Army officer kills 12 at Ft. Hood, TX

[bluestarultor]

Originally Posted by Nikose Tyris

Your mom's friend is mistaken, or had some shitty experience with Psychiatrists.

A Psychiatrist, or Sociologist, is given schooling on methods for coping with anger, grief, and a number of other painful emotions, and they help find outlets for those feelings. While there is no 'fix everything' wand, it's a career of helping others that I am still considering going back to school for. Not everyone can benefit from a sociologist, but anyone who's ever sat and just confided in someone, and felt better afterwards, can tell you there's a big benefit in the career.

Psychiatry, psychology, and sociology are three different professional areas. Psychiatrists have a degree in both psychology and medicine, and can prescribe medications to patients. They deal with the people who have treatable mental disorders. Psychologists don't have a medical degree and end up being things like counselors, social workers, and private practice non-pill-prescribing shrinks. Sociologists are what one could think of as "social psychiatrists" and do not have a focus on individuals nearly as much as how multiple individuals interact.

I mean, as long as we're talking jargon, I'd just like to have my set of terms defined from my own education and my brother's. Maybe it's a bit different in Canada, but those are the terms I'm familiar with.



That all said, the person I quoted said "psychologist" off the bat, which I'll admit confused me a bit. A look back at the article says he's a psychiatrist, which is a bit different than I was assuming with that post. So, my bad.


Edit: Snap! Ninja'd by POS.