A friend, a counselor, or a doctor: Who should help you with your troubles?

With the pressures of our modern times, we can experience many mental discomforts. Most are probably minor, but some may be more serious. How do you decide which type of mental health specialist is best for the problems you are experiencing? In southwestern Ohio, Cincinnati Psychiatrists and Cincinnati psychologists perform many types of services for their patients.

Most common are little problems 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 be aware of 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|take on an anonymous persona) and retain your privacy. When you talk with a friend, you can sort out your thoughts and feelings. Things just seem to become more clear when you say them out loud. However, if you need a bit 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 serious 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 do you do when you are depressed or up and down all the time? In that case you might need medication to smooth out your moods. A starting place is your primary care doctor. While your primary doctor may not have time to devote to counseling, he or she can prescribe an appropriate medication. Another possibility if you need medication but do not need a lot of 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, other options are available to you. 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 can also give intensive psychotherapy. If you need significant time to sort out your problems while taking medication, a psychiatrist can provide this personal care. If the mental problems are acute and medically troublesome, you may want to be referred to a mood disorder specialist, who has special training in the care of mood disorders.