[Altered Moment]

I am curious to know what peoples direct experience with the psychiatric/ psychology/ therapy community has been? Helpful? Harmful? What approaches did they take? In my 20 years experience with the community they all took a bio/psycho/social approach even in 1995. That seems to be the current wisdom. Kaiser in Northern CA was a little more cutting edge on implementing "alternative" approaches based on good research.

I am in America and not a world traveler so I have to stick to my experience. I have been lucky in that most of my life I had good insurance and dealt with private institutions. Currently I am with a public one in a small town. The town is just big enough to have good services. This one happens to be very very good. My experience has been a very good one and found they all took a holistic approach at least to a point.

I do think the profession does need to be reformed overall. A large percentage of the prison population has mental illness problems and get crap for service. Maybe much incarceration could be eliminated with good care. I do not at all agree with forced care and forced meds. I am vehemently opposed to it. I am a "give me liberty or give me death" type. Large public institutions in big cities can have horrendous care. Way overloaded and a shortage of care givers. Rural areas have a very bad shortage of caregivers.

I do think we are way over diagnosed and over prescribed with meds overall. Anyone with the tiniest of problems can walk into a GP's office and walk out with a med. I think it minimizes the issue for those of us with very serious mental illness and causes a back lash.

I think the biological approach should be aggressively studied and researched with better medications and personalized medicine as a result. This is a part of the solution for many people, not all.

I am 100% for therapy, diet and exercise, lifestyle, meditation, spiritual practice, and means that could possibly work and it should be studied just as aggressively.

There are some people who advocate reform who I disagree with. Dr. Peter Breggin is one. Not that I disagree with everything he has to say or all of his philosophy, but much of it I do disagree with, and I don't like his tactics. Robert Whitaker is another example.

Many views on madinamerica or theicarusproject I would agree with and disagree with.

Its not that psychiatry doesn't deserve criticism, it does, but I think it gets demonized by some. I don't think that demonizing is fair to the many people who work in that field and very much want to help people and don't have ulterior motives. I can base some of that on my own experience.

Getting back to my question. I could write a book on my personal experience with the psychiatric community. Below is a copy and paste from another thread.

I guess maybe I have been very lucky but since my first encounter with psychiatry in 1995 I have had an excellent experience. They have always taken a holistic approach. At least based on what was known at the time but they were always up on the latest. I could write a very long post about it all.

My current therapist calls it the four legs of a table.

Medication and having a very good and trusting relationship with your psychiatrist.

Therapy/ psychological/ emotional/ support including more than therapy. Online support like here or a group in real life or friends who also suffer. Others who truly understand you can talk to. Self Help. Spiritual Practices. Education and awareness groups. Group therapy.

Social support. Family. Friends. Healthy relationships. Activities.

A healthy lifestyle. Diet. Exercise. etc.

For me the middle two have always been very strongly emphasized. Medication was never a huge part of it. It wasn't until about 2005 that Kaiser Permanente as a whole really started emphasizing preventative medicine- diet, exercise, quit smoking, meditation, yoga. They have classes for all of that and the mental health side started focusing on that.

I would add that I feel I have a responsibility for my treatment. I have to own it and not just let it be dished out.

I can honestly say that the vast majority of the time in the last twenty years I have had all four legs firmly in place. Diet and smoking not so much. Deep depressions definitely make the legs wobbly at times. Even with all that in place and all that I have done on my own self help wise I still get very bad depressions. I have been consistently meditating for twenty years for example.

I have been a member of AA for twenty years. Very very active for many years in it. They for sure take a very holistic approach. They believe in treating the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. When I was in a drug and alcohol treatment center (I include that as part of psychiatry) 20 years ago they for sure took a holistic approach. Tons of good food. Lots of exercise. Good sleep. Meditation. One on one counseling. Lots of groups. Social interaction. Aftercare to insure you got all the legs you needed in place. People relapse because they don't get those legs in place when they get out. For drugs and alcohol that is. Mental health relapse is a different story. Tougher nut to crack really I think. Getting and staying sober all these years was a cake walk compared to my depression.

For further info if you are interested and want to do a lot of reading.....you can decide for yourself.

