist again. As far as I was concerned, I was never a psychiatric patient but a neurology patient. I don't mean that the way it sounds, I just mean to say there was an explanation as to why I suffered as I did.
And I think eskielover is correct in noting that psychiatry is happy to treat symptoms without necessarily understanding the source. ECT is the most effective treatment for major depression according to the NIMH. Does psychiatry promote it? No. It makes them look stupid.
Ask them how and why it works, and they give you stupid looks. lol I suspect that most psychiatrists are miserable over their lot in life, but I guess the money they rake in helps assuage their pain.