I have considered, over the years, whether doctors care about patients. There are arguments on both sides of this one and, I admit, recently, my interactions with doctors would suggest that they don’t. But these are only the experiences I’ve had with doctors. So, when looking at them en masse, do doctors care about their patients or not?
It’s Assumed Doctors Care About Patients
Doctors are caregivers. We go to them for care. We, literally, pay them to care for us. So it’s assumed that by doing their job, doctors do, in fact, care for their patients.
It’s also inferred that doctors need to care to do their job well. They have to want to make you better to put in the work to make that happen. This does make sense as their job is as hard or as easy as they want it to be. They can prescribe you the drug that the salesperson just told them about, or they can do research and figure out the right drug for you. They can either make assumptions or order tests. They can either assume you have something simple or look at your issues in totality.
Do Doctors Care? The Rest of Us Don’t Care About Our Jobs
But here’s the thing. We pay doctors. As in, we hire them for a job. As in, they go to work and do things, just like the rest of us, for money. And I think it’s safe to assume that they don’t always want to be there and do the things they have to do as part of their jobs. Sure, there are likely parts they like and days when things are good; but, doctors are just like everyone else, they have bad parts to their job and bad days too.
In short, I’m sure there are days when doctors walk in and care, maybe deeply. But I’m also pretty sure there are days when a doctor would rather be anywhere other than work — like the rest of us. After all, life is not an episode of Grey’s Anatomy.
Do Psychiatrists Care About Their Patients?
For me, of course, I want to know if my psychiatrist actually cares about me. I’m not about to ask him, of course, but it would be great if there were something like a light on his head that indicates: caring on!
See the following video on psychiatrists and bedside manner.
(I’ve included a transcript of the video in the video description on YouTube, for those who want it.)
And keep in mind that I have much worse stories about psychiatrists than that. I admit that does tend to create ire in me.
Do Doctors Care About Patients?
“Care” is a big word. Care means a lot of things to a lot of people. And maybe my mistake, maybe our mistake, is assuming that doctors “care” in an emotional way. “Care” to a doctor seems to be “taking a medical interest in.” (And, quite frankly, many of them don’t even do that.)
Doctors can’t afford to emotionally care for patients. There are too many patients and doctors don’t spend enough time with any of them to even get to know them. Doctors would be worn out by day two of their residency if they extended themselves emotionally to every patient.
But here’s the things: It’s ironic that we need to show empathy for this in doctors when they rarely show true empathy for us. Are we caring for them?
A teacher cares about their students, a doctor cares about their patients but only stay healthy themselves if they can leave their work in the school/medical centre. I am sure they are also frustrated with the patients who are liars and those who insist on fictitious illnesses. My doctor cares about me. He told me to lose weight. I did. He was happy. He cares. My psychiatrist cares enough to be on call for me.
Some telling points here. My experience over 45 years is that a psychiatrists’ treatment of you will reflect his/her personality and aspects of yourself. If you are young, new to the services and full of potential promise you will be treated more favourably. As you grow older and your bipolar becomes chronic( and intractable) their interest becomes markedly less. The hidden assumption on their part is you should have become proficient at dealing with this illness and be more autonomous. Having said that generalisation I also think that females are generally more empathetic and caring but males sometimes more knowledgable. One thing that can be said about nearly all is that they have no real experience of the pervasiveness of the illness nor the suffering involved.As such they will always be a disinterested observer. Many take the attitude “Well what are you doing for yourself? ” rather than “what can I do for you?”
My Psychiatrist does his job. He tries different medicines for my depression but none have helped me thus far. As for caring about me personally, I would definitely say he does not. There is really no conversation that ever happens. He tells me that is the job of a psychologist, not him. I am deeply depressed and I’m losing hope that I will ever get better. I’m not suicidal but I do want to die. I was an excellent Christian School teacher who loved his students and his work. My students still write to me after being gone for seven years. The board of the school unceremoniously dumped me and a number of other veteran teachers and replaced us with 22 year olds coming right out of college to try and save the school some money. They said, “Anyone can teach”. and tossed us aside. I had nothing but high marks from the administration on my teaching, my skill set, and my relationship with students. I have not been able to find another teaching job as one of the board members called a few of the other local Christian schools and suggested that they not hire me. I am certain that he did this because I had to write a demerit for threatening another student in class. I have no idea how to dig out from my depression. I always have believed that I was made for the purpose of teaching and I am finding it impossible to let that go.
I have a had couple of psychiatrists like the one you spoke of in your video but I must say in the past 20 years my psychiatrist has been absolutely amazing he has helped me tremendously and also my family Dr. Is amazing she is harder to get in to see but when I do she dedicates her time too me. I know I am double blessed. At the moment I do not have a psychiatrist as he is now in charge of the psychiatric ward but when he finishes his term there I will go back to him in the meantime my family Dr. Is watching over me and gets info from my psychiatrist when he is available to talk. Thanks for listening.
I think I’ve been more annoyed with psychiatrists than you have, Natasha. But after watching your super video, I have some sympathy for them, especially those who treat intelligent and knowledgeable bipolar patients. It’s hard to strike the right balance: one visit you’re speaking to an articulate, comprehending person who already knows the likely drug side effects and the implications of certain symptoms. Next visit, the same individual shows no understanding of the simplest concepts, has a flat affect, and can’t express their feelings. To say nothing of the visits where everything is in between.
Let’s face it; mental illness fucking sucks for everybody.
Wow! Nice to see you. Always wondered–pretty. Call it like you see it baby girl! I agree. Never give up. Happy Valentine’s Day!
Hugs, Cookie
While I understand your frustration with your psychiatrist(s) I think it’s unfair to accuse them of not caring. I believe some are better at showing that they care than others and it may very well be that there are some who don’t care and are just going through the motions. At the risk of sounding like I’m victim blaming I think it’s important to realize too that we are not always in the best position to judge them when we are going through a particularly difficult time.
No they do not care… They care about their lives and livelihood which means ?. I was sent to be evaluated by a top notch psychiatrist from Boston for “grave disability”. He was vacationing in Napa Valley CA. a working vacation.
It was again a 5150 hold. When I evaluated him his official diagnosis of me was “gravely obnoxious”. I was promptly released on my own recognizance. Pharmaceuticals Industries and lobbyists are the 21st century physicians. Trust none of them!!!