A friend, a counselor, or a doctor: Who can best assist you with your troubles?

With the pressures of the lives we live today, we can experience many mental discomforts. Most are normally insignificant, but some may be more serious. How do you decide which type of mental health specialist is best for your particular needs? In southwestern Ohio, Cincinnati Psychiatrists and Cincinnati psychologists provide a variety of of services for their patients.

Most common are small situations that will not require medications. You know that things could be worked out if you could just talk things out with someone. If you just have some problems that are troubling you, you may be able to just find a sympathetic friend who will lend an ear. If you choose this solution, you need to keep in mind one trait of most friends. I have found that the tendency of most people is to listen to the beginning of your story but then quickly take over the conversation to talk about themselves and their personal experiences. So, before you start to discuss your situation with a friend, you may want to tell the friend that you want them to listen to everything you have to say and to focus just on you. If you want more anonymity, you may want to find a chat group made up of others in your situation. In an Internet chat group, you can give yourself a screen name sort out your thoughts and feelings. Things just seem to make more sense when you say them out loud. However, if you need some more than friendly advice, you may want to confide in your church pastor or other counselor. It is common for religious leaders to have some training in counseling. For more acute problems, you may want to consult with a licensed therapist, who may be a social worker with either a masters degree or Ph.D.

But what if you are depressed or up and down all the time? In that case you might need medication to smooth out your moods. A good place to start is your primary care doctor. While your primary doctor may be too short of time to devote to counseling, he or she can prescribe an appropriate medication. Another possibility if you need medication but do not need extensive therapy would be a primary care mood specialist or a busy managed care psychiatrist.

If the problems are more serious and you feel that you need both therapy and medication, you will need to seek other options. Your first stop might be to see a psychiatric nurse practitioner. These professionals can give you more individual face time than the doctor might. If you need more help, you might want to consult a general psychiatrist. Psychiatrists are medical doctors who are also trained to provide intensive psychotherapy. If you need significant time to sort out your problems while taking medication, a psychiatrist can provide this personal attention. If the mental problems are acute and medically troublesome, you may want to be referred to a mood disorder specialist, who has specialized in the treatment of mood disorders.