Do psychiatrists actually help?

Without a specific mental disorder requiring medication, I might be inclined to see a therapist rather than a psychiatrist.

But yes, they do help.

Mine helped me deal with some very stressful situations. The good ones can be most helpful.

I am sceptical about everything all the time, so my first reaction would be “pill pusher.” I still have mixed feelings as to whether medicating disturbed people is a good thing. Yes, hyper kids and crazy people act better when strung out on drugs, and that helps the people who have to be around them, but does it really help them? I have always heard that psychiatrists give medication and phychologists give counseling. I think counseling would be the better choice, but didn’t you say that you DON’T have a mental disorder? Then why would you go to either?

It’s important to keep looking until you find one with whom you gel well but, of course, they help.

What @Simone_De_Beauvoir said.

They do help even if you don’t have a specific mental disorder. Just needing someone to talk to with every day stress when there is no one you can confide in is one of the reasons many people seek out therapists and psychiatrists. They are not all pill-pushers. Some are, but the maojority of them will try to identify where your probelms are coming from and try to help you establish a solution to the problem without medication.

The relationship I had with mine was invaluable. I had to do my share of the work, of course, and that was difficult at times.

Meds never entered into the discussions. My guy helped me to make what seemed then to be very draconic decisions; they turned out to be life-saving in the long run.

Really? My bad then. I have never been to either, but I really thought that psychiatrists only treated with meds, and if you wanted therapy you needed to see a psychologist.

Psychiatrists are licenced MDs and thus legally allowed to write scripts. Psychologists can not.

My psychiatrist was primarily interested in talk therapy with the normally neurotic and not with the clinically bonkers.

I’ve not seen one but I had two friends who went to them regularly. Both friends were put on heavy-duty drugs, they hate(d) it and I know one who seemed to get more out of group therapy with psychology students than what she got with her psychiatrist. She and her psychiatrist are both gone now from cancer.
This may be irrelevant but I know most of the psychiatrists and psychologists I know pretty well have just as serious if not more serious problems than your everyday person. So maybe we should ask ourselves, “do I want to tell all my problems to someone who is tortured with his or her own problems? Can such a person help me? Maybe; maybe not so much.
Many people may elevate them to “highly well adjusted” status but from what I know most are simply ordinary people with an M.D. and big problems of their own.

Help what? If you are doing well, there is not much to help. Plus, Psychiatrists mainly prescribe, did you mean psychologist? I guess it can never hurt to talk things out. Everyone has stuff going on that causes some amount of stress.

There really is no quantifiable way to answer this.

My psychiatrist has changed my life. I was severely depressed. My anxiety was so bad I could not keep a job, or even leave the house. Now I am back in school, working and optimistic about the future. He even got me to try therapy again. If I really think about it, he probably saved my life.

A good doctor will never prescribe medication you do not need. However, it can take awhile to find the right drug combination to fit your unique brain chemistry.

There may be occasions when psychiatry is helpful but I am very sceptical of it. As Karl Kraus said ‘My unconscious knows more about the consciousness of the psychologist than his consciousness knows about my unconscious.’

Yes, most issues can be improved by proper counseling. You need a good match between the patient and the professional, and the results will be rewarding.

Yes only if you are honest with the doctor you are talking with . You may also need to chat with a good counselor to help work through your issues.