In The Frisky, Rebecca Vipond Brink recounts her experiences with various different types of mental health professionals as she seeks help with recovering from abuse. “I’ve been seeing psychiatrists — doctors whose purpose is primarily to examine and diagnose an emotional disorder or condition, then prescribe a plan of treatment, whether therapeutic or pharmaceutical — on and off for over half my life. The ratio of good to mediocre to bad experiences I’ve had with psychiatrists is roughly equal.”
Many of the psychiatrists, she says, have not even listened to her very attentively. “All of this has left me feeling more than a little suspicious about psychiatry,” writes Vipond Brink. “I felt like my psychiatrist had dismissed my opinions in her care plan, and had distrusted me and my word without me having given her any reason over the course of my treatment to do so. I felt like I had had no control over my care, and that feeling of a lack of control over what was a major part of my life was devastating — I have PTSD because of abuse and rape. Control over my body is important to me.”
When Psychiatrists Distrust Their Patients, Their Patients Can Only Respond In Kind (The Frisky, January 22, 2015)