Psychiatry V Psychologist

i hear a psychologist unrevels your past and gets to the root of the problem. anyone here use a psychologist

2 Likes

im taking 15mg now… over the next 6 months id like to get down to 7.5mg because of weight gain other wise the tablet is fine, im 3 year systom free a part from weight gain

So you want to go very low dose Pedro? I thought you wanted to get off of Zyprexa completely?
Well good luck with it @pedro27 I am in the process of going low as well for health reasons

1 Like

yes a low dose next year hopefully 2.5 next summer tapered down all going well

1 Like

i have a clinical psychologist, i do cbt with, it is working wonders though today i am struggling big time.
i also have a shrink who if i get really bad i can see.
i highly recommend cbt though.
take care

4 Likes

Pedro - I take 15 mg of Zyprexa. I used to want something to eat all the time. When I added 1/2 to 1 mg of Risperdal that went away. 2 or 3 times I’ve tested it without realizing it + it’s not all in my head. I’ve lost 60 lbs in about 10 years.

2 Likes

I only use psychiatrists, but psychologists may also be helpful in some matters such as getting rid of trauma feelings.

1 Like

I’ve only ever seen a social worker. A psychologist ran the dbt group that I used to go to, she was pretty great. She was also an NP and could dispense meds.

Probably not the best description of a psychologist as their role is more counselling. Depends though if they have trained in one of the psychotherapies. Just about anyone in the mental health field can become a psychotherapist. social worker, psychic nurse, psychologist, psychiatrist etc. Myself have always ended up with a psychologist in one area or another except two transactional analysis. Which is a cross between psychology and psychotherapy anyway, so depends which way you look at it.

Yep. I like it way better because it’s really important to me to have answers and understand things. It also makes thing a LOT less frightening when you understand them. It’s also like a puzzle to me to figure out. Also it’s just really good to finally be able to unload on someone who I don’t feel bad for burdening since it’s their job. They also provide helpful coping mechanisms for day to day life, therapy taught me thought regulation for example, which improved my anxiety immensely.

The psychiatrist is just a pill dispenser.

I think the main difference between a psychiatrist and a psychologist is that the psychiatrist can prescribe medicine. I think that the ability to do psychotherapy is about equal between the two. I’ve met psychiatrists who I have been underwhelmed by. I guess that for what they charge I expected a lot. (There is also the phenomenon of transference.)

Both is best. But in terms of Psychiatrist vs Psychologist if I could only have one it would be psychiatrist every time.
My psychologist does CBT, which is useful, but doesn’t go that much into the past or the root of the problem, although I don’t think the root of my problem is ‘psychological’ anyway tbh.

When I met my psychologist today he seemed to be saying it would be better if I stopped taking medicine and just accepted my own ‘reality’, as in accept my paranoia and voices etc. Personally I’d much rather stick with the medicine considering I’m lucky enough that they work for me, and being fully psychotic was absolute hell.

I think the relative usefulness of each depends a lot on the individual patient. If you’re trying to come of medicine seeing a psychologist could probably be useful for learning to deal with various things. Either way though it’s still useful to see a psychologist if you have access to one