Mad In America - Science, Psychiatry & Community
The Icarus Project | Navigating the Space Between Brilliance and Madness
Home
Psychiatric Drug Facts with Dr. Peter Breggin - HOME
NAMI: National Alliance on Mental Illness - Mental Health Support, Education and Advocacy
Treatment Advocacy Center
NIMH · Home
Department Of Psychiatry - Harvard Medical School
Mental Health - Harvard Health Publications
Department of Psychiatry - Stanford University School of Medicine | Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences | Stanford Medicine
Etkin Lab - Stanford University School of Medicine
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences | Johns Hopkins Medicine

I could post a thousand links.

[ChipperMonkey]

I'll stick to answering your title question as it seems like this thread could have multiple discussions in one...

My direct experience is pretty piss-poor. I've dealt with private providers and public providers. I can't honestly say that one sector was better than the other. My diagnosis? PTSD. My trauma was as a young child and I displayed symptoms almost immediately yet wasn't diagnosed for over 25 years because my symptoms were "atypical". I honestly think that providers put their little blinders on and don't know what they don't know so they slap a label on you that *seems* to fit without really getting to the root of things. Yes, I realize that my diagnosis is a bit newer in terms of DSM chronology, but at the same time I am a bit bitter that nobody could see that my erratic behavior throughout childhood was because I was abused.

I'm a bit sad that good trauma counselors are hard to find. I live within an hour or so of two major metropolitan areas yet I still have to drive down to the city to find anyone even remotely qualified to handle this diagnosis. My most helpful therapy I'd say is on the cutting edge of trauma therapy but because it doesn't fit within standard insurance guidelines (I think that's only 2 or 3 hours of therapy a week?), I had to pay out of pocket to the tune of nearly $10k for a 2 week program. Funny though, as if you multiplied this all out, this treatment would actually SAVE the insurance companies lots and lots of money. Sad though, as its such a new type of treatment that it doesn't get a lot of recognition within the psychological community.

Which is another issue..... The psych community tends to stick with older (sometimes bad or simply unhelpful) therapy styles simply because that's what's been around for forever. I don't know who decided that "talk" therapy was so wonderful, but in reality it accomplishes nothing other than being a once a week ****** fest. I haven't ever had a "talk" therapist who did much more than TALK. Maybe this is ok if you have garden variety problems such as "its Monday and I'm sad because I have to go to work" but I think that for many of us, we need a therapist who is going to push us, challenge us, and do a bit more than just "talk" to us.

[Webgoji]

Personally, it was always like going to any doctor up until a few years ago. Like a normal doctor, I would have to see a therapist or psychiatrist and they wouldn't check my history. Because of that, I would get some useless psychobabble or maybe headache medication and get sent on my way.

Luckily, a few years ago my new therapist grabbed the DSM and sat down with me over several sessions and reviewed my history. It was then that I was actually diagnosed. It's sad that it took over 20 years to get someone to look at the whole picture, but now my therapy and medication are being applied correctly and I'm doing better than I have ... well ... pretty much ever.

[Altered Moment]

Originally Posted by ChipperMonkey

I'll stick to answering your title question as it seems like this thread could have multiple discussions in one...

That's really what I am after.

My first therapist was old school and did Transactional Analysis. I think it was helpful because this is when I first started to deal with my past and childhood. It quickly became out of vogue. CBT was the big new thing. DBT was first invented I believe. I happen to like them both. Actually most of my in the past issues I dealt with in AA and Alanon. My current therapist is mostly talk but she throws in CBT and DBT. It serves me because my issues are very current in how to deal with current situations in my life.

Costs and insurance companies suck. I am glad they are making some progress in trauma therapy though. It seems to me a big problem is lack of providers and them being overloaded. How can they really review your history when they have 50 people lined up and no time to do it.

[ForeverLonelyGirl]

My good experiences were only with therapists that encouraged me and gave me some hope. I found psychiatrists to be very negative minded and their primary focus seemed to be medications. If you are not getting better, then up the dosage and add in a new med. When the medications did not work, their response was that "you must not be taking your medications like you say you are". In other words, I was accused of lying, a lot!

The experiences at county or state run mental health agencies were beyond hideous and incredibly demeaning, plus harmful. I remember one particularly bad therapist telling me that although I was feeling a lift from depression at that time, not to worry that the depression would be back soon. WTF??? Really!

