Anyone else obsessed with psychiatry?

[BrokenBoy]

So last year I was on the verge of killing myself due to unipolar depression but I didn't even know it at first. I only got a diagnosis after a friend told me I might have a problem. I was prescribed Zoloft and even though it took a while for the pills to finally do the intended effect, it greatly improved my mood and saved my life.

I've been obsessed with the field of psychiatry even since then and I'm considering being employed in that field when I grow up as well. I like learning all about the different psychiatric disorders and how they affect and people.

Another reason I find it interesting is the "mystery" that comes with dealing with a patient. In another thread I went into detail about my interest in mystery solving and I've realized that a job as a psychiatrist has some similar elements. You have the mystery of trying to find out which diagnosis is appropriate based on the patient's symptoms and you have to figure out which kind of treatment is best as well.

Does anyone else have this special interest?

 

[Fino]

Yep! For as long as I can remember! As a kid, I would try diagnosing other children, mostly my siblings. This did not go well. Ever. Yet I persisted.

Of course any resistance was just another symptom of theirs.

 

[Progster]

I'm interested in psychiatry and know more about it than the average person, but I wouldn't say it was an obsession.

 

[Ken S.]

I have an interest in all science. These days it's difficult to disconcern pseudoscience from the real thing as scientists will fudge data to give a favorable outcome to the people paying them so I try to look for all the data for any particular knowledge I seek to acquire and sift the crap out from the truth. Not to mention the fact that anything that goes into the DSM is in there by voting of a political SJW and lobbyist nature and not by actual scientific data. There is no professionalism left in science which is really sad. Also NEVER rely on data that does not give published references to the information as it is just opinion if they don't.

 

[BrokenBoy]

I have an interest in all science. These days it's difficult to disconcern pseudoscience from the real thing as scientists will fudge data to give a favorable outcome to the people paying them so I try to look for all the data for any particular knowledge I seek to acquire and sift the crap out from the truth. Not to mention the fact that anything that goes into the DSM is in there by voting of a political SJW and lobbyist nature and not by actual scientific data. There is no professionalism left in science which is really sad. Also NEVER rely on data that does not give published references to the information as it is just opinion if they don't.

Can you cite proof about the things that go into the DSM? That sounds incorrect.

 

[Fino]

Whether it's true or not, I think it's good idea to not rely on the DSM too much and try to think of everything from an objective point.

 

[tducey]

Not overly but I do have some knowledge of it.

 

[Aspergers_Aspie]

I have heard little things here and there about pyschiarity, I was interested in labototmy. It sounds a bit extreme to me, it shocked me to discover they are carried out a lot, this story I found, explains:-
Lobotomy: The brain op described as ‘easier than curing a toothache’

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

The thing I have noticed only, is psychiatry is it frequently confused with psychology. Psychiatry requires a medical degree. Psychology an under graduate degree will do. I know my brother has one.

 

[Joshua the Writer]

I do!

 

[Aspychata]

Yes. This was one of my favorite subjects in college. Lived with a psychiatrist for a very long time. I read all the professional journals but after some time, you can start to pick out the biases that might be present.

I met a psychologist in Hawaii who was the sweetest man in the universe. A bubbly positive man who truly lived for helping others. My path always seems to cross with this profession with interesting results.

I always have a fascination of understanding people. What path they walked. How they arrive at their opinions. I would have loved to have been a counselor.

 

[Judge]

I was always amused to learn that in the 80s, the majority of college graduates in the insurance industry had psychology degrees. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

Too bad my brother was not aware of that, he is now a millright and retired.

 

[Aspergers_Aspie]

I was always amused to learn that in the 80s, the majority of college graduates in the insurance industry had psychology degrees. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

I don't find people in the insurance industry targeting potential susceptible customers funny

 

[Judge]

I don't find people in the insurance industry targeting potential susceptible customers funny

It wasn't intended to be a comment about marketing insurance per se. Ironic given that so many direct-writing insurers use humor to solicit the public. That's pretty fundamental without any complex application of psychology. So "Flo" would probably tell you to lighten up a bit.

Marketing only accounts for a relatively small number of personnel compared to management, adjusters, clerical services, information technology, raters, underwriters, actuaries and investment strategists. An industry I spent nearly two decades working in.

A company that was not a direct-writer of insurance with minimal mass marketing. Where the bulk of it was dependent upon the work and solicitation of independent insurance agents- not stupid television commercials and other forms of mass marketing. In most cases the public never even heard of the company I worked for unless their agent informed them to the contrary. Though it may still be a household name in your area.

Think of it more as an inside joke you're not likely to understand.

 

[Aspergers_Aspie]

It wasn't intended to be a comment about marketing insurance per se. Ironic given that so many direct-writing insurers use humor to solicit the public. That's pretty fundamental without any complex application of psychology. So "Flo" would probably tell you to lighten up a bit.

Marketing only accounts for a relatively small number of personnel compared to management, adjusters, clerical services, information technology, raters, underwriters, actuaries and investment strategists. An industry I spent nearly two decades working in.

A company that was not a direct-writer of insurance with minimal mass marketing. Where the bulk of it was dependent upon the work and solicitation of independent insurance agents- not stupid television commercials and other forms of mass marketing. In most cases the public never even heard of the company I worked for unless their agent informed them to the contrary.

Think of it more as an inside joke you're not likely to understand.

Who are you to say what I understand or not

 

[Judge]

Who are you to say what I understand or not

Simple deduction. That you don't know much about insurance operations and defer to the most common aspect the public at large understands- marketing. It's not personal.

Just as when I used to mention to people that I worked in insurance, they would inevitably default to saying, "Oh- you sell insurance!" Which wasn't the case.

I was thinking about the social dynamics you find between other departments of insurers. Where psychology among internal and external coworkers did matter in various instances. As an agency-writing company, it was forbidden for me to even be communicating with policyholders and vice-versa.

Conversely direct-writing insurers do communicate and solicit directly with policyholders. They offer cheaper rates in general, but may leave you "naked to the wind" when it comes to picking the right coverage with the right limits for the right reasons.

They don't really need to employ psychology to customers. They just dangle some of the lowest rates possible to "seal the deal". A process that can potentially leave some exposed as a result of being underinsured. Paying for the lowest premium can reflect real value provided one doesn't incur any claims. Otherwise they might discover that low premium doesn't necessarily involve superior claims adjusting.

When you get right down to it, the only real psychology to potential customers of more common forms of insurance lies mostly in how many laughs their advertising generates relative to their ability to match a punchline with a named insurer. Nothing worth being butthurt over that.

 

[Pieceofmind]

Mine is somewhat similar, I got into over the past year really maximizing my body and minds function to negate the negatives of my ASD, PTSD, and psychotic symptoms. Sometimes all I will do when I need to find something out is browse research sites all day making connections between this body system and that looking for a practical solution to this and I keep it going till I find something I could do about this by applying it. Then I find out more and do it all over again, really it's not a bad obsession and very useful but it really consumes my mind sometimes. I always feel like I'm enough and if I for example have a bad day with one supplement and need to go back on something and find something else that interacts better with A, B, C, and D, then need to research more on this or that I feel like the world has ended but I still like it anyways. I take breaks sometimes for longer periods of time once I went through a certain topic to focus on other things though.