Demystifying psychiatrists/ psychiatry

R has 'officially' been awarded degree as a qualified psychiatrist. 'Officially' because I believe he has been doing that since time began (in retrospect, yes, even while we were courting). Just that, now he is legally licensed to do it! Oh, I can't believe that I am married to a psychiatrist; me - who once hid behind a newspaper so that a psychiatrist in the room would not see my face and read my thoughts straightaway! Well, that was way before I got into medical school. Once in med school, I saw that our psych. profs were just normal looking people; they are not mind readers of any kind; they don't hypnotise people at will; they don't look or dress weird; these were just myths which society and media had perpetuated. Now I get irritated when people make supposedly witty comments about psychiatrist also having gone mad having treated so many mad patients. But then psychiatry is not about being 'mad' per se... Aren't we all mad at some time or the other - with anger,  grief, dejection, jealousy?

In the layman's perception,  psychiatry = treatment of madness. But in reality it is concerned with the treatment of many mental conditions like mood disorders, anxiety disorders, eating disorders, OCD etc... What we title as 'madness' may be schizophrenia or any other of those psychotic disorders. The patients who seek help from a psychiatrist aren't always 'mad'- they may be depressed or delusional or obsessive or anxious individuals who need medical help.

The slogan I saw on a billboard near the bus stop recently was " Depression is treatable". It is a matter noteworthy because, what we were taught in med school was that "TB is treatable"; no one even bothered to mention about depression or  psychiatric disorders and the stigma associated with them. In that light, it is really commendable that the Ministry of Health & FW has woken up to this huge problem in India and started taking the baby steps towards sensitizing the public about the condition. The stigma associated with going to a psychiatrist's clinic is so huge that people will rather prefer to suffer in silence than taking their loved ones to one.

Bottom line: 
Psychiatry is not equivalent to being 'mad'.
Psychiatrists are normal people too... (oh yes, ask me).