🧵 The fact that psychiatrists will go on blindly prescribing SSRIs, beta blockers and even benzodiazepenes to their patients for prolonged periods of times without even informing them of the long term risks and that meds aren't gonna magically solve all their issues is just..
...seriously appalling. They tell people how depression/anxiety/ADHD/literally any mental disorder is just a chemical imbalance in your brain and how this certain medication will treat you by bringing your brain to the right balance again...
... like our brains are some sort of a weighing scale with perfectly balanced neurotransmitters? Who's gonna tell patients that dealing with any mental disorder needs cognitive behavioral modifications that require therapy and not just simply shoving pills down their throats?
Instead of validating their social conditions and giving absolutely no heed to their personal histories, we're telling patients their brains are screwed up and pills will fix them. When being anxious if your parents constantly helicoptered over you or being depressed when...
... you're poor and don't see a way out of an abusive household is expected or if struggling with coping because of say, ADHD/OCD is the reason behind your anxiety/depression, fixing the "chemical imbalance" isn't gonna magically cure you. I'm not saying meds don't work...
...they do, they help by increasing/decreasing these neurotransmitters but they don't solve the core issue. As long as you're still in that environment without developing the required coping skills to live with it and yourself in the long run, your dose of meds is going to...
...increase with times until the point you're either dependent on meds or your dosage has been maxed out (that is you can't go on a higher dose anymore). What then? When psychiatrists offer you a magic pill, they don't tell you about the what thens. And that's just not done...
...Cuz when a person goes to a doctor, they're going with the good faith that this person who knows more about my brain than I do is going to make me better and take care of me. Pills aren't a magic bullet and psychiatrists must explain that to their patients...
...Because then patients know that meds are gonna just help them deal with problems but they still need to make changes in their environment and themselves in order to be okay long term because meds don't help you forever...
...As someone who's gonna be a doctor in a couple weeks, I do get why psychs prescribe meds. We can't always make a patient go to therapy or change their environment that's causing their mental illness. Meds definitely do help in that sense...
... All I'm saying is at least tell your patients that it's not a chemical imbalance, meds aren't the magic pill they think they are, and they will eventually need long term solutions (changing their environment/behavior) in order to be mentally healthy #actuallyADHD #MedTwitter
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