[SubliminalThoughts]

My experience has been bad at first and then currently good. When I was 14 I went to the doctor because I think I had depression. Then they just gave me Valium, which helped for the anxiety, but made the depression worse I think. I seen a school counselor back then and it didn't really help much. When I got help about 8 months ago the experience was not good. My doctor just wanted to throw pills at me and even got mad at me because I wouldn't take them. After the experience I had with zoloft, I was horrified to take any other antidepressant, why couldn't he understand that? The T I was seeing at the time was really bad. He kept forgetting things about me and a few times we kept going over the same stuff. Then my doctor left and the office switched my doctor to the one I have now. That was when things started going good. The first time I seen her she listened to me and wanted to help me. A few weeks after that I decided to change my T and it was one of the best decisions I have ever made. The T I have now is very smart and goes the extra mile to help me . I almost didn't go to the appointment with the new doctor they gave me, I lost all hope in anything helping me back then. I wonder where I would be at right now if I didn't go.

[venusss]

I was sent to psych eval in kindergarten cause I claimed I was a rabbit. Fortunatelly the psych was good and said it is normal for kids to want to be other people and animals and ****.

sent to another psych eval when I was ten and my father died and i was grieving. Was recommended meds and designer clothes. Fornatelly, mom never proceeded with that advice.

Last encounter was in first year of Uni. Meds and maybe dropping out was adviced. And not travelling.

I actually met a semi good psychologist when volunteering at foster care. He said I seem okay, just be careful and be honest if I am struggling. Reasonable advice...

haven't tried the system since though and not sure if I ever will. From what I hear from others, or the way the experts present themselves in media (using simplistic language......... and often calling all psych meds "anti-depressants" or giving advice as "stand naked in front of mirror and say you love yourself and hug a teddy bear"), not sure I am interested.

[splitimage]

I've generally been lucky. But I live in a major urban centre, and I know access to care is a lot more limited in rural areas.

My first encounter with a T was in 1998, when I was having a work / life crisis. She was private, but very good, and realized I needed more serious help. I continued to see her for years.

She referred me to my first pdoc in 1999 and she was a disaster. Never less than 90 min. late for an appointment with no explanation, and calling in the wrong doses to the pharmacy. She finally pulled the ultimate disappearing stunt about 18 months later, when she called in a renewal on my anti-D, put 12 repeats on it, and literally disappeared for a year. It turns out she was really sick, but talk about crappy follow up and patient management.

My next pdoc, was a trauma specialist at a major psych hospital. She was a God send. Did talk therapy, got me going on a good combo of meds, and when I had my post rehab 1 crisis, got me admitted to a great hospital where I got great care.

After about 4 years, she had some kind of weird political fall out with the hospital, that I never learned the details of and she left. The hospital tried to drop me, but I made a fuss, and got assigned to a staff psychiatrist. I wasn't wild about him at first, because he was kind of cold, but he's turned out to be a real gem. Listens to me, discusses any med changes, sees me within a week if I'm in crisis, and gives really good advice. He also believes meds aren't the only solution and really encourages CBT, DBT, and mindfulness.

I'm lucky my psych hospital is Canada's largest specialist psych hospital and is a WHO Centre of Excellence. It's also a major training hospital. They take excellence in care very seriously. I've been IP there 3 times, and had a really good and helpful experience each time.

They actually have an advisory council that advises the board of trustees and Hospital management. I'm a consumer rep on it, and have been for 4 years now. Management actually listens to the council, and have implemented a lot of the recommendations that the council has made. It's made up of patients, family members, staff, community members, and other partner organizations. It's really progressive.

So yes I've been super lucky.

splitimage

[The_little_didgee]

My first experience with psychiatry was awful because I was misdiagnosed. I endured it for about 5 years until it got really bad and I just couldn't cope with all the medication, suicidal urges and impulsivity it was causing. Shortly after a serious suicide attempt I decided to go solo. I quit all the medications and therapy. I felt so much better since all the (drug induced) psychiatric symptoms I had disappeared. My life returned to normal but I was lift emotionally scarred.

