hmm. . .I think I should chime back in to clarify what I meant with my comment about learning useless medical info to be a psychiatrist. . .
I was looking at it from the POV of my uncle who did therapy. I will admit I don’t know a lot about what other psychiatrists my do. For him, he could have done what he did (except prescribe meds of course) as a therapist without the MD.
It’s very common on the forum for people to say that if you can do what you want without the MD, do that instead. That was really more what I meant - that there are other professions that can do similar things without all the medical training - just like some people will say be a PA instead of a MD. Although I have never said to anyone else on here to think about being a PA. . .don’t know why I said it in this instance. I’m just a dumb premed! 
No worries about being discouraged here. You bring up good points about managed care and the near Miracle-Max qualifications one must have in order to be successful. I really appreciates everyone’s candor about the problems, but when someone truly wants to do something, serve humanity in a greater way, they simply prepare themselves for it and find ways to succeed. When I was a teacher, regrettably, I was NOT like that, but I had the privilege to work with those who really ‘had a heart’ for the job. The things that got me down, only fed them. I would have to submit that I do have a heart for this and these things will only feed me. But I want to keep an open mind and if I should be able to get into med school, I’ll keep my eyes open for better opportunities if needed.
You can only get therapy from a psychiatrist if you want to pay for it yourself…and generally it’s not gonna be cheap! A psychiatrist who is unofficially serving as my mentor seems to think that there is a good future in neuropsychiatry (fortunately for me that’s where my interests lie!)
A lot of the posts here are the reasons I decided to change paths from psychology to psychiatry. I started working on a BA in psychology planning to go on to an eventual PhD. However, as I progressed through my undergrad work, it seemed to me that I would be forever hampered and incomplete in my treatment efforts without the medical training. I realized I need to work in psychiatry. It’s funny, but I no longer view some of the esoteric biology or chemistry I’m learning as being unrelated to what I’m wanting to do.
I also want to do some therapy, but I realize I’ll have to make sacrifices in my own income to do this. Of course trying to do that in a way that would be fair to colleagues and employers might be difficult unless one has one’s own practice. I’ll also have to balance it with trying to be able to help as many as is practical in light of the shortage of mental health services.
Hi–just wanted to chime in that at my med school Psych is HUGE and a huge number of people match into Psych every year (as well as into Neuro and Neurosurgery). It is definitely not looked down on here and is actually one of the most active areas of research. There is a large amount of crossover between the Psychiatry department and the Neuroscience dept. My take on Psych is if you want to be a therapist, you should probably not go through med school. But if you are fascinated by the brain and its disorders, you definitely SHOULD go to med school and go into psychiatry. You will gain an incredible understanding of neurobiology, neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, and the interplay of all of these with genetics and environmental stresses. I find it all completely fascinating.
That said I do have to say that a lot of psychiatrists I have met are a little weird. But not necessarily in a bad way. They can just be a bit quirky.
I say go for it, it is a great specialty. And yes, there are loan repayment programs, and even full scholarship programs like the NHSC. Not all these programs even require you to move to isolated places–for example, you could work in the prison system which is absolutely desperate for psychiatrists, since so many people with serious mental illness end up incarcerated.
Good luck, you sound like you’d be a great psychiatrist!
Thank you for your response! As for fascination with the interplay b/t brain and mind, I’m all over it. And that weirdness factor, I get that. I’ve often told my students that I have a high ‘nerd coefficient’ which I embarrassingly do (teenagers expect everyone to be ‘cool’- I’m not, never have been 
But I think this weirdness comes from a subtle understanding that one cannot think in ‘usual’ ways in order to arrive at a cure. Unlike math, in psychology/psychiatry a+b does not always = c; while the field continues to grow, there are still so many mysteries yet remaining. You have to be able to think ‘outside the box’ when it comes to human cognition. And like I’ve said before, when mind (i.e. human observation) can directly affect matter through what has been discovered through quantum mechanics then the weird becomes normal. And when theoretical physics has us existing in 11 different dimensions through M-theory, what really is normal? What then is weird?
Truly, if I am allowed the opportunity to attend the med school of my choice, which itself has a great psychiatric program as well, I’ll leave the cosmos to the physicists and focus on more concrete things like Na+ pathway inhibitors, Kreb cycles and maybe finding a cure for something
You should read Eric Kandel’s autobiography, “In Search of Memory.” I think you will find it fascinating. It’s not exactly easy to read but it’s fun. And maybe it will persuade you to apply to Columbia (since he’s here and actually gives us lectures–wearing a cute bow tie)!
I know you said something about wanting a UC school (was that you?) but keep an open mind (no pun intended)! Columbia has lots of non-trads.
Oui c’est moi, mais il y ne sont pas des reponses.
Thanks for the book recommendation and for the suggestion on Columbia- it’s nothing to sneeze at! While I do have an open mind and am willing to go out of state for med school, I want to try and avoid that as much as possible because of the tremendous cost of doing so.
Well, that was a fascinating read. I don’t delve into this forum too often as most topics are WAY over my head thus far.
It’s all rather interesting looking at it from this perspective, from the perspective of one who’s worked on the bottom rung of mental health services, then as one who watches family live with some pretty intense mental Dx’s and then to come here and see what actual medically minded people have to say.
With how interconnected mental health is to physical health, it does stand to question why compensation is so low. I’ve not seen psychiatrists spending merely minutes diagnosing though. It’s a series of paperwork filled out by the patient, a meeting discussing the paperwork, then a few weeks as the psychiatrist mulls over information provided to determine the d/o. On the second meeting, things go shorter, but that’s because he/she has already done an intense amount of work getting to the root of the problem.
In the company I used to work for way back when as a simple wrap around service provider, our clients had their therapy sessions with the psychiatrist on days they had med checks. These meetings lasted anywhere from 30-60 minutes. The rest of their therapy was with one of the psychologists in the office (obviously the same one for that patient each visit).
Interesting though, all of it. I wish you best of luck in your pursuit.
Good points, Susan. I think the extreme low time that I saw was because I worked at a Community Mental Health Center, reimbursed mostly by Medicaid (though almost 50% of our services we didn’t get directly reimbursed for; we relied on grants and donations). We were the main option for a lot of people in the region, and so we had something of an excessive patient load, as well.
The assessment specialists (and other services, like Case Management, where I worked) did spend a fair bit of time with the patients, so I think we integrated the workloads as well as we could. Still, room for improvement…
I just wanted to mention that my preceptor on my psych rotation does still do psychotherapy as part of his practice–and he chose his job with the specific stipulation that he be allowed to do this.
The catch? He works at the VA. This is not for everyone, but I loved working with vets on the rotations where I have done so. Even the smelly ones.
- pi1304 Said:
The assessment specialists (and other services, like Case Management, where I worked) did spend a fair bit of time with the patients, so I think we integrated the workloads as well as we could. Still, room for improvement...
Tell me about it. Hubby is a case manager for a behavioral health program. The work load is nauseating sometimes lol. But the process is anything but streamlined and I think the patients suffer for it. Sadly he works at a for profit organization and dollar signs are more important to corporate than actually helping the clientelle.