Psychiatrist as a career after 6th form?

Question

Hi, ok well im doing my AS levels - maths, ICT (which i regret taking!), psychology and philosophy+ethics, i'm thinking about uni and my future career etc. I've never ever really known what i want to do, i got all A/A* passes in 11 GCSEs, and i've been considering a 'caring' career, i've spent most of my time helping friends with their various problems e.g boyfriends/divorces and even suicide. So i would want to make this a career, i was thinkin psychiatry...but they look for a science A level, which i wont have, i could try and take it on next year but i don't want my other subjects failing because of this.
- Any ideas of if psychiatriy would be good?
If so how do I go about it,
what are good extra curriculum activites?
what are good unis? and finally
can you think of any better careers equally as rewardin in helping people,

thanks for reading, someone please help me! Thanks (ps im predicted A/B passes for AS i think if that helps)

Answer 1

That's terrific that you really want to help others! You may already be aware, but a psychiatrist is actually a medical doctor/M.D. or D.O. (thus can prescribe medication unlike a psychologist or social worker) that has gone through medical school and has had additional and extensive training and residency in the area of psychiatry. Typically psychiatrists don't do so much psychotherapy as the licenced/clinical social worker (LCSW) who has a master's degree or the clinical psychologist (doctoral degree level). That's, of course, not a given, but generally it is the therapists and counselors who do the psychotherapy and counseling.

Psychiatrists mainly monitor those with mental health problems that take psychotropic medication(s) such as people that are suicidal (those with a depression) like you mentioned, and those with other mental disorders such as generalized anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder (ocd), mood disorders which include bipolar/manic depression, schizophrenia.

And when first entering college with the aspirations of becoming a doctor, one must first take the pre-med courses need such as the sciences that you mentioned, biology, chemistry, biochemistry, physics and also the math requirements as well as other prerequisites before even applying to the actual medical school for doctor training. Just a word to the wise.

Answer 2

Depends on your definition of caring. If you care for the autonomy of the individual then i wouldn't think psychiatry is for you. Unless you go for something like forensic psychiatry maybe.
Middlesex University does a degree in Traditional Chinese Medicine. It's a 4-year degree. There is psychiatry/psychology within TCM. Leon Hammer wrote a brilliant book called Dragon Rises, Red Bird Flies. You could get it from a library.
I enquired about the degree and was told that as a mature student A level biology would get me into uni.
Check out the book maybe and take it from there: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dragon-Rises-Red-Bird-Flies/dp/0882681338
And a link to Middlesex Uni:http://www.asante-academy.com/middsex.htm

Answer 3

phcology takes aroud 4 years of uni then u have to work under supervision for ages. but if u have the brains for it y not go 4 it. however some people find the course to streesfull and leave b4 they get anywhere near the end
do u think u could handle long hours and people who relly don't know if they want u to help them if u can then go 4 it

good luk neways

Answer 4

As you have good GCSE passes you are way too intelligent to be a shrink. They are all as dim as a Toc H lamp.

Answer 5

See this video;
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3895596783332855545&q=psychiatry+is+fraude&hl=en

Understanding Psychiatry:

"Psychiatry is not the same as neurology; whereas neurology treats diseases that have their aetiology or their physiology known and proven by medical science, psychiatry treats mental conditions where aetiology and physiology are both unknown and unproven.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mental_diseases

Psychiatry is not the same as Psychology; whereas Psychology studies the cognitive and subconscious mental processes of man with no regard towards physiology; Psychiatry studies theoretical mental disorder with the assumption that those disorders are based on physiological deficiencies.

Psychology develops therapies aimed to improve mans cognitive processes; whereas Psychiatry develops physiological treatments to treat theoretical physiological deficiencies where aetiology and physiology are both unknown and unproven.

The unscientific assumption that mental disorders are based on physiological deficiencies creates an arbitrary that makes any further research done by Psychiatry unscientific. You can’t base science on assumptions and arbitraries.