The professionals at one place were really rude and withheld my diagnosis. Out of all my hospitalizations the worst treatment I ever had was at the local children's hospital. Their mental health program was a cesspool.

The second time I dealt with psychiatry was about 5 years after I walked away from them and reclaimed my life. This time I developed a completely different problem that required treatment. I was taken seriously this time. The medication I was given actually helped. It cleared up my disordered thinking and hallucinations. After I recovered I went back to living. My family doctor give me medications whenever my symptoms flared up. I requested this since my previous experience with psychiatry was terrible.

About 8 years after I went through psychosis I started seeing a psychiatrist again. This experience was a lot different because she treated me with respect and did a thorough psychiatric assessment. She identified the disorder that was missed during my first experience. The right diagnosis has made a huge difference in my treatment. People have noticed a profound change in me and my attitude. Therapy is actually helping because my problems are seen for what they really are. All the assumptions that came with my misdiagnosis interfered with therapy because they were wrong. At one point I was told I had a history of sexual abuse which never ever happened. All this really confused me, because I had no explanation for my way of being that made sense. Now, I can just be me. What a relief!

I get my care in the community. It is far more superior than what the hospital offered me. All my care is coordinated so all my providers know what is going on including my family doctor who is very involved in my care. It is also a very relaxed and more respectful environment. My psychiatrist and I address each other by our first names. I even feel a part of the team. It wasn't like that at all in the hospital. It was me vs. the staff.

[Hellion]

Well it could be better I suppose, but it hasn't been too terribly bad. I suppose first time I have dealt with that would be after a suicide attempt when I was 15. Got diagnosed with depression and anxiety and was put in therapy, just plain CBT talk therapy, it was kind of helpful sort of getting stuff out and I guess it was helpful when the therapist suggested I write some of the negative stuff in it to get it out of my mind. After a while(few years) though didn't really feel I was getting anything from this therapy...so figured I got all the benefit I could out of it and quit going, tried just focusing on grades and graduating. Then crap happened and I ended up with PTSD to top it off, but no one would take symptoms seriously so I also stopped taking it seriously and just decided to focus on going to college. Well college hasn't worked out, finally aqquired a diagnoses of bieng on the autism spectrum(I don't even know I feel its accurate or not anymore though, maybe something else accounts for it who knows). I have had various usless talk therapists since I finally tried to give it another go when I acknowledged the PTSD was interfering with college but yeah once again that therapy didn't really help. Tried Prozac while staying with some family in Minnesota, the doctor didn't really specify not to drink on it or what side effects might occur and also I was not in any kind of therapy. Well did not react well to the Prozac so had to quit that and then was unwilling to try any other meds for a while.

I have also been hospitalized twice for suicidal thoughts/intentions...first time kinda sucked, due to kinda crappy facility quite small/enclosed, not the best staff some where ok but over-all they made me kind of uncomfortable. They took me off meds I was on at the time and had me try some new ones which ended up not really working. Also the food was terrible....second time was better, much better facility with more pleasant staff and they prescribed me meds as well, one of them did not end up helping but I still take the Valium that was initially prescribed that time. And since that I've been in therapy, but being switched between therapists, and just CBT approach until I finally got a referral to a trauma therapist that I am going to now, perhaps she'll prove helpful...but hard to say for sure at this point.

[Goldcrest]

Mental health services in the UK have a lot of problems, mostly because good services cost money and funding to that part of the NHS is not good. They have cut the number of psychiatric beds in hospitals right down and it is very hard to get a bed unless you are sectioned (detained involuntarily). At my hospital they admit people when there is no bed on the ward and you go to a bed temporarily vacated by a patient sent home on leave, although I have even heard of patients sleeping on couches in sitting rooms while waiting for a bed. Otherwise you can be sent to a hospital hundreds of miles away if that's the only place they can find a bed. If you are a voluntary patient you will often not be admitted, just left at home getting more ill.

Psychotherapy is hard to get, there are long waiting lists. Psychiatrists prefer to throw meds at you. They want you drugged and compliant, then you are not a problem. Even getting to see a psychiatrist is difficult - the GP has to refer you, and unless you are suicidal or obviously severely ill it is hard to get specialist help, even if you are suffering profoundly.

