Well, they have changed the practice (or at least the names of hospital wards) from “psychiatry” to “behavioral health.” That aside, I agree with @LED.
I’ve seen several doctors. Some of them recommend things like counseling and often ask about my social life, while others have just thrown meds at me. When I told one about side-effects I was having and asked her how long I should try to “wait it out,” she responded with: “If you don’t like a medication, you don’t like it. We’ll try something else.”
All have admitted to me that psychiatry is often trial-and-error and finding a stabilizing medication works best with a dialogue between patient and doctor.
I was scared to death of turning to the medical profession, considering them “drug dealers” or vigilantes with “pet causes” that trump individual needs, but…over the past several years I’ve found the medical profession to be one of the largest sources of support and encouragement I’ve ever had. A lot of that has been the counseling and cognitive therapy I’ve participated in.
But even then, I’ve had therapists I only saw once because I felt like they were “judging” me.
I think we need to keep in mind that psychiatrists are human, that psychiatry is still one of the absolutely newest medical practices, and that people’s personalities just differ. It’s a lot more about “us” than it was a hundred years ago, when people were institutionalized and given electroshock treatments. And even that was considered kinder than the absolute lack of treatment people received before that.
I think psychiatrists are like everyone else. Some got in it for the money, some because they had a vested interest like a friend or family member who was ill, and some because they just felt a calling. But even the most established of medical practices can have things “go wrong.”
I think the most important thing is finding a doctor/therapist who shares your goals and views for a treatment plan…