mental illness

[joshua72]

BismillahYou are focusing on the bipolar issue with which I am not disagreeing.  I am saying that from my experience and the experience of others that I know, many times people are quickly diagnosed with bipolar because many times symptoms overlap.  Through counseling and therapy, a more encompassing diagnosis can be made.  Many anxiety disorders can resemble bipolar behavior at times but you definately do not want to give a person with bipolar disorder drugs like Paxil because it makes them even more manic.  This is all that I am saying.  I was only encouraging not just a trip to a psychiatrist but also a psychologist.  In my experience, the psychiatrist works in conjunction with the psychologist because the psychologist is usually the one who gets to know a patient better.  The flow of information between the doctor and the therapist can be beneficial in tayloring the treatment that works best for the patient.

Once again, not arguing with you, only expanding upon what you already put forth.  Not \"instead of\" but rather \"also\".  Ya know?

Yeah, I completely agree with what your saying now - definitely not arguing with you

I am currently going to school to by a psychologist - I was formerly taking pre-med classes so that I could get into med-school and become a psychiatrist.

But that changed after I met some psychiatrists. My mom works at a mental health ward for criminals, and she had me come up there and meet some of the psychiatrists. It was really fun and pretty cool to get to talk to them, but it definitely changed my mind.

The psychiatrists seem to look at the patients as a disorder, as some sort of problem that needs to be corrected - whereas the psychologist looks at the patient as a person needing help.

While I like science and medicine, I would rather work one-on-one with someone and help them accomplish a better life, rather than breifly accessing someone's disorder and then applying medication to deal with their problems.