Some psychiatrists and other mental health workers are good, it is just a matter of luck who you get. Unless you have money to go private you can't shop around. I saw one psychiatrist who wasn't bad but wasn't that much interested in my problem. Then I read a review written by a private patient of his, saying he was the best psychiatrist ever and had really put himself out to help her, even phoning to check up on her and encourage her. You don't get that on the NHS.

[Altered Moment]

Yeah I have heard a lot of discussion on here about the NHS. Much of American medical is socialized and much of it is private. We have similar problems. Costs, shortage of good providers, people with no insurance, etc

A private psychiatrist here gets 200 to 300 US dollars an hour. I have paid in out of pocket before.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[CaptainChaos79]

The psychiatrists and therapists messed me up. It wasn't til I found my current primary DR that I got right. He is magician with psych meds....its instinctive for him and on top of that he truly cares. I will never see a mental heath professional again

[Nammu]

My experience is that 35 years ago it was much better in some ways, hospitalizations were longer, until you stabilized, the staff better trained and respectful There was art therapy, music therapy, movement therapy as well as CBT and meds. The bad thing was that no Pdoc wanted to believe or hear about side effects of meds. Hospitals had more than one psych unit at least we're I was there was a trauma unit that was less stressful. That was with medicare or medicaid.....never happen in today's world, medicaid and medicare are no longer accepted many places. Hospitalizations are in and out with staff that disbelieve every word and don't listen to the patient. One guy I saw just wanted an orange, he ended up in solitary. Such an easy fix, but no they fought him. They couldn't say we're busy at this moment, later, no they told him he was out of order and if he didn't sit down there would be consequences.

Things started going down hill in 2000.

As for the Pdocs there seems to be a wide variety. Very bad, pill pushers to very good listeners. the most recent ones have a more enlightened view of meds and listen and are respectful to me when I say this or that had bad effects for me.

Ts I've never had a problem with.

Some things have gotten much worse, like access to services and some things have gotten better like more open minded doctors....of course the recent Pdocs I've met are younger and differently trained.

That's my experience, I don't want to go into the horrible experiences, maybe later.

[thickntired]

[QUOTE=zinco14532323;4102917]I am curious to know what peoples direct experience with the psychiatric/ psychology/ therapy community has been? Helpful? Harmful? What approaches did they take? In my 20 years experience with the community they all took a bio/psycho/social approach even in 1995. That seems to be the current wisdom. Kaiser in Northern CA was a little more cutting edge on implementing "alternative" approaches based on good research.

In the 90's I didn't want help and this was reflected by the mental health system. The professionals I saw just kind of gave up on me as a lost cause. I left a really expensive psych ward AMA because I was basically ignored for acting out, but I think that should have been seen as a cry for help. In the past 10 years I have had some horrible therapists and one unforgivable pdoc. I've had T talk about their own problems on a constant basis and belittle my concerns. There is a HUGE shortage of pdocs here. So, you get a bad one or join a waiting list for at least a year. I am blessed because I have a great pdoc and T at a clinic for indigent people. It still took 5 months to get in and it's reputation is awful. When I got there I was trying to get away from the worst pdoc I'd ever seen. It wasn't just my opinion as his private clinic when bankrupt with this demand and he is well educated. Anyway, I sat in th waiting room and cried bc the staff was treating ALL people with respect and concern whether they were homeless or affluent.


I am in America and not a world traveler so I have to stick to my experience. I have been lucky in that most of my life I had good insurance and dealt with private institutions.

My brother-in-law was the head of a psych ward in Ireland for mostly schizophrenics. He was appalled at the American big Pharma reps who tried to shove products on his patients without giving them any info on the medication. He told them to bugger off.

I do think we are way over diagnosed and over prescribed with meds overall. Anyone with the tiniest of problems can walk into a GP's office and walk out with a med. I think it minimizes the issue for those of us with very serious mental illness and causes a back lash.

Yes, with antipsychotics being given for no need, and yes adult ADHD & chronic pain meds are on DEA crackdown so Drs and pdocs are skeptical and afraid to lose their med license.


I am 100% for therapy, diet and exercise, lifestyle, meditation, spiritual practice, and means that could possibly work and it should be studied just as aggressively.

AMEN!!! I am also studying neuroplasticity. Big thanks for the links!