Originally posted by whodey
Psychology is not a perfect science and not all who are medicated are appropriately medicated.
just a minor nit-pick... I thought psychiatrists were the doctors doing the medicating and psychologists were the non-doctors who talked with patients and got them to talk about their feelings/mothers. This may be a national difference, but maybe important as in the UK you don't need
any qualifications to call yourself a psychologist.
This also throws up a distinction - you say that scientology classes may help people by changing the way they think without medication, but that
is what psychologists do, and although they may very well be after your money (esp. in view that anyone can
say that they're a psychologist and charge £40/hour) at least they're not trying ot convince you that any good that happens is due to their religion - I'd fear that any improvements based on this would either be short lived or used to manipulate the person later.
Your'e right that psychiatry isn't a perfect science - no medicine is - but psychiatry is further behind than others because teh brain is so damn complex.
Having said this, psychiatrists may not always medicate people appropriately, but they don't jump for pills as a first measure (in the UK at least). Medications (should be) used only when there is clear indications that they (or at least something pill wise is needed. Even then it's a slow, waiting game - I've had psychiatrists tell me that they're happy with the rate of progress of a patient who has finally improved enough to go home after
6 years of therapy & meds!