Professionally I deal with psychiatric patients and yes I make assessments based on the DSM-V categories and professionally I have the authority to hold patients based on whether they have homicidal or suicidal tendencies. My research background plus being a member of the APA very much makes me an authority. As far as shedding light on atypical behaviors as per expressed in the DSM-V versus the International Classification of Diseases again, psychiatrists use ICD-10 as well as DSM but the thing is as far as what I do professionally I mainly make assessments by using DSM however ICD codes and DSM codes are basically the same.

I know in the UK they primarily use ICD-10 as opposed to DSM-V.....

So, you don't "professionally work in the psychiatric field". — Galuchat

Yes, I do actually....I literally work in the emergency room which has a behavioral unit.

In fact, according to this post, you have a doctorate in Clinical Psychology, but work "professionally as a Social Worker", because you are not licensed to practise Clinical Psychology in your State. — Galuchat

This is true.

No wonder you can't shed any light on the practise of psychiatry. That's fine, as long as we are all clear on the point that you cannot be considered an authority on Psychiatry. — Galuchat

Because Psychiatrists are medical doctors and I'm a psychologist as per my education, although not currently practicing nor making attempts to gain licensure, I am still at least academically qualified to shed light on mental disorders.

To help the thread out it would behoove the author of the original post to understand the difference between psychiatrists and psychologists. For one, psychiatrists are medical doctors that can prescribe medication, and use medication management for psychiatric treatment. Psychologists primarily focus on psychotherapy to treat emotional/mental suffering in patients using behavioral intervention. There are psychiatrists that offer both behavioral therapy along with medication management, but it just depends on the state just as there are some states that allow psychologists to prescribe medication, New Mexico being one of the U.S. states that allow this.

My research background plus being a member of the APA very much makes me an authority. — Anaxagoras

APA?
Aberdeen Performing Arts?

You’re either a troll or a dolt or both.

APA? — Galuchat

American Psychological Association

You’re either a troll or a dolt or both. — Noah Te Stroete

I'm starting to get that feeling. Work is very slow right now and I'm literally at work giving this the time of day.

My research background plus being a member of the APA very much makes me an authority. — Anaxagoras

APA?
Aberdeen Performing Arts? — Galuchat

American Psychological Association — Anaxagoras

And that makes you an authority on Psychiatry, not.
Sorry.

You seem to think you’re some kind of authority, however.

Google Argument from Authority.

We use the same Diagnostic Statistical Manual. Based on the axis models in the DSM I can make assessments on behavioral disorders and in fact know common medications that are used to treat mental disorders. I literally speak with doctors all the time and they literally always ask me recommendations on the best medications that I recommend (for example whether someone who has recurring panic attacks ought to be given lorazepam commonly known as Ativan, or Zyprexa).

He has authority. However, he is not claiming that he is the only authority. What makes you qualified to disregard psychiatry?

I'm not saying I'm an authority of psychiatric medicine because again, like I said, I'm not a medical doctor. If you want my academic as well as professional opinion on behavioral disorders and their causes and treatment, I can give my professional opinion. If YOU wanted me to diagnose you, I couldn't make a professional opinion online because we aren't face to face. Sure I can make a general assessment but it would only be general and not something professional.

But as far as authority is concerned of course I have no authority in psychiatry I'm not arguing that but this is not how this thread developed.

I'm not saying I'm an authority of psychiatric because again, like I said, I'm not a medical doctor. — Anaxagoras

Finally! Thanks for admitting that.
It feels like I'm becoming an authority on pulling teeth. But just for the record: I'm not a qualified dentist.

You seem to be qualified to be able to give an adequate defense of psychiatry as you have seen first-hand patients becoming stable through medication management from psychiatrists. It is common for patients to refuse to take or quit taking their medications just because of your kind of bias. That’s when they become unstable again.

Finally! Thanks for admitting that.
It feels like I'm becoming an authority on pulling teeth. But just for the record: I'm not a qualified dentist. — Galuchat

So what was your point in all this?

Google Argument from Authority.

Google Argument from Authority. — Galuchat

I know what it is, and your point?

You seem to be qualified to be able to give an adequate defense of psychiatry as you have seen first-hand patients becoming stable through medication management from psychiatrists. — Noah Te Stroete

Thanks. There is literally no difference between a psychologist and a psychiatrist except that one goes to medical school and the other one doesn't. One is research based, and the other deals with medicine. One can write scripts, the other one doesn't. I just don't understand what the issue is here.

He has an axe to grind. It is likely he was diagnosed with something in the past, and he refuses to take responsibility for it. This is very common.

I thought you were a psychiatric patient, not a Psychiatrist.

I think I'll leave you two authorities to have at it.
Cheers!

Psychiatric patients like me have many years experience with psychiatry. I have twenty years experience in seeing that it works.

Gotcha...Yeah this happens a lot where I work

You’re probably an angry alcoholic.

Sorry. That was meant for Galuchat.