Psychiatry treats theoretical mental disorders with theoretical physiological treatments.

Examples of Psychiatric theoretical mental disorders:
Premenstrual dysphonic disorder (PMDD) is a severe form of premenstrual syndrome.
Gender identity disorder: If you are gay you have this disorder.
Female orgasmic disorder: Many types of conditions are under this code.
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders published by the American Psychiatric Association. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DSM-IV_Codes_%28alphabetical%29
As you see, these mental disorders are actually unscientific arbitraries based solely on opinion.

Examples of Psychiatric theoretical physiological treatments:
1st Example
Electroconvulsive therapy is a barbaric treatment where brain damage is induced into the patient by passing 70 to 200 volts of electricity through your brain. The electro shock and the heat further produce more brain damage by the effect decomposition and toxicity of dead brain cells. The only benefit of Electroconvulsive therapy is that it produces memory loss and amnesia. So the patient forgets its problems. Electroconvulsive therapy has caused death, coma and disabilities on patients.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2431926628202445879
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2761074183936137060
“About 100,000 people in the USA undergo ECT every year.”
“The most commonly accepted theory is that ECT's mechanism of action is similar to that of antidepressant drugs and involves neurotransmitters, in particular dopaminergic, serotoninergic and noradrenergic systems.”
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electroconvulsive_shock_therapy

2nd Example:
Lobotomy is another barbaric treatment developed by Psychiatry in the name of mental health. In this procedure brain damage is induced into the patient by cutting the connections to and from the prefrontal cortex or simply destroying it.
“Even lobotomy's proponents admitted that only one third of the operated patients would improve, while one-third remained the same, and one-third got worst (25 to 30 % is the proportion of spontaneous improvement in many kinds of mental diseases! Thus, a large proportion of the operated patients could have recovered without the lobotomy).
http://www.cerebromente.org.br/n02/historia/lobotomy.htm

3rd Example:
The chemical imbalance theory, this theory alleges that serotonin deficiency in the brain causes depression. The following video explains this theory.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WR9vtdueubc&mode=related&search=

But this theory is not based in science and experts disagree:

“I spent the first several years of my career doing full-time research on brain serotonin metabolism, but I never saw any convincing evidence that any psychiatric disorder, including depression, results from a deficiency of brain serotonin. In fact, we cannot measure brain serotonin levels in living human beings so there is no way to test this theory. Some neuroscientists would question whether the theory is even viable, since the brain does not function in this way, as a hydraulic system”
Stanford psychiatrist David Burns, winner of the A.E. Bennett Award given by the Society for Biological Psychiatry for his research on serotonin metabolism, when asked about the scientific status of the serotonin theory in 2003.

“Although it is often stated with great confidence that depressed people have a serotonin or norepinephrine deficiency, the evidence actually contradicts these claims”
Professor Emeritus of Neuroscience Elliot Valenstein

“Indeed, no abnormality of serotonin in depression has ever been demonstrated”
Psychiatrist David Healy, former secretary of the British Association for Psychopharmacology and historian of the SSRIs, in Let Them Eat Prozac (2004).

“A sugar pill was more effective than either St. John’s Wort or the antidepressant Zoloft in providing relief to severely depressed patients, according to a new study that is unlikely to end the debate about the role of the popular supplement in treating the disorder.”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3076831/

“…I wrote that Prozac was no more, and perhaps less, effective in treating major depression than prior medications…. I argued that the theories of brain functioning that led to the development of Prozac must be wrong or incomplete”
Brown University psychiatrist Peter Kramer, author of Listening to Prozac, which is often credited with popularizing SSRIs, in a clarifying letter to the New York Times in 2002.

“Some have argued that depression may be due to a deficiency of NE [norepinephrine] or 5-HT [serotonin] because the enhancement of noradrenergicnor serotonergic neurotransmission improves the symptoms of depression. However, this is akin to saying that because a rash on one’s arm improves with the use of a steroid cream; the rash must be due to a steroid deficiency”
Psychiatrists Pedro Delgado and Francisco Moreno, in “Role of Norepinephrine in Depression,” published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry in 2000.

