HEHE great reply. Gives me a good idea of why i see what i do on each topic. I also like the fact that the universities are aware of the "emphasis" and are trying to change it.
I'm not sure whether this is the case in the US colleges/universities, though. Any ideas?
Also, worryingly, in some courses, students are taught so much of the social perspectives and bedside manner that they forget to learn any of the medical knowledge! Surgeons at one of the hospitals were recently distraught to find that a bunch of interns could not tell a heart apart from a pancreas. Lying in their proper location. In a functional body.
As for the psychiatrists part again that's a great response and ill try and look at it from that perspective. Although if i needed help i always try and self analysis and would never ask for outside help. I never did understand why people need to talk to someone else when they could mediate or write it out.
I believe self-analysis or at least self-awareness should be promoted highly as it's not a prevalent feature of people in general, despite the popular belief that it's supposed to be a defining feature of humans. However while one is licensed to know themselves best, unless one has a disassociation of sorts, one is also inherently limited in assessing themselves. For this reason asking for outside help in the form of feedback or gaining a broader spectrum of perspectives can be particularly useful in sorting out various cognitive issues, so long as one remembers that they can treat outside sources as they wish. Specifically a good psychiatrist would tell you what they think according to their interpretation of what they've learnt, but will also inform you that really it's up to you and your values (patient centered approach).
Oh more thing. Did you say your bipolar with no treatment for this chemical condition inside your brain? ISnt this the classic reaction of bipolar personalities to refuse meds? Ive seen a few bipolar people destroy lives without meds.
Specifically, I'm juggling around with the diagnosis of a possible bi-polar II (mild form). What we're trying to discern now is whether it would be
more convenient or rather
more accurate to say that I did have a biochemical predisposition to periodic variability that was discernibly greater than normal, and if so, whether there would be any point in treating it pharmacologically. At least so far as I've heard recently, the general ethos of psychiatry is medication is one of the last treatments in line due to the very imperfect nature of our medications and research in this field, and previously I have been doing well enough to manage myself on a cognitive and behavioral level- so it's reasonable to believe that my "bipolarity" is not necessarily pathological.
But to address your point more directly, the general rule is that people who present as mentally disturbed do not usually possess even a typical level of insight. Denial is a very common symptom as the relevant neurological changes also affect perception. Also, people may refuse medications due to the stigma of having a "mental" disorder, as taking drugs might validate claims that they are somehow "imperfect", or else, like in my case, would rather not take them because of the extensive side effects and a very significant risk that it will either be ineffective or cause loss of function, affect cortical plasticity, etc.
Some random trivia: Ironically, doctors and dentists have among the highest rates of drug and alcohol abuse of any population demographic. Your comment that perhaps shrinks need the most help mightn't be inaccurate at all- approximately 1 in 4 doctors will have some kind of clinical mental problem, the most common being depression. It's not the easiest job in the world, after all. And most likely you will have easy access to pure, very high quality drugs.
