How to best confuse yourself when you are already stressed…

In a few words… start googling, binging or ask Alexa !

If I knew nothing at all about ‘mental health‘ and googled for some help with my stress or anxiety levels, I would probably end up focusing on the only criteria I can understand – money ! What is the cheapest therapist out there or how do I get the best value for my money. Nothing else on Google makes any sense, when it comes to psychotherapy, unless you have a degree in research methods.

The answer to the ‘value for money question’ however, is relatively simple: NHS is by far the cheapest service, because… it is actually free. However, since getting any kind of mental health support from your GP is like pulling teeth, you have no choice but to go private. Unless you are a high risk, it is unlikely that you will get anything else besides leaflets and SSRIs ¹ via your local general practitioner.

Incidentally, I am a big supporter of antidepressants and the work GP’s are doing on a daily basis is simply award worthy. I know too many cases where lives have been saved by SSRIs and an outstanding GP support however, I am not a big fun of random prescribing without a thorough MSE (mental state examination ²). GP’s are not psychiatrically trained and nor should they be – this is a highly specialist area reserved for mental health specialists; though what is worse is that, most are not provided with any mental health support on site.

Now… on the other hand, therapists are not making life any easier for their patients with endless squabbles over supremacy and the never ending ‘which school of therapy is more effective’ competition. In this process, we tend to lose track of our patients’ needs and instead we focus on offering them what we were told in training that works best. All the while, the poor victims of mental illness cannot even tell the difference between psychiatry, psychology, psychotherapy or hypnotherapy and wait… there is at least one more… of course, counselling ³ … and life coaching… and mindfulness therapist.. and existential coaching.. and it goes on and on… Everyone out there seems trained to come to the rescue.

But Thank Goodness for Google! Because when it comes to creating even more confusion it wins the prize.

One of my least favourites Googles is self-diagnosis ! Simply too many patients come to their assessment with an already Google-made diagnosis. As such, here are just some of the problems that I have with that:

• It is far too easy to misinterpret physiological symptoms and identify with the incorrect diagnostic criteria; e.g. mood swings do not necessarily equate with a manic-depressive illness !
• Patients can throw mental health assessors off with their perception of a medical history which could have been at best influenced, if not completely constructed with assistance from Google or its competition Alexa !
• The issue of chronic medical problems. Patients often think they have panic disorder (a very common self-diagnosis) and miss the diagnosis of hyperthyroidism or irregular heartbeats. On the other hand, heart racing does not (necessarily) means that one is having a heart attack.
• Confusing one psychological disorder with another. For example, some patients may think they are overwhelmed by agoraphobic reactions which would explain their tendency to socially isolate when in fact, social anxiety or depression or both or even asperger syndrome could be the more likely diagnosis responsible for their social isolation.
• Self-diagnosis can also create mistrust and may undermine the all essential therapeutic relationship between therapist and patient.
• Self-diagnosis can precipitate and perpetuate health anxiety.

1. SSRIs: Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) are a class of drugs that are typically used as antidepressants in the treatment of major depressive disorder and anxiety disorders, Citalopram, Fluoxetine or Sertraline are just three examples of SSRIs that can be prescribed in UK by the GP or a psychiatrist. Even though clinical psychologists, CBT therapists and mental health nurses have extensive training in pharmacology and psychopathology, prescribing falls under the responsibility of a qualified psychiatrist
2. MSE – mental state examinations: a clinical assessment process in the psychiatric practice. The purpose of the MSE is to obtain a comprehensive cross-sectional description of the patient’s mental state, which, when combined with the biographical and historical information of the psychiatric history, allows the clinician to make an accurate diagnosis which is subsequently required for coherent treatment planning.
3. There is no agreed hierarchy in terms of knowledge or expertise when it comes to the title of counsellor, psychotherapist, psychologist or hypnotherapist. However, each of these titles is backed by an accreditation which is essentially a licence, administered by a very specific regulatory body such as BABCP (British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies), UKCP (UK Council for Psychotherapy) or BACP (British Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy); these bodies demand a certain standard of training, practice and ethics. The least demanding organisations are those that regulate the field of hypnosis, for example the GHSC – General Hypnotherapy Standards Council. Some of the hypnotherapy organisations register hypnotherapists with as little as 21 days of training, minimum or no supervision, no personal therapy and no compulsory clinical practice hours and no core profession (e.g. psychologist or psychiatric nurse for example). The standards of all other counselling and psychotherapy regulatory bodies in UK are significantly different with accreditation subjected to intensive training between 2 to 7 years, clinical supervision, personal therapy and supervised practice. Unlike counsellors or psychotherapists, psychiatrists are medical doctors trained in psychiatry (mental health diagnosis, pharmacology, etc.)  but not in counselling or psychotherapy (or talking therapies). Clinical psychologists are also doctors in psychology trained in talking therapies. All BABCP accredited CBT therapists are post-graduates and/or doctoral psychotherapists (with a core profession) specialising in psychological and behavioural treatments (rather  than generic counselling).