Volume 7 Issue 1 January, 2017
❌ Psychiatrists treat patients by counseling.
✅ If a common man has this myth, it is understood but when a fellow doctor carries this, it needs to be corrected!
Psychiatrists are also specialized medical professionals who have sophisticated pharmacology knowledge and experience using medication, and most often treat mental illnesses using medication while they also use psychotherapy which is a highly structured procedure demanding skills and experience. It should not be equated with lay counseling which serves hardly any therapeutic gains and so do the reference shall not just be for mere ‘counselling’!
❌ Psychiatrists are always serious, nerdy looking, insensitive, highly formal, unfriendly, isolated from others and has strange ways of talking which can’t be understood by others
✅ Though it is a stereotype propagated inappropriately since decades, it is a total myth. They do have their persona and passions to pursue and in fact they are a lot of most friendly and humane professionals when approached.
❌ Psychiatrists can read one’s mind
✅ No human can read mind of others. This myth is carried because, by their knowledge and experience of working with mind matters, they can see through defenses the patient use and predict better what may be happening inside that makes others think they can read minds.
❌ Dealing with mentally ill throughout their lives, psychiatrists end up contracting mental illness at some point
✅ This is one of the epic myth which is present even in medical students and myth often deep seated, prevent them from taking up careers in mental health! There are absolutely no evidences but on contrary, they have an opportunity to gain many insights into various aspects of life by working closely with patient and family!
