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Joined 1 year ago
Cake day: July 3rd, 2023
  • Instigate@lemmy.worldtoAsklemmy@lemmy.ml•I'll have my first appointment with a psychiatrist tomorrow. What should I expect?
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    1 year ago

    I think it depends a lot on where you are. As an Australian, I often find that psychiatrists don’t engage in talk therapies - they’re essentially drug dispensers. I’ve heard (mainly through US media) that in the US though, people will go to a psychiatrist for talk therapy as well as medication. Not sure how it is in the rest of the world.

    The most important distinction to remember is that a psychiatrist is a medical doctor who specialises in neurochemistry, whereas a psychologist is an allied health professional who cannot prescribe medication. This means that psychologists only employ non-pharmaceutical therapies (like CBT, DBT, Schema Therapy, EMDR etc.).

    Disorders are also often separated into being psychological disorders (mood disorders like anxiety, depression etc.) and psychiatric disorders (ADHD, schizophrenia etc.). The key distinction is that generally psychiatric disorders cannot be adequately treated without pharmaceutical intervention, and also that psychological disorders tend to be episodic whereas psychiatric disorder are usually lifelong.

    I guess what you’ll get out of it greatly depends on the reasons you’ve been referred to a psychiatrist. If you don’t mind me asking, do you currently have any diagnoses, or are you seeking a diagnosis for your symptoms?

    Good luck you either way mate, getting on top of your mental health is seriously important.

    Source: studied a Bachelor of Psychology

  • Instigate@lemmy.worldtoNo Stupid Questions@lemmy.world•how do you make friends if large gatherings arent your thing?English
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    1 year ago

    It depends on the group you join! I’m sure there are groups geared towards more casual gamers that have a shallower difficulty curve. I’m a fan of many-session tabletop RPGs (like DnD) and depending on who you have running the group, you can alter the rules to fit the skill set of the people playing. One time my mates and I were at the pub and played an impromptu game of DnD with no characters, spells, items etc - the guy running it just described what the situation was; we described what we wanted to do; and we then rolled a D20 with the guy running it deciding whether or not we were successful, or what unintended consequences happened as a result. It was tonnes of fun!