How do I know that I am mentally healthy, that I don’t need to see a psychiatrist? Should I go for a preventive appointment?
If you do not suffer from any established disorders, you should see a psychiatrist when you suddenly feel uncomfortable and unwell in some aspect of your brain. For example, there are problems with anxiety, mood, motivation, energy levels.
With these problems people often go to a psychologist first, because psychiatrists are usually more afraid of psychiatrists. There’s nothing wrong with that. But the first instance before the psychologist should still be a psychiatrist. He can determine when you can just go to a psychologist for therapy, and when you need medication and medical supervision to correct the condition.
If you do not feel any serious changes in yourself, sudden mood swings, anxious thoughts, loss of strength, then you are probably fine.
And there is no point in going for a preventive appointment.
It is necessary to see a psychiatrist periodically only in exceptional cases, when there is a diagnosis in which the patient cannot critically assess his or her condition. For example, if there is an addiction. A person may think that he or she has everything under control, but in reality this may not be the case.
If I talk to myself, does that mean I have a problem with my head?
No. When a person talks to himself, he begins to reflect, to understand his own experiences and motivations better. That’s a very good thing.
Nowadays people talk to themselves less and are constantly under the influence of some information and noise from the outside: podcasts, TV series, social networks. Many people are afraid to be alone with their thoughts and try to escape from them with the help of this external noise. This can be a problem.
There is a lot of talk about depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia. Are they really so common and should I be worried that I or my relatives have them?
These are indeed very common diagnoses. But it is important to realise that statistics on them are very heterogeneous and difficult to collect. For example, in Russia there is a tendency to overdiagnose certain conditions. For example, schizophrenia is diagnosed in more people than the world average. And often this diagnosis hides something completely different, such as bipolar disorder.
If we take the statistics on the global average, every 300th person suffers from schizophrenia – that’s quite a lot. Bipolar disorder is diagnosed in 40 million people.
Depressive disorders are a little bit more difficult to diagnose, because depression can be self-inflicted, it can happen with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.
Depression is a very common diagnosis. Approximately 20% of people will experience one of the disorders that include depressive symptoms at least once in their lives.
It is not easy to realise that something is happening to your loved ones. The most important sign is if you see that a person has suddenly changed a lot emotionally, began to behave strangely. Or you observe some suicidal thoughts.
But it’s not always possible to detect this. People most often hide their conditions, they are afraid to open up, because mental disorders are stigmatised in society. This is called stigmatisation, or psychophobia.
But if you notice something, the first thing to do is to talk and discuss the changes. Here, of course, it is good if you have built up a trusting relationship and the person can open up to you. Then you can help him to seek help.
Is it possible to cure a person without pills, only with psychotherapy?
Everything is very individual and depends on the diagnosis and condition of the patient. Many disorders can be treated only psychotherapeutically. This way is chosen if there is no threat to life, the person is motivated and able to engage in psychotherapy, and his or her condition fits the recommendations for this option.
But if the condition is severe, criticism is disturbed, there is a threat to life, the person refuses to engage in psychotherapy, then, of course, medication is used.
Most often the treatment is combined. There are conditions in which biological therapy is mandatory, and psychotherapy is an additional tool.