Only when the Lakers lose

:lol:

I've been psychotic, and I've been (am, pretty much) institutionalized.

I had a lot of bizarre perceptions but I don't think there was any "reality" to them beyond the contents of some subconscious part of my brain. Like dreams. I know many people who still think their eg hallucinations were some kind of "gift". I thought so at the time. It's my opinion that the reason so many psychotic individuals use religious language is that our society lacks a vocabulary to talk about extreme mental states. Which is maybe for the better, because we don't take mystics very seriously.

I also want to point out that most of the institutionalized people I have met are very self-absorbed, inconsiderate, and frequently reality-denying, not to the point of delusions but just...refusing....to pick up social cues, eg. I do think at some point the lack of "honesty", more or less, is a moral problem and not a psychiatric problem.

The thing is that society always finds some way to remove, marginalize, or isolate undesirables. We used to be more honest and just stone people to death. Now we warehouse them in prisons and institutions.

As far as I'm concerned, this profession does not receive enough scorn. They abuse the public trust by mass-prescribing drugs they often don't understand while professing their empathy, sacrifice and beneficence. Despite their incomes already being in the top 1%, they feel it is necessary and appropriate for their members to take money from the pharmaceutical industry, ignoring research on monetary gifts and behaviour changes, and sacrificing patient safety for additional money that they transparently do not need. On top of this they will constantly lie to support each other at medical malpractice trials, acting as if they are a persecuted minority, rather than probably the most privileged group of people on the planet. And of course they use bogus pharmaceutical industry research to support their harmful behaviour. The hypocrisy is outrageous and disgusting.

But let’s put aside the subject of psychotropic medications and consider for a moment what has become the dominant and most popular treatment of mental disorders over the past 30 years or so — Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

CBT is based on the idea that our emotions and moods are influenced by our patterns of thinking. The aim of therapy was to "correct" these processes, "to think and act more realistically". It would allow the patient to avoid the misconstruction of reality that had led to their problems. Rather than focus on the patient's history -- say their childhood and early experiences -- like most other psychotherapies, CBT is mostly directed to the here and now.

Ok, I am not convinced by this or by the current behavior-based descriptions of depression, diagnosed according to a check-list of factors that drugs can shift (appetite, mood, and sleep patterns) or by the cures. People are both much more complicated and far more interesting! Depression is not just a set of pre-ordained symptoms, but as multiple and varied as those who are told they suffer from it... Its source can lie deeply buried in an individual's history and far from present awareness, though the trigger may well be a separation or crisis. At its core is the experience of loss: engaging in the difficult process of mourning is what allows us to come through. CBT can certainly be helpful for some people. But it is crucial to distinguish the question of whether a therapy works and HOW it works. For any therapy to get started, unconscious belief systems need to be mobilised. Human belief is a very powerful thing and no external authority can tell us what to believe in. Just to be clear: I don't think CBT is completely without value. It can definitely help some people to become aware of and to correct one's irrational biases in thinking or with anger issues. But I think it's impossible for CBT theory to take into account the complexity and contradiction and detail in human life. It also has no place for the realities of sexuality or violence that lie at the heart of human life.

With CBT the psyche has become like a muscle that needs to be developed and trained. There is no place for complexity and contradiction here: the modern subject is represented as one-dimensional, searching for fulfilment. The possibility that human life is aimed at both success and failure and never simply at wealth, power or happiness no longer makes sense. Suddenly the world of human relations described by novelists, poets and playwrights for the past few centuries can just be written off. Self-sabotage, masochism and despair are now faults to be corrected, rather than forming the very core of the self. In today's outcome-obsessed society, people must become countable, quantifiable, transparent. And this leads to a grotesque new misunderstanding of psychotherapy. Therapy is now conceived as a set of techniques that can be applied to a human being. This makes sense if we see it as a business transaction with a buyer, a seller and a product. But it totally ignores the most basic fact: that therapy is not like a plaster that can be applied to a wound, but is a property of a human relationship. Therapy is about the encounter of two people, and the real work is done not by the therapist but by the patient. As the psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott observed, the therapist provides a space in which the patient can construct and create something. The therapist encourages and facilitates, but whether a therapy takes place or not depends entirely on the patient.

The patient's own reality has to be taken very seriously by the therapist. To explore it, to define it, to elaborate it and to see where it will go. No outcome can be predicted in advance. With CBT the divided self has vanished, along with the recognition that grief, despair and frustration strike at the heart of our image of self-possession and fulfilment.

I wouldn’t be allowed to live in the community or I would be homeless or dead if not for anti-psychotics, mood stabilizers, and antidepressants. I have paranoid schizophrenia vs schizoaffective disorder (at least that’s what I’ve been told by a dozen different psychiatrists). I would be dangerous to myself or others if I didn’t take my medications. Luckily for everyone else, I take responsibility for my disorder and take my meds nightly. I have done so for most of my adult life.

However, I agree that CBT is unhelpful for many (myself included).