We must be able to differentiate real scientific research against special interest research. The fact is that the chemical imbalance theory is unfounded because:
1) A connection of ‘emotional states’ and neurotransmission levels have not been established.
2) It is impossible to measure the serotonin levels in living human beings.
3) There is no evidence that brain cells produce and then reabsorb serotonin.

In the following video two college professor explain exactly what I’m saying in Fox News: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbTqjSfMPKA&mode=related&search=

We must understand that psychiatric drugs are a multi billion dollars industry, and that careful marketing campaigns are created to push these drugs. We can even say that the whole “Chemical Imbalance Theory” was created in an effort to market these drugs. We can also say that anti-depressants are actually a marketing name for stimulants and anti-psychotic are actually a marketing name for depressants.
Three types of drugs:

Narcotics: (OxyContin, Vicodin, Percocet), also known as analgesics or opiods are drugs that are prescribed for moderate to severe physical pain. They are abused because of their euphoric, sedating, and numbing effects. Narcotic abuse causes tolerance and dependence and the withdrawal symptoms are severe.

Depressants: (Xanax, Valium, Librium) are drugs that are prescribed to treat anxiety and sleep disorders. They are abused because of their sedating properties. With abuse, depressants cause tolerance and dependence and the withdrawal symptoms can be severe.

Stimulants: Ritalin, Dexedrine, Meridia) are prescribed to treat ADD/ADHD and other conditions such as asthma. They are abused because of their energizing and euphoric effects. Stimulants do not generally cause tolerance or dependence but abuse is associated with hostility and paranoia. There is also great risk for cardiovascular failure and seizures.

-Ritalin: Prescribed for individuals (usually children) who have attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), has a high potential for abuse and produces many of the same effects as cocaine or amphetamine. http://www.streetdrugs.org

Psychiatrists are not common people. Psychiatrists have a different point of view than the rest of society:
“A recent survey in the UK found that 83 per cent of psychiatrists thought that ECT( Electroconvulsive therapy) was more likely to be beneficial than harmful – this figure fell to 69 per cent of mental health nurses and 14 per cent of psychologists.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electroconvulsive_therapy

So how come Psychiatrists have such a different point of view than Psychologists and the rest of society?
Whereas Psychologists confronts the human mind or psyche and understand that each person behaviors is an evolution of his own personal experiences. Psychiatrists are unable to confront the human psyche; Psychiatrists don’t care about your emotional issues or traumas; Psychiatrists only deal with man as an object, a biomechanical machine incapable of controlling his mental processes.

How else can you explain Psychiatry barbaric treatments? Like Electroconvulsive therapy, Lobotomies, strait jackets and severe drugging of patients. For them you are not a person; for them you are only a biomechanical machine. People that join the Psychiatric profession do it in order to learn to deal with man in a mechanical way.

The real role of Psychiatry in society is that they are psyche executioners of society. Whenever a person doesn’t conform with the behavioral rules of society they can be sent to a Psychiatrist. And the Psychiatrist enforces the person to conform by the use of multiple control mechanisms; these mechanisms are drugs, electroshock, lobotomies and incarceration (When you are committed into a Psychiatric hospital against your will you are being incarcerated and your freedom is taken away from you. After this the patients are so scared that they will do anything in order to get out of that place.).
The behavioral rules of society are clearly expressed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders published by the American Psychiatric Association.

http://www.drugawareness.org/
http://www.adhdfraud.org/
http://www.escapefrompsychiatry.org/
http://www.antipsychiatry.org/
http://www.mindfreedom.org/
http://www.endofshock.com/
http://www.stopshrinks.org/
http://www.gwenolsen.com/
http://psychrights.org
http://www.prescriptionsuicide.com/
http://www.breggin.com/
http://www.healthyskepticism.org/
http://www.aspire.us/