Psychiatrists

In past few decades they swung big-time to drug therapy to balance
neurotransmitters, putting
less emphasis on counseling on psychological/interpersonal dynamics,
ignoring knowledge
on how the human body makes its own neurotransmitters to restore
balance.

In addition, once the patient is in their power, it is often difficult
for the patient to break free, should the patient decide that
treatment is not in his/her self-interest.

The way to remedy these shortcomings for the patient is that he arm
himself with knowledge
by googling the net and newsgroups to overcome his disease/
limitation. Some patients
will chose to take treatment, some not. But treatment should rarely
be forced unless
the patient has lost competence. Also, familes should stop pressuring
the patient the way
they often do.

Last, psychiatrists have competition as various specialities. In
general, the more social
interaction the patient can promote for himself, the less he needs a
psychiatrist.

Comments?

Best,
David Christainsen
Boston, Mass USA

On Feb 25, 1:41 pm, "Carl" <pchristain...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> In past few decades they swung big-time to drug therapy to balance
> neurotransmitters, putting
> less emphasis on counseling on psychological/interpersonal dynamics,
> ignoring knowledge
> on how the human body makes its own neurotransmitters to restore
> balance.

I first went the pdoc and explained that throughout my life I had
become increasingly prone to thinking the same thoughts about dying
over and over and it seemed that scratching my nose was the only thing
that helped it go away.

We talked about how my thought process was not rational. I agreed.
He told me that I could try relaxation techniques, a stress ball, writ
in a log book, etc...

I told him how I first got the idea when I was 6 years old when I saw
some movie with Dudley Moore and some little girl, and I still don't
even want to go to imdb and figure out what movie this is, but anyway
I think it was Dudley more - oh man i can barely even fucuking type
this - wow - but the daughter and the father spend time together and
they kind of know she is sick, and then they are all happy and on a
subway and she gets this look on her face all of a sudden, and then
the look gets pale and grows sickley and she said how her head hurts
and starts yelling "my head hurts my head hurts - it's really bad this
time!!! it's really bad this time!!!" and then by the next scene she
is dead.

That and a Little House on the Prarie movie where albert gets a blood
disease and he sits up in the hospital bed and blood runs down his
chest and then the doctor says he will have good days and bad days and
then they show him climbing a mountain or something and then they cut
to him being dead.

Anyway, no amount of talking or reasoning made me stop having vivid
memories of every movie, including Beaches where the woman is doing
fine and then can't breath on the stairs, and then finally goe to a
house by the beach where she sits in a bed and waits for death, and
then there is Terms of Endearment where the nice lady is at the doctor
and he sais to her "you know there's a lump under your arm here" - and
the next thing you know she is waiting to die.

And for some reason my mom raising me as a Christian made things
worse. She told me when people die they go to Heaven and i would
often get myself caught in the loop of thought which started, "OK I
get to heaven and then there is another day and then there is another
day...... nothing can get better or worse because its all as good as
anything can be, and then another day...."

Anyway, meds helped. It was tricky and not trivial, and I'm still not
sure it was the "best" thing. However, I so have hope for tomorrow
and I can see a future and not just a vision my death bed or my body
in a heap on the side of the road. So, for that, I am happy.

I really don't know if I could have beaten it without the medicine,
especially the SSRI, which just turned off the irrationality like a
switch. I also ended up on alot more meds as a result... looking back
maybe i should have tried a different ssri first, but it worked so
damn well i was afraid to switch.


>
> In addition, once the patient is in their power, it is often difficult
> for the patient to break free, should the patient decide that
> treatment is not in his/her self-interest.
>
> The way to remedy these shortcomings for the patient is that he arm
> himself with knowledge
> by googling the net and newsgroups to overcome his disease/
> limitation. Some patients
> will chose to take treatment, some not. But treatment should rarely
> be forced unless
> the patient has lost competence. Also, familes should stop pressuring
> the patient the way
> they often do.
>
> Last, psychiatrists have competition as various specialities. In
> general, the more social
> interaction the patient can promote for himself, the less he needs a
> psychiatrist.
>
> Comments?
>
> Best,
> David Christainsen
> Boston, Mass USA