Documenting my journey with therapy/medication

[LipeJJ]

VAMatt said:
Sounds like you're seeing a psychiatrist, since you've been prescribed drugs. Typically, a "therapist" is a psychologist.

In any case, I can tell you from experience, both personal, and second hand, that psychiatry is a very, very flawed science. That's not to say you shouldn't continue with treatment. But, you need to be very careful with how things go. Often times, a shrink will give you a med to treat problem x, that ends up causing problem y. Then they give you another med to treat problem y, and you end up with problem z. In my estimation, this scenario, or something similar, occurs about 50% of the time.

If you find yourself going down that road, I advise you to tell your shrink that you want to stop taking the meds. If they pressure you not to do so, I advise you to find a different doctor.

I don't say this to scare you. Rather, I want to make sure you see the risks, so that you may be able to avoid some of the pitfalls. Psychiatric care helps many people. You just have to make sure to look out for yourself, and remember that doctors are flawed, just like everyone else, and psychiatry is an imperfect science.

Same. It's not just psychiatry that's imperfect, it's medicine as a whole for the reasons you mentioned. To be honest, psychiatry is a bit less flawed overall because these doctors usually care more about the patient's context than your "normal" doctor does.

Anyway, I'd recommend him seeing a true therapist as a complement of seeing a psychiatrist. They don't prescribe drugs and focus on understanding and solving the root of the problem, rather than using drugs to lessen the symptoms. It worked wonders for me and I got cured within 6 months with no drugs (anxiety and social phobia).